Early rumblings of an Elias Pettersson trade in Vancouver.

Are the Vancouver Canucks on the verge of trading away yet another star forward in season?

Where there's smoke there's fire is how the old saying goes and, although no one can spot a fire just yet, there does appear to be an ever increasing amount of smoke around Vancouver Canucks star forward Elias Pettersson. So much so in fact that Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News is openly stating as much on Saturday morning.

Earlier this week National Hockey League insider Darren Dreger also indicated that he feels Pettersson's time in Vancouver may be quickly coming to a close.

"His time in Vancouver has to be running out," said Dreger.

And it would seem that some recent decisions on the part of the Canucks organization are only serving to add even more fuel to the fire, with the Canucks canceling both their practice on Friday and their morning skate on Saturday ahead of a big game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Hockey Night in Canada. 

When Rosner was asked if he felt a trade was coming, he pointed to these exact factors to suggest that, at least in his opinion, it seems to definitely be a possibility.

The question of course would be what teams could even make a trade of this magnitude happen during the normal course of a season? There has been plenty of talk around the Buffalo Sabres and forward Dylan Cozens as well in recent weeks, but nothing has materialized on that front either as of yet.

Could we really see the Canucks pull off a second trade of this magnitude after already shipping star forward J.T. Miller off to the New York Rangers? One thing seems certain, it would appear that whatever issue occurred behind the scenes between Miller and Pettersson has definitely soured the organization's opinion of both players considerably.