Vancouver Canucks have at least one condition for potential Pettersson trade: report
The Vancouver Canucks have at least one condition for teams poking around a potential Elias Pettersson trade.
With the trade deadline quickly approaching, the Canucks are primed to be among the busiest sellers across the NHL. They’ve already offloaded Quinn Hughes and Kiefer Sherwood, but more moves are expected between now and Friday.
The biggest possible move that GM Patrik Allvin could make is parting ways with superstar Elias Pettersson. Rumours swirled recently that the Detroit Red Wings have been “aggressively” pursuing Pettersson, but nothing has come to fruition just yet.
If a deal does come to fruition in the coming days, it sounds like one condition will have to be met by interested teams. NHL insider Elliotte Friedman spoke a little more on the Pettersson situation on the latest edition of Saturday Headlines.
“Pettersson, I’ve looked around. I think it’s quiet around him right now,” Friedman said. “The one thing I have heard about Pettersson is that the Canucks are not interested in retaining [salary] on him.
“I think they’ve been asked, and I’ve heard that’s not what they’re willing to do.”
Some big-name centremen could be on the move 👀@FriedgeHNIC has all the latest trade rumours ahead of the deadline on this week's Saturday Headlines 📰 pic.twitter.com/LGlBMc02HI
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 1, 2026
Pettersson is in year two of an eight-year, $92.8 million deal that he signed with the Canucks back during the 2023-24 NHL season. It will run all the way through the 2031-32 season, meaning that any retained salary would stay on the Canucks’ books for at least the next six seasons.
It should be no surprise that Vancouver doesn’t want to deal with dead money for that long, but it may affect a potential trade return for Pettersson. At the moment, the 27-year-old Swede carries a colossal $11.6 million cap hit, but has only produced 13 goals and 35 points through 51 games this season.
That is far from what he should be producing at that price-point and any team interested in trading for him should be concerned with it. Who wants to trade for a guy being paid like one of the best players in the league, but is producing like a mid-tier player?
It’ll be interesting not only to see if Pettersson is on the move before the deadline, but what a potential deal could look like without retention.