It took until the first period of the fourth game before Vancouver Canucks center Elias Pettersson finally put the puck past a goaltender.
The problem is, it was his own goaltender.
At 4:29 of the opening period in Thursday’s game at Dallas, Stars winger Mavrik Bourque fired a pass toward Radek Faksa in front of the goal, but Pettersson, reaching back to disrupt the play, instead deflected the puck past Thatcher Demko. And that moment encapsulated what has been a rough start to the season for the 26-year-old Swede.
‘That’s Very Harsh:’ Jannik Hansen Offers Scathing Take on Elias Petterson’s Start
In four games, Pettersson has just two assists, and perhaps most alarming, he has generated only four shots on goal. That does not bode well for a Vancouver team hopeful of making the playoffs for the second time in three seasons, after earning just one postseason berth in the eight seasons prior. During an appearance Tuesday on “The People’s Show” on Sportsnet 650, former Canucks forward Jannik Hansen stressed that the team will go only as far as Pettersson is able to take them.
“If you’re looking at it from purely a perspective of, ‘Are the Canucks going to get into the playoffs?’ If that’s the question you are posing to me, then I don’t need to look at [other things], I squarely look at No. 40,” Hansen said. “Can he will this team anywhere? Because without a No. 1 center, you’re not getting there. It’s that simple.”
Unfortunately, Hansen said at this stage, Vancouver does not appear to have a No. 1 center.
“And that’s very harsh because it’s only three games in (now four) and I started out [the segment] by saying, ‘Why are we doing this already?’” Hansen said. “But the sample size we have from last year, the year prior, it’s more of the same right now. And that’s the part that’s a little bit worrying.”
TSN Hockey Analysts Voice Concerns Over Continuing Struggles of Elias Pettersson
TSN Hockey analysts Jamie McLennan and Frankie Corrado agree. As part of a “Something or Nothing” segment for Domino’s “That’s Hockey,” both stated that Pettersson’s start to the season is definitely something … and not the good kind.
“Everyone’s saying, ‘When is Pettersson going to show up and be a difference maker?’” McLennan said. “He’s been somewhat invisible in the first [four] games. He needs to be a lot better.”
It’s particularly worrying coming on the heels of a 2024-25 season during which Pettersson scored just 45 points (15 goals, 30 assists) in 64 games. This after signing an eight-year, $92.8 million contract extension with the Canucks on March 2, 2024.
“This is a long runway now of Elias Pettersson not playing up to his contract,” said Corrado. “This is a guy who makes $11.6 million, and now the question in Vancouver becomes, ‘Who can we put with him to get him going?’ For a guy that makes that much money, the question should be the other way around: Who can I put Elias Pettersson with to get them going? But now, they’re looking down at a situation where, do you put Evander Kane and Connor Garland on the same line as Elias Pettersson to drag him into the fight a little bit more? It’s concerning that they would be asking those questions about a guy who makes so much money and is the top centerman on a team that is quite thin down the middle of the ice.”
And with 78 games remaining, it could be a long, cold winter for Canucks fans.
“Without a No. 1, a true No. 1 center, you’re just not getting in [the playoffs],” Hansen said. “So you can look at Petey and say, ‘Can Petey pull this team in the direction it needs to?’ We’ll have enough depth scoring, we’ll have enough penalty killing attributes, hopefully the power play can click, hopefully [Jake] DeBrusk and [Brock] Boeser will score their 25-30 goals each, then that should be enough to get Vancouver there, if they have a No. 1 center.”
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