REPORT: Vancouver Canucks listening on Elias Pettersson ahead of NHL Trade Deadline
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – They call this the silly season for a reason. Teams have a habit of overextending themselves in pursuit of a playoff spot, playoff revenue, or best yet, a lengthy run.
The Vancouver Canucks are no different. Currently sitting tied for the final Wild Card spot in the West with Calgary holding the tie-breaker, it was reported that the team was navigating a soft-sell and soft-buy approach. Move off of their soon-to-be unrestricted free agents while also looking to add players in their mid-20s with term or team control.
But as we inch nearer to the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline, Elite Prospects has learned that the club is once again listening to to calls on Elias Pettersson. The forward. The one who signed an eight-year extension for 11.6M per season last March. We're guessing that neither side predicted this 370 days ago when that contract was agreed upon.
The club had hoped that moving J.T. Miller to New York a few weeks back would have cleared everything up. They needed to shirk the dressing room drama to have a chance at salvaging the season. The hope was that it would also free Pettersson up to start playing like his old superstar self. Up until this point, that has not been the case.
But teams kept calling. In previous days and weeks, the club had told them that they were holding Pettersson for now and waiting to see how things went with Miller gone. However, it appears that they are more open to actively listening to see if there's a rich enough return to make it worthwhile.
Several team-side people without any skin in the game have wondered aloud to me whether the Canucks would dangle Pettersson to Carolina in hopes of bringing Mikko Rantanen into the fold. That would surely make skipping work/school for deadline day worthwhile.
Of note, Pettersson's no-movement clause kicks in on July 1st of this year. So, it's not overly shocking that the team is taking this approach. Something we expect they'll do again at the NHL Entry Draft in LA in June if the 26-year-old remains on the roster beyond Friday.
A real issue here is that the team (and owner) wants to make the playoffs. Moving Pettersson, and likely Brock Boeser as well, does not aid in that pursuit.
As has become customary this season, Vancouver will be a team to watch over the next 19ish hours.
