The NHL 15: The Canucks need Elias Pettersson to be a star again

And the Canucks need to help him -- and allow him to -- be that.

Before each NHL season I look at 15 players that I think are the most intriguing players in the NHL. Not necessarily the best players (though, sometimes they are), but players that offer some sort of intrigue, a big storyline or figure to be a major X-factor for the season. This is The NHL 15. We continue today with Elias Pettersson of the Vancouver Canucks and his need to produce like a star again.

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There might not be an individual player in the NHL this season under more pressure within their own market than Vancouver Canucks forward Elias Pettersson.

He NEEDS a big season.

His 2024-25 season was, by pretty much every objective and subjective measure, a disaster.

His production cratered, continuing a late-season (and playoff) trend from the 2023-24 season. He was at the center of a very public feud with teammate J.T. Miller that really disrupted the first half of the Canucks’ season. He dealt with injuries. He faced criticism from pretty much everybody in the organization. His head coach was insisting on trying to make him be something he was not as a player. He was the subject of trade rumors and trade speculation despite the fact he was in the first year of an eight-year $92 million contract and was just one year removed from a 100-point season where he took a major star turn among NHL forwards.

It was all brutal stuff.

In the end, the Canucks ended up trading Miller and keeping Pettersson, which was the absolute correct series of decisions. Not only is Miller the older player, but Pettersson’s value was going to be at its absolute lowest point and they were never, ever, going to get the better of any move involving him. The drop in production, the contract, the narratives around him … all of that was going to make a trade involving him an almost immediate loss for the Canucks.

There is a good chance he bounces back. At least you hope there is.

If you are the Canucks, you want that bounce back to happen for you and not somebody else after you traded him for pennies on the dollar.

The most practical approach was to hope that Pettersson would eventually get back on track with a fresh start.

He is going to get that fresh start this season.

Miller is gone.

There is a new head coach (even if new head coach Adam Foote was a familiar face already on the staff).

It’s a clean slate and a chance to start over.

What will he do with it? What will the Canucks do with it?

The first thing to keep in mind is that players that get off to the career start that Pettersson has had don’t typically just lose their ability to produce. His drop-off in 2024-25 was pretty unprecedented for players that had previously produced like him in this era.

Let’s talk about that and what might come next for him and the Canucks.