"Put me against McDavid": Canucks' Pettersson is confident and driven, says Boudreau

“The sky’s the limit,” for Elias Pettersson, according to his former Vancouver Canucks head coach.

Speaking with OverDrive on TSN 1050 in Toronto recently, Bruce Boudreau gave some insight into the type of player Pettersson is beyond what we see on the ice.

We all know that he’s talented and we think we know a little bit about his personality.

Boudreau is a big fan.

“He’s great. He’s just a super, super player. Great young man. Very confident, too, in his ability.”

Pettersson, who garnered Selke Trophy consideration this year, isn’t just a point producer.

“He’s the one guy when we would say, play Edmonton, he would say, ‘Put me against McDavid.’ Or if somebody was doing better than him, he wanted to play in every important situation. I think he’s got as much drive as anybody I’ve seen,” Boudreau added.

That’s high praise from Boudreau, who has coached the likes of Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, and Ryan Kesler during his 1,087-game NHL coaching career.

Boudreau referenced Elliotte Friedman’s recent reporting on Pettersson and he was clearly impressed that Pettersson is “eating right” and “doing all the right things.”

“When he was younger, even two years ago or three years ago, he stayed in Vancouver, he wanted to build his brand. But now he’s so much more serious. The sky’s the limit I think on him. He is Vancouver’s Auston Matthews. There’s no doubt in my mind. He is every bit as important to Vancouver, if not more than Auston is to Toronto because Vancouver doesn’t have the supporting cast that Toronto has.”

Pettersson, who is a year younger than Matthews, outscored the Leafs sniper for the first time in their careers last season. Pettersson tallied 102 points, which is only four points shy of Matthews’ MVP season in 2022 and well ahead of the 85 points the Toronto superstar scored last season.

Boudreau’s comments appear to point to Pettersson’s desire to win, which is beginning to become a theme. The Swedish star will turn 25 in November and has been to the playoffs just once in his career.

It appears to be a big part of why Pettersson is taking a wait-and-see approach before signing a contract extension.

Perhaps leaning on Pettersson in a matchup role could help the Canucks’ record. The Canucks played the Edmonton Oilers three times last season, all prior to Boudreau getting fired, and Pettersson wasn’t leaned on heavily against McDavid in any game.

J.T. Miller played more against McDavid at five-on-five than Pettersson did in all three matchups, while Bo Horvat had more ice time against the Oilers captain in two of three games.

Miller averaged 8:04 of five-on-five ice time against McDavid, while Pettersson played 3:43 per game against the NHL’s biggest star.

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