The Vancouver Canucks wouldn’t be the first folks to call a cousin to get them out of a tight jam. But this isn’t My Cousin Vinny; it’s My Expansion Cousin Buffalo, and we’re not talking about a legal conundrum; we’re talking about the ongoing trade drama.

The Canucks have been at the centre of a maelstrom of rumours and speculation for much of the 2024/25 season, and yet they’ve made only three trades on the year thus far: the one sending Vasily Podkolzin to Edmonton, the swap of Tucker Poolman’s contract for Erik Brännström, and the dumping of Daniel Sprong for future consideration.

It’s darn near February, and both JT Miller and Elias Pettersson are still Canucks. So, what gives? Was the speculation bogus from the jump? Or has the right deal just not materialized yet?

The loudest voices in media would have you believe it’s the latter.

And the name everyone seemed to be talking about in conjunction with Vancouver this past weekend was Buffalo. In discussing a deal between the Canucks and Carolina Hurricanes involving Pettersson that reportedly fell through, Elliotte Friedman said, “I think those talks continue, and I believe that one of the teams that has really shown a lot of interest is Buffalo. There are others, but the Sabres are definitely in there.”

So, let’s take him at his word there and assume both that Pettersson is still ‘on the table,’ so to speak, and that the Sabres are ‘in there.’ What does ‘in there’ look like?

In this case, it’s actually pretty easy to put together some basic packages because the Sabres don’t exactly have a roster that is bursting with shopping options. There are those untouchable pieces, like every franchise possesses. We’re talking most Rasmus Dahlin in this instance. And then there are those pieces that wouldn’t move the needle in a trade of this magnitude simply because they don’t offer anything the Canucks don’t already have.

That really only leaves a handful of compelling players with which to start putting together packages, which is what we’ve done here today. If negotiations between Vancouver and Buffalo are indeed ongoing and do indeed involve Pettersson, this is what we imagine the baseline of those discussions to be.

The last time their were rumours involving Pettersson to Buffalo, they were attached to an explicit two-player package, and so that’s where we’ll begin our own speculation.

The fit-to-need is pretty obvious here. Bowen Byram, already at a career-high 18 assists through 49 games on the 2024/25 season, would be that puck-moving defender the Canucks have been looking for. Dylan Cozens, meanwhile, scored 31 goals just two seasons ago and would replace some of the centre depth lost in dealing Pettersson. Cozens is still just 23 years old.

All in all, it’s not a bad start. But even amid a struggle of a season, Pettersson has seven more points than Cozens in the same amount of games. And Byram might not quite cover the gap in value between the two centres.

The general reaction from Canucks fans the last time this offer made the rounds was a polite ‘thanks, but no thanks,’ and we tend to agree that the Sabres would need to boost the value significantly in order to convince Vancouver to actually part with Pettersson.

From where we’re sitting, they can upgrade the offer by either attaching one of their considerable number of intriguing ‘sweeteners’ – covered later in the article – or by swapping one of Byram or Cozens out for a superior piece.

Let’s say the Canucks like what they see in Cozens but would prefer a stronger defensive option than Byram in the trade. That’s where former 1OA Owen Power might reasonably enter the picture.

It’s been an uneven path to stardom for Power, now on his third full NHL season. But no one can deny the skill, the skating ability, or the size at 6’6” and 225 pounds. Still just 22, Power is pacing for career numbers this season and playing an average of 22:20. Call him someone who is clearly a top-four puck-moving defender already and who has plenty of potential to be even more than that.

Power only theoretically becomes available because Buffalo already has Dahlin in place, allowing them to deal from a position of strength to shore up their weakness at centre. The Canucks, meanwhile, might walk away with the best 1-2 punch at LHD in the league by combining Power with Quinn Hughes.

Okay, same scenario as above, but this time it’s Byram that the Canucks want to keep and Cozens they want to swap out. That gets a little trickier.

The only better centre that the Sabres might be able to offer is Tage Thompson. And there is plenty to like in Thompson. He’s also 6’6” and 220 pounds, and he’s just two years separated from a 47-goal, 94-point season.

