This appears to not have been a viable rumor/report as Pacioretty has been dealt to Carolina. Preds are still on the market, as are the targets they have been most closely linked to over the last few weeks.
Ek has reported via Kevin Allen that the Preds are to acquire Max Pacioretty from Vegas. I haven't seen or heard this anywhere else as of now.
This would mean that a trade occurred as Pacioretty has one year left on his current deal at $7m. Teams keep bailing Vegas out of their cap troubles, so hopefully the Preds got something special out of this. This was definitely not a player that was on my radar to acquire and it would mean the Preds are likely done for the most part as this would take a large chunk out of their remaining cap space. He's a solid player, but I am not sure he's the needle mover that the Preds needed in their top six.
But it's nothing but speculation at this point and we can dive deeper assessing the trade, etc. if it does end up coming to fruition.