If he did say trade me now I think Petterson would be in there

No chance, VAN wouldn't do Pettersson for Bedard 1 for 1. Look at what Lindros got, it was almost all futures,Bedard would get a similar package. I think the haul for Chicago would be Podkolzin, Raty, Lekkerimaki, Hronek, Myers, Rathbone and VAN's next 3 1st round picks including the 11th overall this year.

Vancouver would jump at Pettersson for Bedard so fast it'd make your head spin.

No they wouldn't. While it's very likely he will be beyond amazing, no prospect is a sure thing whereas Pettersson is a 40 goal, 100 point center who elevates his game when the team needs him most and plays elite defense. VAN would trade anyone on the roster for Bedard except EP40, he's a top 5 player in the league.

You don't trade top end pieces for draft picks, that never happens in the NHL bro

An actual Bedard trade would probably be that Chicago gets to choose any 3-5 players/assets of their choice from Vancouver, and Vancouver is happy to do it because there are no 5 players or assets that are worth more than the overall value of a generational player who might be the face of the league. Look at the amount of season tickets Chicago sold since drafting Bedard.

So it would take 11th overall, Pettersson, Hughes, etc - then Chicago probably flips those star players for picks and prospects. You can't really do a Lindros trade in 2023 because of the way the salary cap works, but a team like Chicago or Arizona who are blatantly tanking could do something closer to the Herschel Walker trade where they trade for a bunch of assets and convert those into picks. Only in the case of this version, it would be through third party trades, not through exercising trade conditions.

That's like saying in 2015, Philadelphia wouldn't trade Claude Giroux for McDavid.

Bedard is pegged to be the next face of the league. Even if you can argue that a package around Hughes, Pettersson, and multiple 1st round picks would put Vancouver behind when it comes to building a team on the ice, they would still jump on that because the off ice benefits alone more than make up for it.

If Bedard was actually made available, Chicago could send out a memo to the entire league that says our price is our choice of any 5 players/picks/prospects, and you have to take back any contracts we feel are necessary to make it work. They would have multiple teams lined up to take them up on that.

That's excessive, not even McDavid would get that kind of a return. Teams don't trade the upper echelon of players for picks and until Bedard proves himself no one would trade a top tier talent for him. It would 100% be a quantity return with a bunch of futures.

Vancouver does EP for Bedard in a second. That's ridiculous.

Really don't know what they were buying tickets for, Chicago is still going to be horrible next season, it'll be at least a few, likely several years before they are relevant again. Poor kid is going to rot in the windy city, Chicago should have gotten Mitchkov, they above all could have waited.