A report has the Senators shopping first-round picks, and a tidy fit would send Vancouver's Elias Pettersson or Brock Boeser back the other way.
The word out of Ottawa is that Steve Staios is actively shopping the No. 9 and No. 25 selections ahead of Friday's draft, with lots of interest.
The directional logic is clean. Ottawa wants NHL players after Staios vowed to actively improve the roster. Vancouver is rebuilding and wants futures. Picks for a player suits both sides.
Look at where the Canucks sit. They finished 32nd, dead last, deep in a teardown. Turning a veteran into a high first-round pick is exactly how you restock the cupboard.
The candidates are right there. Pettersson is 27 on an $11.6M deal with 51 points. Boeser is 29 at $7.25M with 48. Two scorers a contender could use.
A fan has already connected the dots.
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Why Boeser might fit Ottawa better than Pettersson
Tyson Cole tagged the Canucks on the pick-shopping report, floating Vancouver as a landing spot. That's a fan nudge, not a sign the two sides are talking.
But play it out, because the money tells the story. Ottawa just freed cap space by moving Brady Tkachuk's $8.2M, and Boeser slots almost perfectly into that opening.
Pettersson is the harder math. Taking on $11.6M would swallow the room Staios just cleared, and Pierre LeBrun has said the Canucks aren't even sure they can move him given his contract.
So the cleaner version sends Boeser east. A scoring winger at a manageable number, exactly the kind of add Ottawa can absorb without undoing the Tkachuk savings.
Then there's the price tag on the pick. The No. 9 is premium ammunition, the No. 25 less so, and which player goes back likely decides which selection Vancouver lands.
For a rebuilding Canucks group, this is smart business. Flipping a high-priced star or a veteran winger for a first-rounder turns a present-tense headache into a future asset, which is the whole point of a teardown.
So the pieces line up on paper. Ottawa is hunting players, Vancouver is hunting picks.
Whether Staios and the Canucks actually pick up the phone before Friday is the part still unwritten.
Should Vancouver trade Pettersson or Boeser to Ottawa for a first-round pick?
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