By: Brayden Fengler / October 31, 2025 The anticipation around how Elias Pettersson would perform this season couldn’t have been higher headed into October.
After such a disappointing 2024-25 campaign where EP40’s production feel so far behind his prior seasons, this year would be do or die for Pettersson and the Canucks. The thought of another year of a Pettersson regression with six more years still to go on his contract was bone chilling.
Thankfully so far this year Pettersson is… back… almost. He’s showing signs of his old self and producing for the team while still being muscled off the puck a little too easy.
But the right signs are there for Pettersson in October, and the Canucks need him now more than ever will all the injuries’ around him that keep pilling up.
Vancouver #Canucks players who are currently injured:
— Adam Kierszenblat (@Adamkblat) October 31, 2025
Brock Boeser, Quinn Hughes, Conor Garland, Nils Höglander, Derek Forbort, Teddy Blueger, Filip Chytil, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Victor Mancini, Guillaume Brisebois and Jett Woo
Pettersson’s Start to the Season
Pettersson is already off to a hotter start to the season than this time last year. After the first 12 games played last season Pettersson had only produced two goals and three assists. This put him as the 10th most productive Canuck at the time, behind far too many depth players.
This season in the same number of games Pettersson is only out paced by Conor Garland, and the immortal Kiefer Sherwood. Pettersson has three goals and five assists to show for his efforts only beaten out by Garland’s 11 points and Sherwood’s nine.
Even though a player like Kiefer Sherwood who has nine goals and no assists is making a great name for himself with his finishes right now, up until Sherwood’s hattrick against the Blues this week, Pettersson was still above him in terms of production with a mix of goals and assists. This is on par with how Pettersson’s production has developed during his best years.
Compared to His Best
Pettersson’s best season was the 2022-23 season where he played 80 games and earned 102 points. Looking again at just the first 12 games of that year and comparing them to that season, while the sample size is small, in 12 games in 2022-23 Pettersson was the most productive Canuck with five goals and 10 assists. Pettersson may not quite be coming out of the gate as hot this year, but he’s outdoing his poor start last year.
There is a lot to like about the trend that Pettersson is on. He’s producing more assists than goals which is again consistent even in his best year. But simply put, in whatever form you look at it, he is producing and helping others produce even at a time when depth is a serious question for his team due to injury.
Most notably, while it’s reported to not be serious Conor Garland is now out without a clear timeline for return, and while it may sound crazy that Garland is currently still the most productive Canuck, in his absence it’s great to know that this team can once again count on Pettersson’s production.
What We’re Seeing
More importantly I think with such a small sample size of games is the eye test with Pettersson right now. How is he looking? Honestly much better. Most importantly he’s shooting. In game against the New York Rangers, with time winding down and a net empty, Pettersson made a shot attempt at traffic from the point in the hopes of finding Brock Boeser’s stick for a redirect by the hashmarks.
It didn’t work out, the percent of that shot was low, but Pettersson didn’t wait and pass, or lose the puck in a cycle, he made an attempt and nearly saw a result. This did not happen last season.
Whether it’s confidence or his muscle mass, he is getting pushed off the puck a little easy still. In the team’s last game against the Nashville Predators, late in the game Pettersson made a break into the Preds zone and put himself in a one on two situation.
Pettersson made a push and a nice deke to create a little space for himself, and things looked for a moment like the start of a highlight reel. But ultimately he was pushed off the puck easily and crashed down onto the ice and the play was immediately neutralized.
Pettersson is shooting this year, which is the main reason why he is producing. Evenn though he may be loosing some physical battles he’s putting himself in situations to at least be pushed off
the puck, which is better than never allowing himself to get there in the first place.
More sideways to the assessment of Pettersson is what to make of his late game “confusion” in the New York Rangers game. While the Canucks net was empty and they were attempting to even up a 1-0 game, as the last man back Pettersson was in a situation with a puck headed towards him from the Rangers’ zone, at the centre of the ice.
In what looked like an attempt to gain an icing call and retake possession in the Rangers’ end, Pettersson intentionally let the puck pass by him, despite it being well within reach. Unfortunately, Pettersson misjudged the trajectory of the puck and/or his positioning on the ice and the puck sailed passed him straight into the Canucks net.
Do I think that mistake is indicative of a larger problem that still looms over Pettersson and this team? No I think that was simply an isolated goof. Yes, it took the Canucks out of contention for tieing up the game, but it was a unique situation that is not likely to occur often and should not be worries about any further.
On the whole I feel happy that I can say Pettersson looks better, and with at this point countless Canucks (9) out on injury, Pettersson’s continued efforts will no doubt be counted on by this team moving forward.