Trade Talks Heating Up Surrounding Canucks Star Elias Pettersson

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Liam McCormick
October 16, 2024 (5:16 PM)

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Vancouver Canucks star centreman Elias Pettersson is off to a slow start to the year, and now trade speculation is beginning to heat up in the media.

On today's episode of Canucks Talk, the hosts discussed the possibility of trading Petersson because of his prolonged struggles.

How long it's been, the fact that it's stretching over two seasons now, and the fact that you can't even look at it and say he's just getting unlucky. It's just that the performance has completely evaporated.

His stats on the surface still look great from last season, scoring 34 goals and 89 points, but he's gone through a sustained stretch of not scoring since sustaining a concerning wrist injury. Pettersson is currently in a stretch of 34 games without scoring an even strength goal - nearly half a season slump is unacceptable for a player being paid $11.6M.

Fans and media are extremely critical of Pettersson play on the perimeter and lack of being a shooting threat in the offensive zone. Again, a first line center has to have some ability to drive the net and be a scoring threat at even 5 on 5.

Nobody knows to what extent Pettersson's wrist injury is affecting him, but his play has been so bad that media are beginning to question if he's even engaged in the play.

Pettersson is just 3 games into his 8 year contract extension for $11.6M, and if they truly believe strongly that the contract may be a mistake, perhaps the Canucks look to move him in a blockbuster trade before his value decreases. On the other hand, it feels more likely that Pettersson will find his game again and find a way to be productive at even strength. If it doesn't happen though, perhaps Pettersson won't even finish the year in Vancouver.