The Canucks are in full-blown rebuild mode now.
After some struggles with labels, the Canucks seem to be comfortable calling their current stage a rebuild now. This is the most obvious pathway for the post-Hughes era, giving them a chance to actually reset the franchise and start over again with a new young core in a couple years.
The tank is well under way. The Canucks currently hold 32nd place in the NHL, with a pretty comfortable gap between them and 31st place, especially considering how jammed the NHL standings have been this season. If they can finish in last place, they will guarantee themselves a top 3 pick in the draft, which is a very good way to kick off a rebuild.
There’s a lot of season to go before we can even think about the imminent draft lottery loss, though. The Canucks still have a lot of decisions to make. It seems pretty apparent that they are going to trade guys like Teddy Blueger and Evander Kane, whose contracts expire at the end of the season. They clearly have some interest in trading their other contracts too, like Jake DeBrusk and Marcus Pettersson who still have a lot of years left. It seems like nobody on the roster over the age of 25 is safe from trade rumours.
This includes Elias Pettersson, the forward. Pettersson is now 27 years old and has gone through a couple disappointing seasons with the Canucks. Recent reports have stated that the Canucks are open to trading Pettersson, which is not a rumour that Canucks fans are strangers to.
For most of the Canucks veterans, the obvious answer is to sell. The answer is not quite so simple with Pettersson. There are pros and cons that go along with trading such an unpredictable player. Let me go through them.
PROS OF TRADING PETTERSSON
- Committing to a fresh start for the franchise
The 2023-24 division-winning Canucks were led by 3 skaters: J.T. Miller, Quinn Hughes, and Elias Pettersson. In 2024-25, the culture became toxic, largely due to a rift between Miller and Pettersson. As the team’s downfall continued on, Miller was sent to the New York Rangers, leaving Pettersson and Hughes to lead the team. Unfortunately, the team continued to lose at the end of the season, and brought that losing right into 2025-26.
Quinn Hughes was not particularly a fan of losing. After informing the Canucks that he would not re-sign in the 2027 offseason, the Canucks shipped him off to the Minnesota Wild in December. And then there was one.
Moving on from Elias Pettersson would be a full reset for the franchise. It would be moving away from a dysfunctional core that only managed 2 playoff appearances in their 6 years together, with one of those being the semi-fraudulent bubble year. They combined for some of the most disappointing seasons in Canucks history, and while it obviously wasn’t all their fault, they still are a relic of bad times for the organization.
Trading Elias Pettersson means completely beginning a new chapter in Canucks hockey. It would mean committing to tearing down this team. That’s something that a lot of the media and fanbase has been calling for. Edmonton is going to be competitive for a while. San Jose and Anaheim have the young talent to dominate the Pacific Division for the next decade. Vegas is apparently never going to go away. The Canucks are many stages behind all of these teams. Committing to a hard rebuild and losing every game for the next 5 years could be worth opening a longer window in the future.
May as well also trade Brock Boeser in this case.
- Adding up prospects and picks
The Canucks are entering a rebuild. Despite the fact that all eyes are on the team’s future, they still severely lack in their prospect pool and need to start bolstering it soon.
Elias Pettersson would probably (maybe?) be able to fetch at least a 1st round pick and a good prospect in a trade. It’s kind of hard to gauge where his value is at right now, but it’s clearly still the highest on the Canucks, mainly because nobody else knows how to score apparently.
Both the J.T. Miller and the Quinn Hughes trade provided a service that the Canucks desperately needed at the stage they’re at as an organization: they got younger. The additions of Filip Chytil, Victor Mancini, Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium, and Liam Ӧhgren significantly lowered the average age of the roster. They gained players who could be important pieces during this rebuild.
The Quinn Hughes trade also gave the Canucks an extra 1st round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. The more recent Kiefer Sherwood trade gave them two 2nd rounders, one in 2026 and one in 2027. Depending on where San Jose finishes in the standings, it is very likely that the Canucks will have 4 top 50 picks in the upcoming draft. It couldn’t hurt to keep raising that number.
