Canucks have obvious hope for Elias Pettersson trade

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Canucks have obvious hope for Elias Pettersson trade originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

In many ways, it's very clear why the Vancouver Canucks want to trade Elias Pettersson.

So it's not necessarily a surprise what ESPN wrote on Monday about the forward and the Canucks' potential trade plans.

It's still worth latching on to, though, before a deal actually goes down. It's going to be a common offseason rumor. But why?

It's because trading Pettersson would be a continuation of what the Canucks have already done, which included trading away superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes.

"Make no mistake, the Canucks leaned all the way in on a rebuild during this past season, dealing away Quinn Hughes, Kiefer Sherwood and Tyler Myers (among others), and clinched last place in the standings with weeks remaining in the season," ESPN wrote in a non-bylined article. "Now comes the hard part. The primary task as the offseason begins is deciding whether to trade Elias Pettersson, once a 100-point player who has slipped significantly in recent campaigns. The Canucks added some excellent young players in the Hughes swap -- Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium and Liam Ohgren, along with Minnesota's 2026 first-rounder -- and will hope to land some more in any potential deal involving Pettersson."

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The tricky part is that Pettersson has a huge contract, and at the moment, he hasn't really looked like he can live up to it.

Vancouver, mid-rebuild, is in a position to retain a bunch of his salary, though, and surely will do so in order to move on from Pettersson.

They could always play the risky game of keeping him for half a season and hoping he looks better in order to increase his trade value. If he doesn't look improved, though, then that only hurts their cause.

But the logic is clear -- turn Pettersson into multiple assets that can help their future. If such an offer is out there for the Canucks, it would make sense to line it up and take it.

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