Can Elias Pettersson become the greatest Canuck of all time?
In mid-February, the Vancouver Canucks will retire the numbers of Henrik and Daniel Sedin. But it makes you wonder, who will be the Canuck who can finally bring home the team’s first Stanley Cup? Can it be Elias Pettersson?
Without a shadow of a doubt, Elias Pettersson had the best rookie campaign in the entire history of the Vancouver Canucks. The phenom from Sundsvall, Sweden finished his first NHL season with a Canucks rookie record 66 points in 71 games, leading the team in points.
When he captured his first NHL goal, both the Vancouver Canucks and their passionate fan base immediately knew they had something very special. The 19-year-old Swede scored an absolutely beautiful goal to open the scoring with a wrist shot on the rush that sent the arena and many fans watching at home right out of their seats in excitement. He earned himself a standing ovation from the fans in Rogers arena which included his proud mother and father, who were in attendance.
Vancouver Canucks fans going wild every time Pettersson touched the puck quickly became the “norm” as he went on to bang in 10 goals in his first 10 NHL games. A feat that has only been accomplished by four other players since 1919. Not only did Pettersson become the most fascinating Canuck to watch since Pavel Bure but he also became the answer to the Post Sedin Era. Something nobody saw coming.
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The young stud who became better known as Petey, went on to have an incredible rookie season putting up a total of 66 points (28 goals and 38 assists) in 71 games played. This is a new franchise record for points by a rookie that was previously set by the “Russian Rocket” who scored 60 points (34 goals and 26 assists) back in the season of 1991-1992.
Immediately, Canucks fans fell in love with Pettersson and his incredible style of play. He made jaw-dropping plays on a nightly basis and immediately became the answer for the Canucks in the “Post Sedin Era.”
Within five weeks of NHL spotlight, Pettersson’s hockey sense had grabbed the attention of Wayne Gretzky.
"“I’ve had the chance to see him a couple of times on TV and he’s fun to watch, and plays the game with a great deal of passion and energy. It’s exactly what the people of Vancouver needed to move on after the Sedin era.”"
That’s a lot of high praise from the “Great One” himself who went on to say, “A guy like Pettersson plays probably more in line with the way Sidney plays or even the way I played in that he’s gotta utilize his eyes and his hockey sense and rely on his instinct ability on the ice because he’s not a big guy.”
Pettersson is the type of player that scouts drool over. He checks off nearly every box for what it takes to be an elite center in the NHL. The young Swedish heart-throb has the complete package that over the course of his rookie season drew some impressive comparables to some NHL greats.
The Swede was noticed for his peripheral vision passing like Henrik Sedin, his incredibly accurate one-timer similar to Alex Ovechkin, superb hand-eye comparable to Sidney Crosby, top-notch magician-like hands almost as dangerous as Pavel Datsyuk‘s and the hockey sense of Wayne Gretzky.
The 2019 Calder Trophy winner also has the drive to be the best player possible day in and day out. But above all else, his greatest strength is his hockey IQ, a trait that earned him another nickname — “Alien” — for his out of this world brain for the game.
All in all, Petey had his fair share of accomplishments in his rookie year which included (two) five-point games, a hat-trick, some incredible chemistry with Brock Boeser, an All-Star game appearance, a Calder trophy, a franchise record in points by a rookie, and to cap it all off he was recently named the cover athlete of EA Sports NHL 20 in Sweden.
This all begs the question when it’s all said and done, will Elias Pettersson go down as the greatest Canuck of all time?