Insider: Would Canucks Consider An Elias Pettersson Buyout?

Elias Pettersson, Vancouver Canucks center, awaits a faceoff

"This situation is untenable." That's the way insider Frank Seravalli describes the Vancouver Canucks' situation at center. Not only is second-line center Filip Chytil out indefinitely after taking a vicious body blow from Tom Wilson, but their top-line pivot, Elias Pettersson, has not returned to form this season as had been hoped.

How bad has it been for Pettersson? His minutes are down at 5-on-5, and he has just one goal and four points in seven games. He's only in the second season of an eight-year, $92.5 million deal ($11.25M AAV), that, at this point, looks like a historically brutal contract.

So what could the Canucks do with the Swedish center? Insider Frank Seravalli was asked if a change of scenery is needed for EP40.

Change of scenery? No one's gonna take him on! What you're talking about is a buyout next year. Obviously that's a long ways off. I think you're stuck. In the meantime, you hope, you wish, you pray that he somehow finds some confidence, and gets back to the player that we saw can be a force in this league, and that has been so far from it these past couple of years.

It seems pretty far-fetched to consider at this early stage of the season. But just to play along with Seravalli's thought, a buyout next summer would save the Canucks $8.8 million in cap hit next season, and $7.3 million the year after, per PuckPedia. But starting Year 4 of this hypothetical buyout, Vancouver would be charged with a $10M cap hit the following three seasons, before things peter out to just $2M in the final two years.

A hypothetical Elias Pettersson buyout would cost Canucks $25.8M + signing bonuses

Overall, it would cost the Canucks $25.866 million in salary, and another $20 million in signing bonuses to have Petey NOT play for them for the next eight years, if they went through with it. He'd have to be outrageously bad the rest of this season for this to even be a consideration.

Pettersson broke out big-time in the 2022-23 season with the Canucks, posting 39 goals and 102 points. In the middle of the following season, another strong one, Vancouver decided to lock him in with the massive extension. But starting in that 2024 playoff run, his play has cratered. He had just one goal and six points in 13 postseason games that year, then had a dreadful season last year with just 15 goals and 45 points in 64 games, and was even a minus-rating (-10) for the first time in his career.

He came into camp this year in a great frame of mind, and in great physical shape, he said at the time. He put on 13 pounds of muscle in the offseason, and said he was "ready to be myself again out there. I feel confident that I will.”

So far, that newfound strength hasn't translated.

And the Canucks, as Seravalli said, are "stuck."