Canucks Beleaguered Center Surprisingly Drawing Interest: Insider

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The Vancouver Canucks are surprisingly getting interest on a beleaguered forward despite evident drawbacks on a trade.

The Vancouver Canucks continue to chug along in what has largely been a lost season. The club is 31^st overall and riding a four-game losing streak.

That’s a tough spot to be in. The Canucks are clearly rebuilding, and, well, none of what’s happening is really much of a surprise. The club would like to continue making moves to set itself up for long-term success. The Quinn Hughes trade accomplished a great deal of that.

But the trade the Canucks would really like to pull off is moving Elias Pettersson. Despite getting the “untradeable contract” tag slapped on Pettersson, the Vancouver center has surprisingly drawn interest.

During the January 5 appearance on Canucks Central, insider Frank Seravalli discussed the interest that Pettersson has drawn. However, he points out a specific drawback:

“I do think there are teams that are intrigued, I think is the best way to say it, now will the Canucks be able to find commensurate value in return is a totally different part of the equation.”

So, two things to unpack here. First of all, it’s not really shocking that teams would be looking into Pettersson. He’s relatively young at 27 and does retain some middle-six upside. Despite his 102-point season from 2022-23 looking like an outlier at this point, Pettersson’s backwardation to his career averages suggests he could be a 25-goal, 60+ point player.

That’s not bad. But it’s not good considering Pettersson’s contract. That’s the second point. Pettersson’s contract could make it nearly impossible for the Canucks to get anything of value. If Vancouver wants potential suitors to take on Petterson’s full cap hit, the return could essentially be null.

Canucks May Just Bite the Bullet to Get out of Pettersson’s Contract

One approach would be for the Canucks to bite the bullet and take whatever they can get for Pettersson. The big win here would be cap space. Getting out from under Pattersson’s $11.6 million cap hit until 2032 would be a massive gain.

However, there’s no plausible scenario in which the Canucks could do that without retaining at least a portion of said contract. It’s unrealistic to expect Vancouver to eat up half of the remaining six years of the deal.

But then again, that might be something the club would have to look into.

Vancouver Could Improve Return by Retaining on Pettersson

If the Canucks were willing to eat up some of Pettersson’s contract, say even 50%, that could improve their chances at a decent return. While Vancouver wouldn’t get nearly the haul they did for Quinn Hughes, it would at least be something “commensurate value.”

At least, the Canucks could get a solid middle-six forward and potentially a serviceable draft pick. But that’s something that might not necessarily materialize given Pettersson’s contract.

The Canucks are between a rock and a hard place. They’d love to get out from under Pettersson, but the odds just aren’t in their favor. Perhaps a contract buyout may be in order at some point down the line.

It might seem ludicrous at this point. The Canucks might saddle themselves with dead cap space for years. But it seems it might be the only way out.