Ex-Stanley Cup Winning GM Says One Team Will Take Elias Pettersson Off Canucks' Hands

Vancouver Canucks center Elias Pettersson

One of the big stories we'll be watching this offseason is what the Vancouver Canucks ultimately wind up doing with their disappointing $92 million man, Elias Pettersson. There has been plenty of talk of a trade, but with an $11.6M AAV, it's unclear if there is a team out there that would be willing to take that chance of EP40 regaining his mojo.

However, Brian Burke, a former Stanley Cup-winning general manager and a multi-time president of hockey operations, feels that a trade is inevitable. He appeared on NHL Network Radio on SiriusXM Friday morning, and he provided an outspoken explanation of why he feels that Pettersson will get dealt:

I would be leery (of trading for Pettersson), but I think someone's gonna take him. There's 32 teams, and someone makes a mistake every day in our league. Someone's gonna bite on EP40, and that's because he's had a couple of great years, he's supposedly a good kid, he works hard, no issues with him character wise. But he just goes to sleep as a player.
Someone will give him a chance, but I wouldn't.

Pettersson, the 5th overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, broke out big-time back in 2022-23 with a 39-goal, 102-point season. That was followed by an 89-point year in 2023-24, and before that season came to an end, the Canucks signed him to an eight-year, $92.8M contract. And he's never been the same since. In fact, going into the final 20 games of that season, he was on a 99-point pace, but slowed down after signing the deal to finish at 89.

That's now been followed up with two 15-goal seasons, averaging 48 points a year.

As for that $11.6M cap hit, it would be very difficult for Vancouver to retain any of it in a trade, as there are still a whopping six years to run on the contract. At the same time, it would seem that it would be equally difficult for another team to contemplate taking that on for another six seasons. But as Burke said, he expects some club to "make a mistake" and go for it.