Elias Pettersson
This isn’t likely to happen.
But we at least have to consider it.
The Canucks need to bottom out. They have a 24 year old superstar coming off two fairly disappointing seasons, and now even though he’s scoring again, the team stinks.
Is this the franchise player you want to commit to?
Is it even possible to build a winner around Demko, Pettersson and Hughes when, before you’re anywhere close to competing, you’re going to have to choose between committing to Pettersson at $10-12 million per season until he’s 35.
Given that, wouldn’t they at least listen to offers?
The Leafs could probably put together a pretty crazy offer.
I for one like the idea of a Mitch Marner, Auston Mattews, Elias Petterson first line.
It’s not realistic, but someone is probably going to trade for him, why can’t it be the Leafs?
Pettersson has one year left at a very reasonable $7.3.
If you were a team that needed to go all-in and your job was on the line, you could do worse.
There really isn’t much else you’d want on the Canucks. Travis Dermott would be a nice take-back, and of course, if someone wanted to retain half of Ekman-Larsson’s contract, or half of Tanner Pearson’s (if and when he’s healthy) that would be OK too.
But when it comes to the Vancouver Canucks, the Toronto Maple Leafs should really only be interested in their big fish.