Canucks reportedly ready to let teams talk as major trade name emerges

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Jonathan Ouimet
April 26, 2026  (10:47 PM)

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Photo credit: Bob Frid-Imagn Images

Elias Pettersson's trade story just took a serious turn. Elliotte Friedman says the Canucks could give teams permission to talk to the centre directly.

That's not routine talk on a hockey insider show. Vancouver is opening a door it has kept shut all year on its $11.6 million centerpiece.

"They don't wanna keep money," Friedman said on 32 Thoughts. "One of the more interesting things will be, do the Canucks give teams permission so these potentially interested teams could talk to him."

The numbers tell you why. He finished the regular season with 51 points in 74 games and a -30 rating. That's not a typo. A max-paid top-line forward went minus thirty.

Vancouver's year was worse. The Canucks went 25-49-8 for 58 points, finished 32nd overall, and gave up 316 goals. Adam Foote inherited a disaster.

The 27-year-old was held scoreless across his last 10 games of the year. Six assists, no goals, a -7 rating across that stretch.

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The Friedman quote tells you exactly where this is heading. The market needs convincing, and a buyer is going to have to talk to the player to figure out if he even wants in.

Here's the problem with shopping a $11.6 million centre off a -30 season. The asking price collapses by the day.

Vancouver wants to move money. That's the part Friedman was clear on. They are not interested in retention or sweetening the deal. They want it gone.

Good luck. Cap-strapped contenders are not lining up to absorb the full hit on a 27-year-old coming off the worst statistical year of his life.

That's why the permission angle matters so much. If any team with the cap room calls, they need Pettersson to want to be there.

A fanbase will buy a slumping forward at a discount. The player himself is a lot harder to convince when his game has gone sideways.

If Vancouver actually green-lights conversations between the Swede and outside clubs, that's a tacit admission the relationship between player and franchise has run out of road.

The summer just got long for everyone in this story. The Canucks have to find a market that doesn't really exist for a price that doesn't really fit.

And if Vancouver is already letting other teams into the conversation, the next chapter of this whole thing is being written without them in the room.

Previously

Nikita Kucherov stays down after scary cross-check into the boards

Lightning hit with injury scare as veteran leaves game early

Maxwell Crozier delivers one of the biggest hits of the year on Juraj Slafkovský and it sparks controversy

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1 HOUR AGO   |   128 ANSWERS Canucks reportedly ready to let teams talk as major trade name emerges Should the Canucks finally trade Elias Pettersson ?

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