What’s the story with Elias Pettersson?

[britdevil]

1 even strength goal in the last 40 games.

7M is generous right now.

He signed his contract in March. At that point he had 2 30+ goal seasons, 1 100+ point season and was having a pretty good season to that point.

$7m in RFA, coming off that output, does not get you that player. You know this.

 

[Breakers]

He's been missing Kuzmenko, it started when Vancouver traded Kuzy.

Yup, it was a stupid trade

 

[Nona Di Giuseppe]

The takes in here are hilarious, pretty much all conjecture, and likely 98% are inaccurate.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

maybe Tochett rubs him the wrong way and they're not seeing eye-to-eye and its affecting his play

 

[notsocommonsense]

Are the Canucks trying to ruin his career? If he's dealing with a nagging knee just sit him for as long as it takes for him to be 100%. Who the fornicating sign a player to a 8 year contract then only wants him at 80% of his capacity for several of those years?

He just had an entire offseason

 

[thekernel]

The story is that Canucks fans are nutters who need to chill

 

[NVious]

Playing with someone as good as JT Miller is demoralizing, you go the same practices, same PT sessions, same restaurants eating the same food and the guy is 10x the player you are, it's just not fair, why even try?

 

[Else Ermine]

Is it just me, or... are posters on here being a bit over-critical of Pettersson?

Criticism is certainly warranted. He's played like a third liner and a shadow of what he's capable of. It is frustrating to watch.
Every team always has it's scapegoats and Pettersson's $11.6m contract will have him being the number 1 target until his play improves significantly. That'd be the case anywhere. I do believe Canucks fans are amongst the most prone kick up a fuss about their problems though. The truth is very few Canucks have looked good to start and have been comparatively underwhelming.

However, certainly the production fall-off from mid-February is quite dramatic.

Pretty much from the All Star break his play fell off a cliff and stayed at the same level to the end of the year. Historically he's far more physical involved than the memey posters would have you believe because of his size but that has genuinely fallen off, along with his eagerness to shoot or skate aggressively. Three games into this season it doesn't look better.
Obviously it should improve with time, he's far better than this, but who knows how long it'll take.

 

[crowfish]

maybe Tochett rubs him the wrong way and they're not seeing eye-to-eye and its affecting his play

I wonder about that too. Pettersson had amazing chemistry with Kuzmenko and was off to the best start of his career in 2023-24. His stats started slowing down right around the time Tochett started benching & scratching Kuzmenko, and then after the trade Pettersson had an awful finish to the year.

Playing with someone as good as JT Miller is demoralizing, you go the same practices, same PT sessions, same restaurants eating the same food and the guy is 10x the player you are, it's just not fair, why even try?

Weird comment since JT Miller didn't reach Petterssons level untill about age 28.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

The first few games of every season weird things happen so it’s not much use to draw conclusions. The cream rises to the top as the season goes on. If he’s still struggling at 20 games, and with the ending to last season, then it could be time to raise some eyebrows

 

[Look Up]

Only half joking - I'm shocked this thread hasn't been locked down yet. This is one of those subjects that cannot be discussed. Reasons.

 

[Tob]

I see the same problems as zibanejad. No mental willingness and joy to contact and battles. It’s like walking on grass for me. I dont want to step in someone’s dog’s turd so i always look and take one step at a time. It’s no way to play.

The getting rid of the puck, limited effectiveness etc. toch came along and demanded battle and grit and that’s when it went downhill.

Zibanwjad had a scary head injury too. He also got his contract around the .