Canucks making progress on extension with veteran forward, former first-round pick

According to Frank Seravalli of The Daily Faceoff, the Vancouver Canucks and forward Elias Pettersson are making progress on a contract extension that would keep Pettersson in British Columbia for the next eight seasons, and it could be announced within the next several days. This marks a significant change in attitude from Pettersson, who appeared adamant about not wanting to discuss an extension with the Canucks during the season.

It will be interesting to see the eventual dollar amount that Vancouver will give to Pettersson on this new contract. Heading into the offseason, the Canucks will have approximately $35.74M available to them in cap space, with a total of nine players set to become unrestricted free agents, and another two set for restricted free agency, including Pettersson. Comparing Pettersson’s production and recent contracts given out to similar players, Pettersson could earn anywhere between $11M-$13M on this new deal.

Over the last two years, Pettersson has taken his production to another level, scoring 68 goals and 177 points in his last 141 games in Vancouver. Currently sitting 10th in the league in scoring on a team contending for the President’s Trophy, there is every reason to believe that Pettersson will finish much higher than 18th in Hart Trophy voting like he did last season.

Unfortunately, with the Canucks being tight to the cap ceiling even with the salary cap set to increase to $87.7M next year, this likely means that Vancouver will be unable to extend recently acquired Elias Lindholm to a new deal. With Lindholm reportedly seeking an AAV of $9M on his next contract, it would be rare to see a team sign their first- and second-highest-paid forward in the same offseason.

Nevertheless, this will set the Canucks core in place for the long haul, with the trio of Pettersson, J.T. Miller, and Quinn Hughes locked up until at least the 2026-27 season. Now that everything is clicking in Vancouver, the Canucks will now be able to reallocate money to supplement their core for the future.