The noise around Vancouver Canucks centre Elias Pettersson is reaching something of a fever pitch. It’s clear he’s aware of it, and equally clear he has no real desire to discuss it with the media.
“You can look at the stats and say I stink,” Pettersson said to a scrum of reporters following Canucks practice on Wednesday, “but I feel like I’ve been better.”
It wasn’t a lot, but it was more than Pettersson was willing to discuss with The Athletic when we asked him how he felt about his game and what he was doing to work through it in Chicago earlier this week. It’s both fair and understandable that he doesn’t particularly want to analyze the matter publicly, but it’s a conversation that isn’t going to end on its own.
Only his performance can put it to bed.
Because, as Pettersson noted Wednesday, the statistical record really is stark. And the fact that it’s impossible to really make sense of, given his Hall of Fame level production in his first 400 NHL games, only adds an air of mystery and interest to the funk he’s in.
Including the club’s 13-game run in the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs, Pettersson has gone over 30 games without scoring a five-on-five goal, a stretch that extends back to early March.
Pettersson, a better-than-point-per-game player throughout his career, has recorded 34 points across his last 53 games dating back to the All-Star break. That’s a 53-point-per-82-game pace, which doesn’t stink particularly, but it’s an uncharacteristically pedestrian haul for a gifted offensive forward like Pettersson, who has never produced fewer than 66 points in a full NHL season in his career.
“It’s getting better,” Pettersson said earlier this week in Chicago. “I’m just trying to be the best player I can be every game. Some games go better, some games don’t. Whatever happens, I’ll always try to be the best player I can be every game.”
It is true that, at the very least, Pettersson’s new line with Nils Höglander and Conor Garland was consistently dangerous over the past week. Internally, the club feels like he’s taken some baby steps toward improving, a sentiment his linemates echoed in Chicago.
“I think Petey is finding his game, it takes time,” Garland said. “I’ve had starts to the season where you just can’t find your game no matter what, you start to press and it takes longer, but I don’t think he’s pressing. He’s just playing his game. He’s looked good up the middle, holding onto the puck, making plays, good defensively — especially in the third period (in Philadelphia) he was really good defensively.”
It also seems like we should view Pettersson’s slow start as being distinct from what we saw down the stretch and into the playoffs last season. Not to lower the bar here, but Pettersson’s shot attempt rate has rebounded and he’s drawing penalties at his normal rate, a good sign that he’s beating defenders and getting inside his check with more frequency.
Now if Pettersson can maintain this level of play for a couple of weeks, get that elusive bounce to end that five-on-five scoreless streak and get back to producing the way he customarily has, this conversation — with the overly scrutinized practice kerfuffle between him and J.T. Miller, the analysis of his splits, the endless criticism — should come to a natural conclusion.
Canucks fans and media alike, however, are just trying to understand what’s going on with Pettersson’s game. Since he’s unwilling to provide those answers himself in interviews, the only option remaining is to answer those questions with his play.
Let’s open our notebook and cover Höglander’s increased role, the club’s cap-motivated loans this week and the latest on the club’s posture on the trade market as it pertains to landing that elusive top-four upgrade on defence.
Höglander’s newfound two-way reliability
That Höglander has gone from being a bottom-six spark plug, who was a healthy scratch in the playoffs, and come back this season to quickly secure a top-six role is a fascinating early-season development.
This is a player who clearly had a good summer — Rick Tocchet noted that he scored better than any of his teammates in preseason fitness testing — and is well on his way to earning a level of trust and a degree of responsibility beyond what we’ve seen in his first few NHL seasons.
“I think from last season to this season, in the summer, you can see he’s got stronger and faster,” Pettersson said. “His two-way game, his decision making is better too. When it’s time to make a play, when it’s time to make the game management decision and play it safe, I think he’s growing more and more into that. You saw it right from the first day at training camp, he looked better.”
“I thought the Philly game was probably Högs’ best game, maybe ever as a pro,” Garland added. “It was how good he was, I don’t even care about the goal, just forechecking and defensively. He’s making the right decisions and that kind of happens when you get older and play more games, that stuff just comes.”
Garland was able to share some additional insight into Höglander’s maturation as a two-way player, not only because he’s been playing with him virtually uninterrupted since the club reported to training camp in Penticton in mid-September, but also because Garland pretty clearly sees some of his own game in his linemate.
“He’s got a lot of similarities to me,” Garland said. “I didn’t skate or shoot as well, and I think I may do some things better, but that’s what makes players, players — we’re all different. I would say his defensive game is similar, though. Sometimes you’re so locked in and you’re moving a lot that you’re a little wild. With our style, you can skate yourself out of position.
“Our coaching staff has worked with him, and you need that as a young guy, so it’s just learning to come back and stop. If you’re F3, stay F3, don’t dive in.
“Do it for 40 games and suddenly you’re a trustworthy defensive forward, you can’t really rush it, but he’s coming.”
