The Vancouver Canucks haven’t had much to celebrate through 17 games, but Elias Pettersson has given them something worth holding onto.
After Tuesday night’s 5-4 loss to the Anaheim Ducks, Vancouver sits at 3-13-1 and has gone 1-8-1 over its last 10. Still, the Canucks at least made Anaheim sweat. They trailed 5-2 before clawing back to make it a one-goal game in the third period, a small sign of fight in a season that has mostly been about survival.
Pettersson has been one of the rare bright spots. Under head coach Manny Malhotra, he’s scoring at better than a point-per-game clip and looking more like the player who once lived in the 80- to 100-point neighborhood. The question now is whether this is a real turnaround or just a hot stretch.
The early returns suggest it’s more than that.
Pettersson opened the 2026-27 season with two goals and eight points in his first five games, including a five-game point streak after he picked up two assists in the 7-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Oct. 8.
That was a strong start, especially after he finished 2025-26 with 15 goals and 51 points in 74 games under former coach Adam Foote. But the bigger story is what’s happened since.
Through 17 games, the Sundsvall, Sweden, native has four goals and 18 points. At that pace, he’s projected to finish with 10 goals and 89 points, which would put him back in the range he hasn’t hit since 2023-24. He posted 102 points in 2022-23 and 89 in 2023-24, then slipped to 45 points in 2024-25 before last season’s 51-point campaign.
What’s driving the rebound is the way Malhotra wants his team to play. The Canucks are leaning into a possession-first approach, with an emphasis on interior playmaking, winning board battles, and pushing through contact to create looks around the low slot and net-front areas. Malhotra also wants players to stay within the identity of the club and lean into the strengths that made them successful in the first place.
That setup fits Pettersson. It gives him cleaner chances, more direct passing lanes, and the freedom to make plays when he can read them unfold in front of him.
Instead of forcing offense, he’s getting to attack high-danger areas with more confidence. That’s why this start doesn’t feel like a temporary spike.
It looks like a player rediscovering his game.
And for a Canucks team in the early stages of a rebuild, that matters. Vancouver has only seven points out of a possible 34, and this season is likely to be a long one. The organization may still be a few years away from truly pushing for a playoff spot, but Pettersson playing at this level makes the losses easier to stomach.
There’s also a little more help around him. Brock Boeser, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Linus Karlsson, and Jake DeBrusk have all chipped in offensively, giving the Canucks more reason to believe the scoring can keep coming as the season goes on.
No matter how the year unfolds, Pettersson’s resurgence under Malhotra has been one of the few encouraging developments in Vancouver.
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