Kings Should Be Most Desperate Team To Land Canucks' Center

The Vancouver Canucks are dead last in the NHL and are not going to have a late-season run that gets them back into the playoffs race. They have already at least somewhat committed to a retool/rebuild as Quinn Hughes and Kiefer Sherwood were traded.

The Canucks are very banged up and that continues to be a problem with the group they have assembled. It's not going to do them any favours moving forward unless even more is changed. The team desperately needs a rebuild with what is left on the roster and what is in the system. To continue on the path they're on, Elias Pettersson has to be one of the next to go.

He won't get as high of a return as if he were still a point-per-game player or better, but he is still a top line center and could use a change in scenery and better players around him. While there are a number of teams that could be interesting landing spots for the Canucks' top center, there is one that absolutely has to land a player like him or they'll collapse similarly to the Canucks.

The Los Angeles Kings are losing Anze Kopitar, their franchise center, to retirement after the season and traded Phillip Danault this season. While the latter isn't really a big loss at all considering his poor season, there isn't much help at all down the middle and the Kings may be the thinnest at that position next season.

David Pagnotta said, "The Los Angeles Kings would have interest in Elias Pettersson if he's available."

Quinton Byfield still hasn't grown into the top line center yet. He can be a second line center with the potential to still get much better, but there is also no help behind him. With Kopitar injured, the Kings are getting a taste of what life will be like next season without a major addition. Alex Lafferiere is playing as the top line center, Byfield is where he should be as the second line center, and Alex Turcotte and Samuel Helenius, two formerly good prospects who haven't panned out the way the team had hoped, are the third and fourth line centers, playing very limited minutes.

Pettersson would be a game-changer, even if he doesn't end up getting back to that 82-point or better mark. The Kings are hanging on and getting older with no help coming through the system. And they sit outside of a playoff spot at this point in the season with up-and-coming teams like the San Jose Sharks, Seattle Kraken, and Anaheim Ducks in their way.