Trade involving Canucks' Elias Pettersson falls apart.

A trade involving Vancouver Canucks star forward Elias Pettersson fell apart on Friday and by the sounds of things it was a trade that came right down to the wire before eventually failing to cross the finish line.

On Saturday night, National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman revealed that that Canucks had held discussions with the Carolina Hurricanes about dealing away Pettersson just 1 year into the 8 year deal they signed him to less than one year ago. The most surprising portion of Friedman's comments however was when he described just how close this trade had come to becoming a reality.

"There was a time yesterday I thought Pettersson was gonna be a Carolina Hurricane," said Friedman on Hockey Night in Canada.

There have been talks that the Canucks have discussed the possibility of trading both Pettersson and star forward J.T. Miller, but in recent weeks it appeared as though Miller was the more likely of the two candidates to be traded. This would appear to indicate that is in fact not the case, especially not with Friedman indicating that the talks around Pettersson are still ongoing.

"I think those talks continue," said Friedman. "I believe that one of the teams that has really shown a lot of interest is Buffalo, there are others but Buffalo is definitely in there."

Friedman was asked by co-host Ron MacLean if there was any possibility that Miller would have been the player on the move in the trade that never was with the Hurricanes, but the insider confirmed without a doubt that Pettersson would have indeed been the man on his way out of Vancouver had the trade materialized.

"Yesterday if they were gonna make the deal it was gonna be Pettersson," said Friedman on Saturday night.

The Hurricanes would of course go on to acquire star forward Mikko Rantanen in a trade with the Colorado Avalanche so they are likely off the table as a potential trade partner for Pettersson, however it will be interesting to see if the Canucks can pull off what would be a massive in season trade with a different dance partner.