Canucks set embarrassingly low asking price for Elias Pettersson trade.

The Vancouver Canucks may have reached a breaking point when it comes to what once looked like what would be their franchise superstar. Canucks star forward Elias Pettersson has looked like a shell of his former self the past two seasons, seasons 2 and 3 of the 8 year contract he signed with the Canucks for $11.6 million per season, and it sounds like the Canucks may have finally seen enough.

It now sounds like the Canucks are prepared to accept a minimal return in a trade for Petersson with the price of doing business with the Canucks on this trade just a low level prospect. That information comes courtesy of Canucks insider Thomas Drance who reported this past week that the Canucks are looking for something that resembles the recent trade involving veteran Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse. The Oilers only received prospects Shakir Mukhamadullin and Zack Sharp in that deal, Mukhamadullin was signed to a 2 year deal at an AAV of $1.75 million per season while Sharp remains unsigned, very little return for a player as established as Nurse.

The catch in that deal is that the Oilers did not have to retain any of Nurse's salary, which wasn't an issue for the Sharks who had plenty of cap space to spare, and the Canucks will be looking to unload Petersson's full contract as well.

That would be an incredibly low return for a player of Pettersson's status but given his current reputation around the National Hockey League it may have to be what the Canucks settle for, if they can even find a team willing to take on Pettersson's contract despite the low acquisition cost. According to Drance, the Canucks preference would be to trade Pettersson if a trade of this nature were to present itself, which means that no teams have been willing to give up so much as a low level prospect in order to acquire Pettersson.

This may be a new rock bottom for the once promising EP40.