Canucks' Pettersson reveals secret injury he was dealing with for months
Vancouver Canucks star Elias Pettersson’s second-half struggles can at least partially be attributed to a previously unknown injury he revealed today.
The forward explained that he’s been suffering from a knee injury since January.
“I’ve been playing with a bad knee since January. It’s been a nagging injury, so the longer it went, the more pain I felt,” said the 26-year-old this morning.
The star confirmed that he will not be needing any sort of surgery this offseason to recover, just time off.
“It just needs time. Time to heal, time to rest and rehab.”
The star scored 14 goals and 21 points across 13 games in January and was playing some of his best hockey. His numbers then fell off a cliff in the second half of the season, right when the injury started.
He had just six points in 13 playoff games and 21 points in his final 30 regular season games. He still managed to finish the year with 89 points in 82 games due to a hot start.
Despite the injury happening well before the start of the playoffs, head coach Rick Tocchet said there was never any consideration of holding the player out to let him rest.
“I think he had a little piece of tendonitis,” explained Tocchet. “Obviously you go to the doctors and the trainers and we felt it was fine to keep going.”
The pressure on Pettersson was especially intense after he signed a contract that, as of right now, will make him one of the top-five highest-paid NHL players next season.
“It will be nice to get a break from everything,” admitted Pettersson. “It’s been a very noisy season in terms of contract and how sh*t I’ve been the last three months.”
“It’ll be nice to just get a break from that. I’m just excited to get a little break here and then get back on the horse again, train hard, come in the best shape possible for next season.”
Pettersson’s new contract will start next season. He’s been one of the Canucks best players ever since his rookie season and looks primed to take his game to another level, as he was showing at the start of this year.
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