The Buffalo Sabres have emerged as leading contenders to land Vancouver Canucks star Elias Pettersson in a trade partnership nobody saw coming. According to NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, reporting the news during Sportsnet's "Saturday Headlines" segment, the Sabres are a serious contender to get Pettersson.

Just a handful of days after Flyers’ general manager Daniel Briere said, “The reality is, there’s not a lot of high-end centermen in this league. And teams have them, they want to keep them, or the price is crazy,

The dust is still settling around the NHL following a massive blockbuster deal between the Carolina Hurricanes, Colorado Avalanche, and the Chicago Blackhawks.

When Mikko Rantanen was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes, it surprised many, including myself. We knew that the Colorado Avalanche and Rantanen were having difficulty finding common ground for a contract extension.

But with discussions for Miller not seemingly going well, it appears that teams are still calling about Pettersson.

NHL insider Elliotte Friedman revealed during Sportsnet's "Saturday Headlines" segment that the Canucks were in fact close to trading star forward Elias Pettersson to the Hurricanes. “There was a time (Friday) I thought that Pettersson was going to be a Carolina Hurricane,” Friedman said. “Obviously, it didn’t happen.

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.

WIth drama continuing to build, the Vancouver Canucks may pivot back to Elias Pettersson as the key trade piece.

Typically, when an NHL team has the luxury of counting on two 100-point players in its lineup, things go the right way. In Vancouver, the opposite is happening right now. The situation surrounding Elias Pettersson and J.