Canucks Expected to Have Sit-Down With Pettersson, ‘Put It All On The Table’

It was revealed today that the Vancouver Canucks were voted by agents around the NHL as far and away the worst-run team in the league. Dead-last in the entire NHL with a dreadful 56 points, it's not too surprising.

They've started the rebuild process with the blockbuster Quinn Hughes trade and moving out a few other pieces, but there's one huge outstanding issue to deal with this summer. It's the $92.8 million elephant in the room, called Elias Pettersson.

The one-time 100-point man has settled into being a 50-point man the past two seasons, and still has six years to run at an unconscionable $11.6 million AAV.

Insider Elliotte Friedman appeared on Donnie & Dhali on Monday to suggest that the biggest offseason priority for the Canucks is to take care of that elephant.

"I would suspect there's going to be a sit-down with Pettersson after the year."

Great stuff from Elliotte Freidman here. https://t.co/M6OIZCNuYX
— Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports) April 13, 2026

It all starts, says Friedman, with having a real, honest, heart-to-heart with the Swedish center, so that the two sides know exactly where they stand going forward.

I would suspect there's going to be a sit-down with Pettersson after the year, and there's gotta be a real conversation about where this is going and what the options are. I think they have to have a lengthy meeting and put it all on the table. You can't continue to have this conversation around your team for another year. You've sort of cleaned out everything you needed to clean out and (the Pettersson situation) is sort of the last thing.

He goes on to specify exactly the kind of questions the Canucks need to ask their struggling center:

'Are you committed? What can we do to get you back to being the player you were a couple of years ago?' Or does everybody believe that (it's) the right time to (talk about), 'Are there places you're willing to go?'
To be honest, if I was the Canucks, I would facilitate that. 'Are there places you want to go? Well, let's give you permission to go meet and talk to people on that team if they're interested.'...
(If) you're moving on from everything that was hanging over you, I think the last question is, 'Do we think this can still work in Vancouver, and if we all do really believe it, how do we get there? How do we fix it so that Pettersson can be the Pettersson we saw a couple of years ago?'

EP40 was the subject of trade rumors all season, but other teams were, in the end, reluctant to take on the full brunt of that contract. It's difficult for the Canucks to retain because it would have to be for six more seasons. But those are discussions they'll have to revisit.

With two games to play, Pettersson has a disappointing 15 goals and 49 points in 72 games. It'll be his second straight year hovering just under the 50-point mark, after 89 points in 2023-24, and his big breakout 102-point season the year before that.

Vancouver will certainly need to figure out how they'll deal with this jumbo problem before next season.