To say that the Vancouver Canucks’ plans for a rebuild are rapidly evolving before our eyes would be a bit of an understatement. This is the kind of fast evolution typically reserved only for Pokémon. Most recently, the duo of GM Patrik Allvin and POHO Jim Rutherford took steps to clarify their intentions, both in using the term ‘rebuild’ with no qualifiers, and in mentioning that they’re now open to offers on all their veteran players – even those with contract term.

More specifically, Rutherford said, “I would suggest that we listen to teams when they call — about anybody.”

It’s important to note exactly what was said here, because the words quickly led to NHL insiders calling around and a few new names popping up in trade rumours. Most prominently and eye-catchingly, TSN’s Darren Dreger threw the senior Elias Pettersson’s name into the mix again.

Well, kind of. Though Dreger reported that the Canucks were listening to offers on Pettersson, it seemed clear that his primary source for that report was Rutherford, as Dreger said, “Obviously, every club in the National Hockey League has untouchables, but management of the Vancouver Canucks is now using the ‘rebuild’ word. So they have to be open for business, open for just about anything, and that might include finally trading Elias Pettersson. Now, we know that there’s been a ton of speculation from a media perspective on Pettersson’s future with the Vancouver Canucks. That was more into the offseason – more last season than to this point.”

Dreger goes on further to specify that “I can tell you, there’s been no communication with the agent who represents Elias Pettersson – Pat Brisson – and they would have to communicate directly with Pettersson’s camp, because he has the no-move clause.”

In other words, this is far less a case of Pettersson being on the block, and more a case of Pettersson being a veteran with term, and Rutherford mentioning that he is open to trading such players. A Pettersson move certainly doesn’t seem imminent.

But the topic being raised is as fine a time as any to raise the general question laid in the headline: Should the Canucks really be exploring a trade for Pettersson?

The short answer is “probably not,” and the longer answer is “that depends on what you mean by exploring.” Obviously, there are some scenarios in which trading Pettersson might make the most sense. We’re talking about the veritable “offers too good to refuse.” But it’s hard to imagine a scenario like that coming to pass, given the current circumstances. Under most realistic and predictable scenarios, a Pettersson deal just isn’t a likely outcome.

Were the Canucks able to get fair value back, that’d be different. If we’re talking pure ability and impact on the game, Pettersson easily ranks second among Vancouver veterans right now to Filip Hronek. Quibble all you like about what truly makes a ‘1C,’ but Pettersson has ten goals in his last 20 games as of this writing, and has been taking on some of the heaviest defensive deployments amongst NHL centres this season. To say that he’s rebounded all the way back to his previous best would be inaccurate, but this is the best Pettersson has played in recent memory, and he’s doing so with very little support.

But Pettersson’s skill no longer exists in a vacuum. It is now attached to a contract with an $11.6 million AAV, and still has six years remaining on it after this season. It’s true that the NHL’s salary cap is exploding upward, and that contract averages are exploding with it, but Pettersson’s cap hit is still the eighth-highest in the league right now, and his performance does not match that salary.

Then there’s everything else. Right or wrong, Pettersson got a fairly equal portion of the blame for the dissolution of the working relationship with JT Miller. Right or wrong, the seriousness of Pettersson’s injuries, and their true impact on his game, have been called into question by management. Right or wrong, the perception out there is that Pettersson is a bit of a problem child, and that is going to make any team hesitant before they commit to one of the largest contracts in the league.

Are there teams out there that would still consider trading for Pettersson all the same? Almost certainly. The Canucks themselves got to experience how limited the market of available centres is. Who cares if Pettersson might never be a “true 1C” ever again…there are teams out there who don’t even have a definitive 2C on their roster. The fact of the matter is that a centre who has hit 100 points before and might conceivably hit it again is almost never available via trade. It’s an opportunity that any franchise short on pivots would have to consider, and at least a few of those clubs would bite.

It’s just hard to imagine that those bites would constitute anything worth the Canucks’ while. And what is something “worth the Canucks’ while” in this situation? It’s any return that outweighs the benefits of keeping Pettersson around through the rebuild. If the Canucks were going to be offered mid-to-high first round picks, or A-class prospects, that would be one thing. But that doesn’t seem likely to happen.

We realize there are some reading this who have already decided that they deeply dislike Pettersson, his playing style, and his personality, and will not be convinced of anything other than that the team is better off without him. For those folks, any trade return is worth the Canucks’ while, perhaps up to and including paying to get rid of Pettersson.

But for those with less of a hardline opinion, it’s not too tough to see a future where Pettersson is contributing in a positive way to the next generation of Canucks.

Pettersson himself is only 27, and won’t turn 28 until partway into next season. The remainder of his contract takes him from now until he is 33. Even if it takes the Canucks three or four years to think about getting competitive again, there are still going to be some productive years left in Pettersson at that point. Especially if his current trajectory continues.

For the especially optimistic, it’s possible to imagine the Canucks drafting a truer 1C at some point here, and watching Pettersson transition into an excellent 2C at both ends of the ice. By then, his contract will seem a lot less outsized by comparison, and having someone who can pot 30 goals and matchup against opposing top lines on the second line sounds kind of ideal.

But if we were only talking about holding on to Pettersson in case of some theoretical return to competitive play several years down the road, that might not be enough to justify. One should also consider the interim, as in everything that needs to happen in between.

As we said, the Canucks are going to have to draft another quality centre at some point here in their rebuild if they want to get back to being competitive again. But that might not happen in the 2026 Entry Draft. The Canucks are projected to draft near the top, but the top three prospects in this draft class are two wingers (Gavin McKenna and Ivar Stenberg) and a defender (Keaton Verhoeff).

Let’s imagine a scenario in which the Canucks land one of the wingers. One of the best ways to ensure that a budding superstar winger has a positive first experience in the NHL is to attach them to a quality centre.

That’s not a job the team can leave to the oft-injured Marco Rossi, or to the still-rookie Braeden Cootes. But it is a job that the exceptionally-defensively-responsible Pettersson might be perfect for. With all his warts, Pettersson is still a better centre than most lottery picks get to play with in their first few seasons. And if that adds up to a stronger and quicker development for that player – and for other young Vancouver forwards, too – well, that’s a vitally important component of the rebuild.

If we could crystallize our argument, it’d sound like this: a Pettersson trade in the present moment is unlikely to yield any truly difference-making assets. And with that in mind, the difference Pettersson can potentially make as an insulator to the incoming youth movement is probably worth holding onto.

For now, the potential benefits of keeping Pettersson outweigh the potential benefits of a trade. Until someone makes an offer contrary to that, Canucks management might be taking calls on Pettersson, but they’re probably not making any actual deals.