Vancouver Canucks Know They Can’t Replace Elias Pettersson

The Vancouver Canucks did not have the season they had expected. Vancouver missed the playoffs and experienced a lot of drama, including J.T. Miller, Thatcher Demko, Elias Pettersson, and Quinn Hughes.

While most of the drama centred on the situation between Miller and Pettersson, President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford and General Manager Patrik Allvin did not help matters when they spoke to the media. Most recently, Rutherford discussed Quinn Hughes desire to play with his brothers.

However, for most of the offseason, the talk in Vancouver has been about Pettersson. Were the Canucks going to try to move him or keep him as their number one center. It appears that Vancouver will keep Elias Pettersson and hope he can rehabilitate his game to return to the player he was when he won the Calder Trophy in 2018.

A reason Pettersson’s name has been brought up in trade talks is that his full no-movement clause kicks in on July 1. So the Canucks were gauging the market on him. However, they found the market to be thin. With the roster needing a significant overhaul to be competitive again next season, trying to find two centers and a scoring winger was not feasible.

The Canucks are finding out that centers don’t grow on trees. Or has TSN’s Director of Scouting Craig Button said on SportsCenter on Monday with Jay Onrait, “there is no 7/11 hockey store where you can get a number one center.”

As Full Press Hockey has documented, the Vancouver Canucks were never going to be winning an Elias Pettersson trade. No matter who they got back in return, the Canucks weren’t winning that deal. For the better part of two years now, the Canucks have been trying to trade him. This goes back before he signed his eight-year extension to stay with the Canucks.

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Vancouver and Carolina discussed a trade involving Martin Necas going to Vancouver for Pettersson. Even this year, the Hurricanes and Canucks re-engaged in trade discussions before Carolina traded for Mikko Rantanen and Vancouver traded J.T. Miller to New York. However, Vancouver and Carolina discussed Boeser and Pettersson as potential replacements for Rantanen at the deadline. The driving force behind Pettersson’s extension and staying was Rutherford.