Vancouver Canucks centre Elias Pettersson had a pretty terrible 4 Nations tournament
If you were one of the many Vancouver Canucks fans hoping that Elias Pettersson would re-find his old form at the 4 Nations Face-Off, I have bad news to share.
Pettersson was responsible defensively, but failed to make an impact offensively for Team Sweden. He entered the tournament as one of his country’s marquee forwards, playing on a line with Filip Forsberg, who has 21 goals in 54 games with the Nashville Predators this season.
But Pettersson appeared to fall down the depth chart each game.
a look at Elias Pettersson on the Sweden powerplay #Canucks pic.twitter.com/J90SSKqazx
— Lucasparmenter23 (@Lucasparmenter0) February 18, 2025
Pettersson played the fewest minutes (9:54) and had the least amount of shifts (13) of any Swedish forward in Monday’s final game against USA. The Canucks centre didn’t register a shot on goal in what turned out to be a meaningless game for the Swedes.
This occurred despite Sweden playing with just 11 forwards, as Mika Zibanejad was out of the lineup.
Pettersson’s ice time dropped each game, from 16:32 in the opening game against Canada to 14:10 in the second game against Finland. He finished the tournament with no points and just two shots on goal in 13:32 of average ice time.
Full play pic.twitter.com/2Nryv6CGG5
— Rob Williams (@RobTheHockeyGuy) February 13, 2025
In short, it was more of the same for Pettersson, who has just 34 points (11-23-34) in 49 games this season and hasn’t looked right for the Canucks in over a calendar year.
It has everyone wondering what is bothering the talented 26-year-old. J.T. Miller was an obvious pain-point, but do issues run deeper than that? Is this merely a crisis of confidence or is there something physically ailing Pettersson? His knee tendinitis was referenced at the end of last season, but surely that alone can’t be responsible for his play dropping off so dramatically for this length of time.
The Canucks will surely want to get to the bottom of things before Pettersson’s no-movement clause kicks in July 1. They can trade him to any team they like before that date, but the preference is clearly to have Pettersson return to the talented offensive force that hockey fans in Vancouver got to know since he entered the league in 2018.