Chimpradamus
Registered User
For sure. Talented as hell? Check. Humble? Check. Mature for his age? Check. Taking responsibility for his career and team success? Check. This guy already understands the grind and embraces it. He also understands his role and that he has the confidence to want to be a difference maker every night. When it comes to the grind, some players never get it, especially the talented ones, but he understands it completely. He has also been raised to not let his success go to his head (a VERY Swedish thing, especially in the north), he has both feet on the ground. I also think his size has something to do with it, he knows he can't relax and think he's on the top of the world.Petterson is showing the signs of truly becoming ultra elite. He hasn’t been fantastic in the last few games but he still finds ways to produce.
Like he himself said, he wasn't that good at shooting the puck in all situations, so he practiced that, a lot. Repetition, repetition, repetition. Many talents get sick and tired of repetition, Pettersson doesn't. It looks very promising for Vancouver.
For the record - I've already eaten crow for it, but I'll repeat it - I was one of the people saying he needed to gain more weight, but he shut me up very quickly. The background is I didn't watch a lot of SHL games. I knew Pettersson was very talented, but seeing him get manhandled during the WHC made me question how he could be productive in the NHL, when he got manhandled by French defensemen and whatnot. To quote myself: "He looks like a mitten in an autumn storm." Boy, was I wrong.
What I missed was, the tempo is much higher in the NHL and all players have much less time to react to a situation, sure. But, the higher tempo is only a benefit to Pettersson, that's a bigger advantage than the disadvantage of the smaller rink size. Mind you, this is a big problem for almost all lightweight, skilled Euro players, before they gain weight and are smart and skilled enough to adapt. Not Pettersson
He immediately improved his game changing enviroment (WTH)! That's very special. It's also very possible he didn't play up to his potential and was tired. He's also said on record he loves playing with and against more talented players all over (especially playing with them).
But even if he's a fan of putting in a ton of work to practice, it's still remarkable he went from having a mediocre slap shot and quick release, to become amazing at it, in two years. His technique is perfect. He's not the biggest guy, but to be able to shoot at basically 100 mph is very impressive. Then add the accuracy. I should shut up now, I can't stop raving about this guy. The sky is the ceiling for him.
Näslund? Meh. The Sedins? Meh. Sure, All-Stars and legends that I truly respect and miss, but Pettersson? I'm having a cardiac arrest watching this guy develop. He pretty much single handedly makes me into a Canuck fan and you're basically as far away from me as possible in time zones. Every morning I wake up, the first thing I do is check if the Canucks played last night and I'm a big anti-NHL guy. Still doesn't stop me from loving hockey though.
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