Trade suitor makes bold prediction for Elias Pettersson's next season

Elias Pettersson is drawing trade buzz again, and one team believes it can turn the Vancouver Canucks forward back into an 80-point scorer.

Rick Dhaliwal dropped that update Wednesday night, and it spread fast across hockey circles within minutes.

Rick Dhaliwal: Re Elias Pettersson/Canucks: One team told me, we think we can get him back to 80, 82, 83 points.

Pettersson has put up 51 points in 74 games this season, with 15 goals and 36 assists.

He's gone minus-30 on the year, and the production has cooled hard down the stretch. Just six points in his last 10 games, with zero goals.

Pettersson carries an $11,600,000 cap hit, the eighth-highest in the entire NHL. That number alone makes any trade complicated to pull off.

Vancouver sits dead last in the NHL at 25-49-8, ranked 32nd overall with a minus-100 goal differential.

Shopping an $11.6-million piece on a last-place team is like selling a sports car with the check-engine light on. Buyers still show up, but they want a discount.

Why Pettersson's minus-30 season hasn't scared off suitors

Manny Malhotra is running the bench now, hired back on June 1 to try to steady a group that's lost its footing.

Over his last five games, Pettersson has zero goals and three assists. Not the pace that convinces a suitor to pay full freight.

So why would a team still call about a forward on this kind of slide?

Because the tools are still there. He's got 4 power-play goals and 18 power-play assists this season, more setup ability than most names floating on the market.

Whether Vancouver actually moves him before another rebuild summer stays unclear. For now, it's a name out there, and teams are watching.