What Canucks must take back from Penguins for Elias Pettersson is revealed by NHL insider
Photo credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
Pittsburgh's asking price in an Elias Pettersson trade is being framed as a burden Vancouver must swallow.
The math says the opposite.
Frank Seravalli said on Canucks Central that Pittsburgh has surfaced as a suitor, and that any framework starts with Vancouver taking on Ryan Graves, one more player and a pick.
Re Elias Pettersson/Canucks: "Pittsburgh was recently mentioned; the way that the Penguins have approached that situation with...other guys that have popped up...you've gotta take on Ryan Graves...one other player; add in a pick."
- Frank Seravalli
- Frank Seravalli
Graves signed a six-year, $27 million contract with Pittsburgh on July 1, 2023, carrying a $4.5 million cap hit through 2028-29.
Twelve million of that total is signing bonus money.
That structure is the entire story. Buyouts pay a fraction of remaining base salary and never touch signing bonuses, which makes Graves effectively unbuyoutable.
Graves is not the tax, he is the reason
Kyle Dubas has no cheap way out. Graves was waived twice last season and spent stretches with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and a buyout would still cost real money for nothing.
A trade is the only clean escape. That inverts the leverage - Pittsburgh is buying a service from Vancouver, not asking Vancouver for a favour.
Ryan Johnson runs a team that finished 25-49-8, last in the league, with cap space and no reason to spend it.
Absorbing dead money is the one thing a rebuilding club can sell at a premium.
The clause everybody skipped
Graves's protection converts from a 12-team no-trade list to an eight-team no-trade list beginning in 2026-27.
He gets to name eight destinations he can refuse.
Vancouver, coming off the Quinn Hughes teardown and now stocked with Zeev Buium and Marco Rossi, is exactly the kind of place a veteran defenceman lists.
If Graves puts the Canucks on it, Pittsburgh's preferred framework dies before Johnson answers the phone.
So the question is not whether Vancouver should reject a Graves-inclusive deal. It is what Vancouver should charge, and whether Graves will let anyone charge it at all.
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