Another exciting day at CanucksArmy, where we work hard to keep you up to date on the movings and shakings of…the Detroit Red Wings?! Stick with us for a moment.

Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman made a seemingly minor transaction earlier this week, sending goaltender Ville Husso to Anaheim for future considerations.

The motivation is easy enough to figure out from the Anaheim perspective. Goalie John Gibson is out with an injury right now, and rumours are that he is likely to be traded between now and the March 7 Trade Deadline. Husso gives them a little extra veteran coverage in the net.

Detroit, meanwhile, did have an abundance of goaltenders on hand, with veterans Cam Talbot and Alex Lyon in place at the NHL level and prospect Sebastian Cossa on the way up. Then again, that’s been the case all season long. Why trade Husso now for nothing?

The obvious answer would seem to be cap space. Husso did carry with him an outsized $4.75 million AAV in this, the final year of a three-year contract. In moving Husso, the Red Wings have achieved an estimated $13.5 million or so in deadline spending space.

And here’s where we bring it back to the Vancouver Canucks. Because it doesn’t take too much wondering to wonder if the player who Detroit might be clearing space for…is Elias Pettersson.

The fit is obvious enough. Detroit’s rebuild attempts have been hampered by their bad lottery luck and inability to draft much truly elite talent, especially at the centre position. Pettersson, when at his best, is a skilled 1C. And if there’s a franchise out there with a prouder tradition of Swedish stars than Vancouver, it’s Detroit.

As of this writing, the Wings are in a playoff spot and project to be competing for one for many years to come.

But it takes two to tango. Which, in turn, leads one to wonder what the Red Wings might be able to offer up in return for Pettersson.

As usual, we start with what the Canucks can’t get back in a trade from Detroit.

The 22- and 23-year-old Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider will not be traded anytime soon. They’re the two most foundational pieces in Detroit’s possession right now.

They are also exceptionally unlikely to part with captain Dylan Larkin, who has a full no-trade clause.

Beyond those three, we suspect that sophomore defender Simon Edvinsson, the sixth overall pick in 2021, would be near-impossible to pry loose.

And then from the prospect cupboard, we’ve probably got to add RHD Axel Sandin-Pellikka as an untouchable – though that might not be a huge issue for Vancouver, who already has Sandin-Pellikka’s WJC teammate Tom Willander in the fold.

Past this set of five players, we believe every asset could be on the table in a set of theoretical Pettersson trade discussions.

One of the most intriguing things about Detroit as a potential trade partner is that they’ve actually got a slight abundance of young, skilled centres. That’s rare these days.

Drafted ninth overall in 2023, Danielson managed to put up three PPG+ WHL seasons before moving up to the AHL as a 20-year-old this season. He’s having a fine enough rookie pro year offensively but continues to earn the most accolades for his two-way, responsible game. This is a player with some Bo Horvat vibes, including the leadership chops and the ever-improving skating skills.

Kasper is a draft year older than Danielson, having gone eighth overall in 2022. Other than that, they profile very similarly as all-around, highly-skilled, hard-working centres. Kasper’s own rookie pro season of 2023/24 was decent, but then he’s gone and stepped right into the NHL this year with 23 points in 53 games, all before his 21^st birthday.

If the Canucks do trade Pettersson, they’re going to be so suddenly bereft of centres that one pretty much needs to come back in the deal. And if that deal is with the Detroit Red Wings, then that centre pretty much has to be one of Danielson or Kasper.

So, jot one of them down as the first, but not the only, piece in this proposed transaction.

The Red Wings are hoping to make a postseason appearance this year, so they won’t be incredibly eager to send off pieces they’re making use of at the NHL level right now – nor will they need to dump any cap space. Still, there are at least a few veteran names worth noting as players the Canucks might have interest in.

Another big, two-way centre drafted early. In this case, Rasmussen was drafted a while ago, at ninth overall in 2017, and hasn’t exactly set the hockey world on fire in his six-year career with a high of 33 points.

Still, Rasmussen is enormous at 6’6”, 220, and capable of playing decent matchup minutes. His skating will seemingly always hold him back from taking that next step, but no steps are required for him to be a useful NHL player. He already is that, and one under contract at a $3.2 million rate for this year and the next three, too.

Rasmussen, a product of Surrey, has been connected to the Canucks before, and bringing him in would do at least something to make up for the centre depth lost in Pettersson (and JT Miller, previously.)

Soderblom is an NHL sophomore with a total of 14 points in 33 games spread across two campaigns. So why is he an item of interest?

Simple: he’s 6’8” and described as having an abundance of skill and “soft hands.” Sounds like a power forward of epic proportions in the making if he can put it all together, but at the same time, the 23-year-old Soderblom is getting a little lost in the shuffle of younger, more exciting Detroit forwards.

Soderblom definitely offers the Canucks an element they don’t currently have on the wing.

Beyond the aforementioned young centres and these two specific roster players, we imagine the bulk of the rest of the value coming back to Vancouver would have to be made up of more future-based assets.

The Red Wings are resplendent with draft picks. In fact, the only round in which they don’t have one currently is this upcoming draft’s fourth round. They’ve got all their own firsts, seconds, and thirds in all future drafts, and they also own the New York Rangers’ third-round pick this year.

Getting a 2025 or 2026 first-round pick out of the Red Wings wouldn’t seem to be too much of an ask.

The Red Wings are also absolutely loaded up with quality prospects, even beyond the previously mentioned Danielson and Kasper (and Sandin-Pellikka.)

The top prospect from Norway in a while, Brandsegg-Nygard is a hard-driving, physical, snipe-shooting talent who projects a middle-six forward with jam at the NHL level. Drafted at 15^th overall in 2024, Brandsegg-Nygard is always noticeable out on the ice in a good way.

We think the Red Wings will look to hold on to Cossa, who should be ready for NHL minutes soon. The Canucks might be interested in a goalie prospect on a longer timeline, anyway, and that’s Augustine, who is still an NCAA sophomore. He is firmly considered a top-ten goaltending prospect league-wide and starred at the World Juniors not too long ago.

Buium is not quite as impressive a D prospect as younger brother Zeev. This Buium also has a blend of size, skill, and skating ability and is currently enjoying an impressive rookie pro campaign down in Grand Rapids.

C’mon, this would definitely be funny. Who doesn’t want to see a Wallinder-Willander pairing in the future? Jokes aside, Wallinder has that classic combination of size and a surprising amount of skating ability that virtually guarantee him some form of future NHL career.