Trading Pettersson would continue to help this organization get younger. They have a lot of holes in their prospect pool (especially on the wing) and a Pettersson trade could help to make the future a little brighter.
- $11.6 million off the books
Elias Pettersson has caught a lot of flack from the media and fanbase over the past couple of seasons. While his play has been very questionable at times, the part that really makes it a glaring issue is the amount of money he’s getting paid to perform.
In the 2023-24 season, Elias Pettersson re-signed with the Canucks on an 8 year contract worth $11.6 million per season. This put him in the top 10 highest earners in the league on base salary. Since signing that contract, he has absolutely not played like a top 10 player in the league. Pettersson put up 45 points in 64 games last season, for an 82 game pace of 58. This was quite the steep drop off from his prior two seasons.
These numbers have made him the target of scrutiny from the Canucks’ market. He ate up a lot of the salary cap just to perform at about half the value of his contract. Some would argue he’s not even worth half at times.
Trading Pettersson would free up a lot of cap space, giving them the freedom to make moves in the future. His contract runs until 2032, and while it may not be the biggest deal if he’s eating up cap space right now, there’s a good chance that they’ll want to be competitive long before his deal runs out. His contract led to cap constraints for them in the recent seasons and it could lead to cap constraints in the future.
There’s also the chance that they’d have to retain salary in a Pettersson trade, which isn’t exactly ideal, but it’s still better than the Oliver Ekman-Larsson buyout. It might be worth it to free up as much as they can so they can start to progress in a new direction with more money.
Getting rid of ~$11.6 million would certainly do a lot to help this franchise financially breathe easier.
CONS OF TRADING PETTERSSON
- His value is not as high as it should be
We know that Elias Pettersson has much more to give than what he’s shown recently.
In the 2022-23 season, Pettersson put up 102 points in 80 games, including a career-high 39 goals. In the 2023-24 season, he dropped down to 89 points in 82 games, which is still a respectable number for a player who dealt with injury for the last half of the season.
In the 2024-25 season, he fell off.
The value that the Canucks would get in a Pettersson trade could very likely not be close to what he’s truly worth. It’s especially important to remember what team he has around him right now. The 2nd best player on the Canucks’ forward group recently has been Linus Karlsson. This is absolutely no knock to Karlsson, who’s been putting up a fantastic season, but you would hope someone else would step up.
Brock Boeser and Jake DeBrusk have been absolutely brutal recently. Conor Garland, off the heels of a few injuries this season, has seen his production predictably decline, with no goals on a goalie since November. Kiefer Sherwood had been solid, but wasn’t scoring at the same pace he started the season with, and is now obviously on a different team. The players you expect to be solid top-6/1st power play unit options for the Canucks are struggling to even reach a 40-point pace.
So far this season, Pettersson has 31 points in 44 games. This is an 82 game pace of 58 points. That is nowhere near where Pettersson should be at. When you consider that any prospective trade partner would be taking on an $11.6 million contract for a 58-point-player, it’s hard to imagine that they would want to give up a very enticing package.
I don’t think that a 60 point pace Pettersson is the true Pettersson, though. He truly has been playing pretty well, but the team around him just isn’t able to support him. Plus, I question Adam Foote’s decisions when it comes to Pettersson’s linemates. He seems dead-set on putting Jake DeBrusk on Pettersson’s wing, and recently Evander Kane has been slotting in on that line as well. Boeser has also spent a fair amount of time with Pettersson this season, despite the two not being on the same wavelength on-ice anymore. Pettersson has shown far more chemistry with the likes of Linus Karlsson and Nils Höglander, but Foote won’t budge for some reason.
If he were to get traded to a team with actually effective offensive players, he would likely flourish immediately. This would make it hard to view any trade return as a win for the Canucks, because teams are going to value him at what he’s doing for the Canucks instead of what he could do for them. I’m not too interested in being underwhelmed by a trade return. I haven’t been underwhelmed by either of the two trade returns so far. I don’t want to start now.
- He would be worth keeping around for the young guys
When you conduct a rebuild, you cannot just trade away every player who’s over the age of 25 and let teenagers flood your lineup. You have to keep some veterans around.
