Canucks' new Elias Pettersson is a modern-age shutdown defenceman

The jokes wrote themselves.

This past July, with the 80th selection in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, the Vancouver Canucks added a defender by the name of Elias Pettersson.

The laughs from the crowd taking in the draft at Bell Centre were audible; social media was ablaze with the absurdity of the Canucks, adding a player with the ‌same name as their current high-profile centreman.

While the novelty of this situation is clear; both are from Sweden, pronounce their names the same, shoot left, and stand at 6-foot-2, they play completely different positions.

The newly selected Pettersson, was a part of four different teams for the Swedish club, Örebro HK. Most notably, he suited up for 17 games in the SHL, Sweden’s premier hockey league — a considerable feat for a 17-year-old.

Beyond the SHL, Pettersson pushed heavy minutes in the J20 Nationell league, playing 43 games across the regular season and the playoffs, scoring 28 points across those games.

Point production for Örebro HK defender is secondary, however. He impacts the game at a much higher level on the defensive end of the puck. A game that is aided by an abundance of physical tools and projectable habits.

Defending the rush

The cornerstone of Pettersson’s ability to defend in transition all centres around his overwhelming mobility. A gifted skater who can match attackers’ speed with ease, the 2004-born defender exploits crossovers, heel-pushes, and near perfect mechanics to maintain a proactive gap with oncoming attackers, all while steadying his feet to avoid being manipulated.

This skating ability combines with a host of habits that adds to Pettersson’s efficiency. First, he constantly guides attackers to the sideboards, effectively killing an overwhelming amount of attacks. He protects the middle of the ice like a guard dog protects its property — he will not let anybody occupy it. Strong footwork, along with early processing of the puck carrier’s rush pattern, makes him extremely adaptable in these situations.

Pettersson also finishes opponents physically on the side boards when opportunity presents. He reacts well to stop-ups and changes in speed, tracking and hitting through puck carriers. While he can chase too much at times, the punishing nature of his game is entertaining:

The last element of his transitional defending is his blending of stick work and anticipation. Pettersson regularly intercepts neutral zone passes reading opposition breakouts. He also picks opportune times to poke pucks off of opponents’ sticks, and attempts to disrupt shot releases. His probing stick is a constant annoyance that Pettersson employs to slow up north-to-south attacks. While he reaches often, leaving him exposed to better puck handlers, his ability to pivot and recover helps mitigate some ‌issues that follow.

Although NHL-level players play with more speed and skill, the habits and mobility should bode well for Pettersson as he translates up.

Defending against pressure

The positive habits even extend into defending sustained pressure. Much of the 185-pound defender’s game starts at net-front. Even at the SHL level against professional players, he does a wonderful job boxing out net-front threats, tying up sticks, essentially locking down secondary threats.

From the net-front, Pettersson exploits his mobility and his size to activate and create seal-offs behind his net, clamping down on forwards, attempting to use the end-boards as a runway. The stick work details still exist, and he’s uber-competitive. The Canucks’ third-round pick bites ‌easily to opponents who employ cut-backs, and he needs to learn to be a bit more proactive in initiating contact to get body position when he activates, but generally does a good job locking down threats.

As he fills out, so will his impact.

"He was injured (5-on-3) and he wasn't playing. They were down and put him on the ice for that 5-on-3 and he didn't shy away from blocking shots. He didn't play the rest of the game, so, that tells me something"

Todd Harvey on Elias Pettersson (All-access video).

We love this.

— Dave Hall (@hall1289) August 4, 2022

Pettersson is a very active scanner — he’s almost owl-like with the amount he turns his head to mental map opponent’s positioning. This is extremely important for processing cycle plays and jumping into shooting lanes. He’s seemingly fearless, a trait that stood out to Canucks’ head of scouting, Todd Harvey.

Transition value and puck retrieval potential

Beyond Pettersson’s defensive game, he’s also a talented, accurate passer in transition. Long distance passes across two-line, backhand integration within pressure, one-touch passes, layered saucer passes — there is a considerable amount of skill there.

Where Pettersson sometimes struggles is getting his feet moving as he releases passes. While he does pass quite often while in-motion, he has a nasty habit of staying stationary as he releases, leading to turnovers and pickoffs. This is an important habit to learn as the more you move, the harder it is to read and intercept the pass, along with the added benefit of new passing lanes being created.

He has the ability, it will just take an adjustment.

One of the most important parts of Pettersson’s game when it comes to NHL translatability is his puck-retrieval skill. The NHL has the best forecheckers in the world; fast, physical, and unrelenting — you have to retrieve pucks efficiently, deal with this pressure, and start the breakout to play minutes in the league.

While racing for pucks on the end-boards, Pettersson possesses all the habits that you want to see from a young defender.

First, he pre-scans the pressure, this allows him to know where his opponents are filing in from. Then, he manipulates the forechecker with his feet in an attempt to shake off the player.

Pettersson will skate directly at the puck and then at the last second, pop his feet in a different direction, allowing for more time to make a pass. He has some pivoting ability to shake off more mobile forecheckers, but struggles with opponents who close space quickly and rough him up physically; not uncommon for someone at his age.

Future and timeline

Pettersson probably won’t be a major point producer at higher levels, as he has limited activation value and lacks manipulation habits on the blue line, shooting pucks almost immediately after getting a pass. But he has everything else to be a second or third pairing modern-age shutdown defender.

Will a lack of offence push down his projection? Possibly, but there is some real value as a penalty-kill, defence-first, specialist at the NHL level. With a contract signed with Örebro HK until 2024-2025, it will be a while before we might see him in Vancouver. In the meantime, he should feature on Sweden’s team at the World Juniors this winter.

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