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Pius Suter of the Vancouver Canucks celebrates his goal against the Nashville Predators in Game Six of the First Round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs (Photo by John Russell/NHLI via Getty Images)

Canucks Trade Deadline Predictions: Boeser, Suter, Pettersson & More

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers
By Matthew Zator | Last updated Mar 5, 2025 11:25 AM ET

There are only two days to go before the trade deadline, and it’s not clear what the Vancouver Canucks will do. While they’re in a tight battle with the Calgary Flames, St. Louis Blues, and Utah Hockey Club for the final wild card spot, they’re unfortunately playing some of their worst hockey of the season. The question is, are they a good enough team to battle with the likes of the Winnipeg Jets or Dallas Stars, who they will likely face in the first round? At this point, the answer is no, with a giant exclamation point. They would probably get swept, too, and give the home fans two more frustrating games at Rogers Arena, a place that has already had its fair share of them this season.

So, what will general manager Patrik Allvin do before the clock runs out on March 7? Let’s pull out the crystal ball and make some predictions regarding some of the players in the rumour mill lately.

Brock Boeser

Brock Boeser‘s future with the Canucks is very much up in the air right now, as it’s not entirely clear what direction they will go in. All options remain on the table, including an extension, trade, or simply keeping him as an own-rental with the hope that he doesn’t end up becoming one when free agency opens on July 1. As mentioned in my trade destinations article, he has stated that he wants to stay in Vancouver, not for the short-term, but the max eight years. However, the Canucks don’t seem comfortable with that and want to sign him for five. Both sides aren’t budging on their positions, and we have an old-fashioned standoff on our hands with just a couple of days before the deadline.

As of this writing, it appears the Canucks are leaning toward keeping him unless another team blows their socks off with a substantial return. Considering their proximity to the wild card race, the feeling is that they will keep negotiating an extension and risk losing him in free agency. As such, the obvious prediction is that they will keep him beyond the deadline and forgo the return of a first-round pick or top prospect.

Pius Suter

Pius Suter has had another solid season for the Canucks as the Swiss Army knife of the forward group. Unfortunately, his success, which has seen him score a career-high 16 goals this season, has seemingly priced him out of Vancouver. Buried in the Boeser chatter ahead of the trade deadline, it was reported on Tuesday that the team was on the cusp of trading the consistent center/winger to the Dallas Stars. While it appeared the deal was going to be done after the Stars’ buzzer-beater win over the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday, TSN’s Farhan Lalji has said that no trade is imminent, and he will be in the lineup against the Anaheim Ducks tonight.

Losing Suter would be a big blow to the Canucks’ depth and penalty killing units as he has played the role of top-six center many times this season and formed a very effective PK tandem with Teddy Blueger. He leads the forward group in shorthanded ice time per game at 2:23 and is second only to Derek Forbort (2:28) overall. If the Canucks’ goal is to make the playoffs, unless they are getting another PK forward in return, trading him will dent those hopes significantly. We will see what happens, but the good money is on Suter getting shipped out of town before March 7.

Elias Pettersson

The Elias Pettersson story has been talked about ad nauseam ever since he signed his $11.6 million average annual value (AAV) extension last March. We are now past the one-year anniversary, and he hasn’t approached the production everyone hoped he would under that kind of money. He came out and was very candid in the assessment of his play on Tuesday, showing some accountability that has been lacking in recent months.

I’ll just be honest: I haven’t been the way I want to be this year. I haven’t played to expectations I have on myself, the franchise has on me. So I’ll be the first to tell you, but that’s in the past,” he said. “I just want to take these last 22 games, plus more hopefully, and play my best hockey. I wish we had more wins, I wish we had played a lot better, but can’t dwell on that anymore. And just trying to look ahead.”

It was a refreshing interview compared to his controversial comments after the Canucks’ loss to the Utah Hockey Club on Feb. 23 when he seemingly blamed the media for his struggles. But words are just that, words. So it will be interesting to see if he can back those comments up with his play when the Canucks resume their season tonight.

As for whether the Canucks are still looking to trade him, anything is possible, but as of now, I don’t see it happening. Nor should it. While I don’t think we are going to see a major transformation in the final 22 games to the 102-point man fans were cheering on in 2022-23, I do see him rebounding after an offseason of regular training and getting back to form in 2025-26. Furthermore, with his value at an all-time low, teams won’t be offering nearly what he’s worth, even at the desperate times of the trade deadline. So, my prediction is that they will keep him and hope for the best next season.

Carson Soucy

Finally, we have Carson Soucy. He has had an up-and-down season, showing flashes of the solid top-four defenceman he was in Seattle and Minnesota, and shades of a bottom-pairing defenceman that shouldn’t be in the lineup. He has looked better lately, but has seen his name in the rumour mill ahead of the trade deadline. He still has one more season at $3.25 million AAV on his contract, so that may deter teams from possibly grabbing him before Friday. Insider Rick Dhaliwal also hasn’t heard anything about an impending trade, so unless a lot of the other more desirable unrestricted free agents come off the board, Soucy will probably stick around and hopefully play more like his Kraken/Wild self down the stretch.

Canucks Will Likely Have a Quiet Deadline

The Canucks have a lot of trade chips they could play, but with their playoff hopes still very much alive and Allvin saying he won’t be in the rental market this year, I don’t see a lot of action before Friday, especially considering the recent reports around Boeser and Soucy. But as they say, anything can happen. So, we will wait and see what the Canucks have in store for us on deadline day.