Which teams could take on the Elias Pettersson reclamation project?

Elias Pettersson’s future with the Vancouver Canucks appeared secured when he signed an eight-year, $92.8 million contract, which began in the 2024-25 season. Yet, his production has struggled on a poor-performing team, and just two years on, he seems unlikely to see out the full term of that deal. 

If the Canucks and Pettersson were to go their separate ways, which teams across the league could be in the cards for the Swedish center? On a recent episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, co-hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton broke down what those options could be, potentially as soon as the start of the 2026-27 NHL regular season. 

Tyler Yaremchuk: We’ve talked about the Detroit Red Wings, where  you have top six minutes for Elias Pettersson, and that’s a way for Steve Yzerman to try to fill a pretty big gap in his lineup. Anywhere else that you would think is a good spot for Elias Pettersson?

Carter Hutton: The San Jose Sharks, I think that’s another option too, because they have so much cap space and there’s so much room where maybe he becomes a reclamation project if he doesn’t stay in Vancouver. My initial thought is he stays in Vancouver because of the change, and they give him a little bit of a leash and see what he can do this year, if he can have a bounce back, but other than that, it’s going to be a team that can take a risk and kind of move forward, depending on what the number is that’s retained and where it’s at, because right now at that cap it, I don’t think anyone wants to touch him with his production over the last few years. 

You can catch the full discussion and the rest of the recent episode here.