Höglander ranks fifth among Canucks forwards in five-on-five ice time per game, trailing Miller, Brock Boeser, Garland and Pettersson. If he’s able to hold down a role that significant, which won’t be straightforward with Dakota Joshua set to return shortly, Höglander could be in line for a career year — even if his shooting percentage regresses somewhat from last year’s dizzying highs.
Brännström, Bains and the accruing cap space loans
It sure seems like defenceman Erik Brännström and forward Arshdeep Bains, who were both reassigned to the AHL Abbotsford Canucks on Thursday, will be back with the big club for Saturday’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Having shed the Tucker Poolman contract, the Canucks are now in the business of maximizing how much cap space they’re able to toll. Salary cap space is calculated daily in the NHL, and if you’re a team operating outside of Long-Term Injured Reserve (LTI), as the Canucks are despite some high salaried absences from their lineup, you’re able to toll the remaining balance that you come in under the cap on a daily basis.
By reassigning Brännström and Bains on Thursday, the club was able to accrue roughly $11,000 in cap space — instead of about $2,000, which is what Vancouver would have accrued with a full 23-man roster.
On its own, $11,000 is just a drop in the bucket, but if Canucks bean counters can reproduce this exercise 20 or 30 times this season, it’ll add up at the NHL trade deadline. The club is determined to do their best to maximize the flexibility they have under the cap.
From our perspective, this approach means that we’re going to have to react to Vancouver loaning players to the AHL — especially when the club is on an extended homestand — somewhat differently this year than in previous seasons. The club is thrilled by Bains’ development and what Brännström has accomplished. Their reassignment has nothing to do with performance, and, it seems as if both players will be back in the NHL in short order.
A note on paper transactions
Even though the Canucks intend to recall Brännström and most likely Bains as well before Saturday’s game, these aren’t paper transactions.
Brännström and Bains were actually loaned. They were removed from Vancouver’s 23-man roster and assigned to the AHL on Thursday in fact, not just on paper.
Maybe this only matters to me but because we’re not used to the Canucks operating outside of LTI, some of the nuances in how this is all discussed in the market are a bit new. As a result, there are a lot of folks discussing these moves as paper-only transactions, when that’s not technically accurate.
Paper transactions exist in the NHL — up to four waiver-exempt players will often be “papered” down to the AHL to preserve their Calder Cup playoff eligibility at the trade deadline, for example — but transactions like Thursday’s loans are substantive, they’re not paper-only moves.
Canucks will look for top-four upgrades but it won’t be easy
Not only are the Canucks impressed by the way that Brännström has taken his early-season opportunity and run with it, but there’s a sense internally that he’s earned, perhaps, a more intensive look.
Whether that’s more ice time, a look on the second power-play unit — especially if Daniel Sprong remains out of the lineup — or being given the opportunity to play the right side and remain in the lineup even once Derek Forbort is back from attending to a personal matter, it’s clear that Brännström’s transition game, helpfulness on retrievals and puck moving has caught the attention of Canucks decision makers.
Brännström’s emergence, however, doesn’t mean that the club isn’t intent on turning over every rock in search of additional defensive help, while a potential top-four upgrade is the Canucks’ primary target down the line.
Given the aggressiveness of this front office, it’s never too early to start checking in on the club’s trade posture, especially when it comes to upgrading the blue line. In two consecutive years under Patrik Allvin and Jim Rutherford’s leadership, the Canucks have swung a trade for additional blue-line help in both October and November — in 2022 it was Riley Stillman in October and Ethan Bear in November; in 2023 it was Mark Friedman in October and Nikita Zadorov in November. So far this season the club is trending in this direction again, having already acquired Brännström from the Colorado Avalanche in October.
So should we expect the club to make a big splash to add to its blue line in the near future?
Perhaps, but not necessarily. One of the underlying reasons that Canucks management has tinkered so aggressively with the defence during the Allvin and Rutherford era is the belief that an NHL club can never have enough blueliners. And make no mistake, Canucks brass have absolutely identified the top four as an area to target for external improvement on the trade market over the balance of the season.
That said, if the club could add a top-four calibre defender to the lineup in a straightforward manner, it would have already done so. There’s barely a contender in the NHL that won’t be looking for potential top-four answers in the months ahead, and as the Shea Theodore extension re-emphasized this week, difference-making defenders don’t generally make it to the rental market — much less to unrestricted free agency.
The Canucks are going to hope their current group can iron out some of the defensive looseness they’ve exhibited in the early going, and there’s curiosity about what Cole McWard might be able to bring to the Vancouver lineup at some point this season.
In the meantime, the Canucks will keep shopping, but the demand for the sort of piece that would truly provide the club with an upgrade on the second pair is going to be enormous; and the supply of such players on the trade market at the moment is virtually non-existent.
(Photo: Bob Frid / Imagn Images)