Unfortunately, Thompson has also been operating at less than a point per game ever since. In many ways, Thompson’s current trajectory mirrors Pettersson’s own quite closely. Is the fact that Pettersson is younger and has a slightly longer track record of success enough to convince Buffalo to not only make the swap, but add a piece as significant as Byram on top?

If so, we have to imagine the Canucks would at least take a good, long listen.

As we move the pieces around the board, we’ll note a few other prominent names that could enter discussions.

If the Sabres have one ‘untouchable’ name, it’s Dahlin. If they have two, we suspect the second in line might be Alex Tuch. He’s a hometown kid who reportedly loves being a Sabre and – stop us where you’ve heard this timeline before – he’s just two years separated from a career year of 36 goals and 79 points. He’s also one of the few classical power forwards left in the game.

He’s also not having a terrible season right now at 16 goals and 35 points across 49 games.

All of which might add up to the Sabres not wanting to include Tuch in a deal. Then again, if the Canucks are the ones dealing the 1C here, it stands to reason that they can be as demanding as they want. It’d have to be Tuch plus something else worth talking about, like a Byram.

It’s probably a good thing that the Canucks are most interested in a puck-moving blueliner. Because the Sabres don’t have a lot to offer on the other end of the spectrum.

The best defensive defender who might enter discussions is Mattias Samuelsson, a 24-year-old D with size and physicality.

His value would be a fair bit less than that of Byram or Power, which would, in turn, demand the second piece in the deal be even bigger. It’s one of Cozens, Thompson, or Tuch, and probably then some. In reality, it’s probably better for the Canucks to focus on one of the other blueliners at play here.

Since there wasn’t a convenient way to fit this information into the headings above, please accept instead a chart with the ages and contracts of all players mentioned thus far, with the information courtesy of our friends at PuckPedia:

If the two-player packages offered don’t quite measure up to what the Canucks are looking for, they could always insist on an additional sweetener or two being included. And on that front, the Sabres certainly have more intriguing pieces to consider than the average team, including:

Zach Benson- Who might be a bit misplaced here and could reasonably be another ‘untouchable.’ The undersized winger from Chilliwack stepped straight from the draft into the NHL, and while he’s having a bit of a tough sophomore campaign, Buffalo still has big future hopes for him. Benson would be very difficult to get them to include and would probably be less a sweetener and more a main piece/

Jiri Kulich- The same might be said of Kulich, who currently has up nine goals in 35 games as an NHL rookie. The Czech winger, who scored 27 goals in 57 AHL contests last year, is a genuine sniper with good NHL size and drive. He’s probably also out of the sweetener range, value-wise.

JJ Peterka- Gosh, the Sabres have a lot of young wingers. Peterka is the most established, and he’s pacing to match last year’s total of about 50 points in this, his third campaign. The 28 goals he got last year were a bit of a mirage, but Peterka still has a long future as a top-six forward ahead of him.

Jack Quinn- This is the most detachable of the young wingers. Quinn has yet to really pop at the NHL level despite plenty of potential, and injuries have definitely derailed his development. But the former eighth overall pick still has ample upside, as evidenced by his 19 points in just 27 games last year. He’s a lot more than just a throw-in here.

Konsta Helenius- He’s a well-rounded two-way winger drafted at 14^th overall in this past draft. If the Canucks wanted a sweetener on the younger side of things, Helenius is the best the Sabres could currently offer, and he’s not too shabby at all.

Noah Ostlund- Continuing and concluding the tour of Sabres forward youth, though we could go longer, we hit Ostlund. He’s a centre, which ups his value, and he has a strong defensive reputation already at his young age. Ostlund is currently in his rookie pro season in Rochester.

Devon Levi- We’d be remiss if we didn’t also mention top goaltending prospect Levi. He didn’t claim the Buffalo net early like some hoped he would and would now seem to be somewhat stuck behind Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. If the Canucks were no longer sold on Arturs Silovs as their goalie of the future, they could grab a pretty good alternative in Levi here.

Picks- The Sabres are, of course, flush with picks on top of their prospects. They’ve got all their own selections from here on out and a couple of extra ones here and there, too.