Canucks Should Trade Elias Pettersson ASAP After Carlsson Offer Sheet And Nurse Trade
Maybe the most valuable thing you could have as a rebuilding team in the NHL is a guy with a proven track record as a No. 1 center.
The Vancouver Canucks have the next-best thing.
Elias Pettersson was, once upon a time, a center with that kind of ceiling.
He has a 102-point season under his belt, and he followed it up with 89 the following season. From 2022 to 2024, only nine players in the NHL had more points, and all of them were perennial MVP candidates at the time and, likely, future Hall of Famers, such as Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Nikita Kucherov, Leon Draisaitl, Auston Matthews, David Pastrnak and Artemi Panarin.
'Being Honest Without Judgment,' Canucks GM Ryan Johnson Outlines Trade Conversations With Elias Pettersson
The Vancouver Canucks are making major roster renovations this summer, including hiring a new GM and coach. But new GM Ryan Johnson appears to be setting the stage for a blockbuster trade involving star center Elias Pettersson. Will Johnson pull the trigger on a Pettersson deal?
Pettersson might never be that point-a-game guy again, but if you can get him to 60 points or so - which probably wouldn't take a ton of work - as the salary cap hits $120 million or more in 2027-28, you just won't be sweating the last four years of his contract. As we saw with the Carlsson offer sheet, teams are already building that price jump into their long-term planning.
Pettersson is a lot like Nurse in that he has plenty to give, but he was thrust into a too-large role necessitated by a too-big contract. It doesn't mean they're perfect players by any means, but they can be key cogs in successful teams. We've seen it before.
And if things go right on the trade market this summer, we might just see it again.
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This story was originally published July 13, 2026 at 11:19 AM.