Vancouver Canucks president Jim Rutherford recently gave one of his highest-paid players a ringing endorsement.<\/p>\n
That player wasn\u2019t Elias Pettersson.<\/p>\n
In fact, Rutherford suggested that a Pettersson trade could be possible<\/a> if the offer is right.<\/p>\n Well, one Eastern Conference team is reportedly very interested in acquiring the Canucks highest-paid player.<\/p>\n Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen recently reported<\/a> that the Detroit Red Wings have been \u201caggressive in their pursuit\u201d of Pettersson.<\/p>\n Of course, there\u2019s an interesting history of recent activity between the Red Wings and Canucks.<\/p>\n Both teams struck one of the biggest trades of 2023, when Vancouver acquired defenceman Filip Hronek from Detroit.<\/p>\n They were also one of the teams that were in on Quinn Hughes<\/a>, although they didn\u2019t want to match the offer from the Minnesota Wild that was eventually accepted.<\/p>\n And during the last few days, the Red Wings were the team that offered an attractive enough return<\/a> for Tyler Myers, prompting Vancouver\u2019s request to ask the defenceman to waive his no-trade clause.<\/p>\n But swinging a deal for Pettersson would be on another level.<\/p>\n While there seems to be an open-mindedness from the Canucks to consider dealing him, the fact that he has a bloated $11.6 million cap hit appears to be a stumbling block.<\/a><\/p>\n And although teams reportedly want the Canucks to retain, Detroit is one of the few teams that could swallow his entire cap hit.<\/p>\n The Red Wings currently have $12.78 million in projected cap space, according to PuckPedia, which is the most in the NHL.<\/p>\n They also have a need to acquire a second-line centre behind Dylan Larkin. The rest of their centres are either too young (Marco Kasper, Nate Danielson) or not true No. 2 centres (Andrew Copp, J.T. Compher, Michael Rasmussen). With the Red Wings on the verge of snapping a nine-year playoff drought, perhaps there\u2019s a thirst for more than just getting into the postseason.<\/p>\n