It is crucial that the young players who make up your future have someone to learn from. Look at San Jose with Tyler Toffoli. When he was signed a couple offseasons ago, it seemed interesting that a rebuilding team would want to sign a 32-year-old to a 4 year contract. It was also interesting that an older player coming off a 30 goal season would want to go to a last-placed team. But it’s been a perfect match. Celebrini and Smith are thriving this season, and it’s clear they have a lot of respect and admiration for Toffoli. Now look at San Jose: battling for a playoff spot way sooner than expected.
The Canucks need to leave some of their older players around. The younger players need veteran players who can guide them into meeting their full potential in this league. This is a point that was brought up by Jim Rutherford in a recent interview with Patrick Johnston of The Province. Rutherford stated “You can’t just take a bunch of 22-year-olds and throw them to the wolves.” I like when I can agree with Jim Rutherford.
You can question Pettersson’s leadership skills. He doesn’t strike me as a player who will ever take on the captaincy for this team. What he can do is score. The other veterans on the Canucks forward group who are locked up under contract are Boeser, DeBrusk, and Garland. Garland strikes me as a player who might be good for that role, but I absolutely believe Pettersson would be better than any of those three anyway.
Boeser and DeBrusk do not create a whole lot in the offensive zone individually and also do not completely pull their weight in the defensive zone. Conor Garland has been inconsistent throughout his entire Canucks tenure. I think Elias Pettersson would make a young player’s job on the ice easier than Boeser, DeBrusk, or Garland would. When you’re easing these young players into an NHL role, you don’t want them to face too much at one time.
Also, I mean, someone’s gotta score at some point.
- He would be an important piece for competing in the future
Elias Pettersson is still only 27 years old.
He will be in his 30s when the Canucks are able to be competitive again. While this makes it seem like he doesn’t fit the timeline, I'm actually not worried about it. Even if this is a 5 year long rebuild (hopefully worst case scenario), and he’s 32 by the time they're ready to compete again, that’s not the biggest deal. Players don’t just shrivel up and become completely useless as soon as their age starts with a 3.
At that point in his career, Pettersson would probably no longer be a 1C. The Canucks have Marco Rossi, who’s 3 years younger, and the newly-drafted Braeden Cootes. One of those guys can hopefully progress to that 1C spot. I still see a role on this team for Pettersson for years to come, even if it’s as a 2nd line centre in 5 years. You’re not going to win a Stanley Cup with just people in their 20s.
Pettersson has continuously attempted to improve his defensive play as his career has gone on as well. When you’re getting out of a rebuild, it’s obvious that your core would be made up of a lot of young players who probably haven’t quite refined their defensive game yet. Elias Pettersson would be the most important two-way forward on the team at that point.
I really see a way for Elias Pettersson to still be an effective player on a competitive Canucks team again someday.
VERDICT
As someone who is completely on team tank at this time, I honestly believe Elias Pettersson should not be traded. I understand the appeal in trading him to get even younger, but I do not think he should at all be the priority in trade talks for the Canucks right now. Unlike some of the other Canucks veterans, I see a long-term role for Elias Pettersson on this team that can continue well into his 30s. Though the idea of getting even more 1st round picks and even more young prospects is an enticing one, I just don’t think the return would be good enough considering the type of player we know Pettersson can be.
I really like the idea of keeping him on the team through a rebuild, as long as he’s comfortable with that idea too. We need someone who can guide the younger guys on the team, so those younger guys can lead the team back into being competitive one day. Though Pettersson may not be a vocal leader, he will make their jobs easier on the ice and help them to gain comfortability in the NHL. This honestly feels like the conclusion paragraph of one of my university essays.
This isn’t just me shutting down the idea of an Elias Pettersson trade. There’s definitely some return that can entice me enough. I just don’t see any team willing to fork it over. In the interview with Patrick Johnston, Jim Rutherford called it their “duty” to take calls on all veterans. This would suggest that he feels the same way I do. Maybe that means I’m off my rocker. It really is worth listening to teams on all these players, because you never know how desperate they may be. But until an offer actually makes your eyes pop out of your sockets, it seems worth holding onto Elias Pettersson.
