Blockbuster trade proposed for Elias Pettersson.

A National Hockey League insider has proposed a true blockbuster trade deal on Monday morning, one that will surely get a lot of fans talking one way or another.

During the most recent episode of his podcast, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman proposed a monster of a trade between the Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks, one that would see Canucks star forward Elias Pettersson on the move to a new city.

"I had some time on Sunday to think and I was thinking about the Sabres and I was thinking about Rick Tocchet and what he had to say on Saturday and reiterated on Sunday," said Friedman on the 32 Thoughts podcast. "I want to stress this is purely in my head, who says no? [Dylan] Cozens and [Byram] Bowen for Pettersson."

Friedman's thoughts about this trade seem to stem largely from the criticism the Canucks players faced over the weekend from both president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford and head coach Rick Tocchet following the conclusion of Saturday's lopsided 5-1 loss to the Boston Bruins. Criticism that Rick Tocchet doubled down on in a big way on Sunday, clearly indicating he was not happy with the effort from some of his players.

That being said Friedman did acknowledge that the Canucks would be  the team most likely to balk at such a deal given the fact that they would be giving up the best player in the trade.

"If that was proposed I think that Vancouver is more likely to say no than Buffalo," admitted Friedman.

Interestingly enough the dollars would be pretty close here despite the Sabres moving one extra player. Pettersson of course has a massive cap hit of $11.6 million per season and is currently in year 1 of an 8 year deal he signed with the Canucks, but Cozens comes in at $7.1 million himself in year 2 of a 7 year deal signed with the Sabres while Byram comes in at $3.85 million in year 2 of a 2 year deal he signed as a member of the Colorado Avalanche. The Canucks would actually gain a little cap space in this deal with Cozens and Byram coming in slightly lower at a combined cap hit of $10.95 million, but Byram would need a new contract at the end of the season.

A trade of this magnitude would represent a seismic shift for both the Vancouver Canucks and the Buffalo Sabres and with both teams looking for avenues to improve their fortunes it may just be the kind of move that both sides would give some genuine thought to making.

Would you make this trade if you were the Canucks? Would you do it from the Sabres side of the equation? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.