Sabres showing interest in Canucks’ Elias Pettersson

Well, it’s safe to say trade rumours involving the Vancouver Canucks aren’t going away anytime soon.

One day removed from the blockbuster three-team trade that shook the NHL on Friday night and saw star winger Mikko Rantanen sent from the Colorado Avalanche to the Carolina Hurricanes, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman had some new details to drop during his Saturday Headlines segment on Hockey Night in Canada.

“There was a time yesterday when I thought (Elias) Pettersson was going to be a Carolina Hurricane. Obviously, it didn’t happen,” said Friedman.

As Friedman wrote on Friday night, before acquiring Rantanen from Colorado and Taylor Hall from the Chicago Blackhawks, the Hurricanes had discussed separate trades for Pettersson or J.T. Miller with Vancouver. Friedman added that he believed Martin Necas would have been involved in a Pettersson deal, but not a Miller one.

Necas, of course, ended up being sent to Colorado, along with Jack Drury, as part of the exchange for Rantanen.

So, with the Hurricanes likely now out of the equation, is there a new team that becomes the favourite to potentially land Pettersson — if the Canucks do indeed deal him?

“I think those talks continue, and I believe that one of the teams that has really shown a lot of interest is Buffalo,” Friedman added on Saturday. “There are others, but the Sabres are definitely in there.”

This comes after the Sabres and Canucks had been rumoured to be in talks earlier this season. Back in December, Friedman talked about the two teams during an appearance on CHEK’s Donnie & Dhali show and threw out Bowen Byram and Dyan Cozens as two players the Canucks could be interested in.

“Do I think the Canucks have talked to Buffalo? Yeah, I do. Do I think the Sabres have talked to the Canucks? Yes, I do,” said Friedman. “Do I think that’s the exact combination that they’ve talked about? No, I don’t know that.”

He later added, “I could see Vancouver being interested in those players, and I could see Buffalo being interested in Pettersson.”

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