As the Vancouver Canucks continue their search for another top six centre, Minnesota Wild centre Marco Rossi appears to be high on that list.

As first reported by Michael Russo of the Athletic and later confirmed by Postmedia’s Patrick Johnston, the Canucks offered a trade for Rossi, with the offer involving their 15th overall first-round pick and a player. The Wild declined that offer.

At this point in time, what player was offered in the deal, and whether it was a roster player or a prospect, is unknown. Based on Russo’s reporting, it appears that the Wild are hoping to get an NHL-calibre roster player as part of the return.

Rossi has been made available due to his dissatisfaction with his role with the Wild, having been deployed as a fourth line centre at various points of the season and the playoffs. The Wild clearly have some doubts in his play, especially as a primary play-driver, and with Rossi being a restricted free agent, there’s some hesitation to give him a pricey contract.

Rossi is coming off the best season of his career up to this point with 24 goals and 36 assists for 60 points in 82 games.

The Canucks have needed a top-six centre ever since the locker room conflict between Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller forced Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin’s hand and made them trade Miller to the New York Rangers earlier in the 2024-25 season. While they did get a centre in Filip Chytil in return, ideally he would be the team’s third-line centre.

The Canucks will hope that they can swing a deal for Rossi, as the market for centres is not that big this summer. As of right now, Charlie Coyle, Pavel Zacha, Morgan Geekie and David Kampf were the only centres not named Elias Pettersson listed as options on Daily Faceoff’s most recent Trade Targets board, while the only top-six centre options in free agency are Sam Bennett, John Tavares, Jonathan Toews, Mikael Granlund, Claude Giroux and Pius Suter.