It’s hard to talk about much to do with the Vancouver Canucks right now without focusing on the scary situation with its battle with COVID-19.

But some good news emerged Saturday night out of the organization with an Elliotte Freidman report surfacing that the team has entered contract negotiations with Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes.

Friedman made the comments on Saturday night’s Headlines segment.

“This week the Canucks began preliminary, preliminary discussions with Elias Pettersson and also with Quinn Hughes. Not very far along. Still a long way to go, and obviously that will become secondary now.”

In January, Pettersson switched agents to have the same representation as Hughes with J.P. Barry and Pat Brisson at CAA. It’s setting up for a franchise-altering double-negotiation that’s creating leverage in favour of the players.

Pettersson has appeared in just 26 games due to a lingering upper body issue, but has scored 10 goals and 21 points in the games he has played. Hughes continues to show his ability as a top end defenceman scoring 28 points in 37 games this year.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at [email protected]