Surprising Eastern Conference Team Revealed As Favourite To Land Elias Pettersson Per Elliotte Friedman

While the Carolina Hurricanes landed Mikko Rantanen on Friday, it was then revealed by a top Vancouver Canucks reporter that they almost had a deal in place for Elias Petterson before pivoting to the former Colorado Avalanche star.

That report follows rumblings in recent days that Pettersson is now the preferred trade option for Vancouver instead of J.T. Miller, who the team are reportedly getting low-ball offers for given the entire situation surrounding the 31-year old and the team.

Now, Elliotte Friedman has followed up on that, noting that he expected it to be Pettersson traded to Carolina on Friday, and while a deal didn't get done, there's still interest in him, namely from the Buffalo Sabres.

While the NHL's top insider didn't reveal how close a trade is with Buffalo and didn't mention some of the pieces that could come back in a deal, the fact that they are mentioned first here is significant, and could lead to a deal.

With young names such as Dylan Cozens, Bowen Byram, Owen Power and even veterans like Alex Tuch, this is a team that may need to give away some of those young names if they want to land a superstar like EP40.

There's still a long time to go until the March 7th trade deadline, and there's chances for teams like New York, Boston, Dallas and even Utah to swoop in and make a deal happen, but as of right now, it's the Buffalo Sabres looking to add a genuine star to that lineup that appear to be the favourites for the 26-year old star.