Canucks, Hurricanes had serious trade talks about Elias Pettersson as interest in extension reignites

The Carolina Hurricanes have had serious trade discussions with the Vancouver Canucks about their star center, Elias Pettersson.

Things got so far down the line, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported Thursday, that the Canucks and Pettersson “needed to make serious decisions about where their relationship was headed.”

“The Canucks ultimately decided in favour of another attempt at extending Pettersson, and he, facing the possibility Vancouver could move him, allowed agents Pat Brisson and JP Barry to resume negotiations,” Friedman reported. “Previously, the talented forward indicated he preferred to wait until after the season.”

News of these advanced trade talks came a day after Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reported the Canucks and Pettersson had “made significant progress” with their star on what’s believed to be an eight-year extension. Seravalli said “a new deal could be finalized in the coming days.”

The Canucks and Pettersson have engaged in a Wild West stand-off in contract negotiations. Ahead of the campaign, Pettersson, a pending RFA finishing off a three-year deal paying him $7.35-million, had told the club ahead of the season he didn’t want to negotiate a contract in season, but reports surfaced the club had become frustrated not knowing which direction the player wanted to go.

On Thursday morning, Seravalli provided more information on Pettersson and the Cancuks, as well as their deadline plans in an episode of Daily Faceoff Live: 

Seravalli: They’re always itchy. They’re the most aggressive front office in the league, and I don’t think that there’s a close second right now in terms of how they’ve transformed this team over the last calendar year.

They’ve made their big splash already with Elias Lindholm. I don’t know that they’re going to go out and make another big one, but I’d be very surprised if we get to between now and March 8th at 12:00 p.m. Pacific time and they don’t go out and make another move of some kind to either strengthen the bottom six of this team, which is markedly improved over the last year, or their defense core with another insurance piece.

So stand by as you will, but I think the Canucks are certainly in a prime position to do so. At least now you could potentially consider some other options that you hadn’t before. If you wanted to go after a player that has term, you now have, provided that the Pettersson deal gets done, a much better line of sight on what your books look like for the future.