Vancouver Canucks: Exploring 3 Hot Takes Part 1 of 3

The season is finally around the corner. I am delighted to finally see the boys in blue and green back on the ice. Though I must admit that I am going to miss the Vancouver Canucks offseason, otherwise known as the “Silly Season”. For this final silly season article of mine I am going to get real saucy. These are three takes that I have given some thought to for the future and I am going to think them out through text in this article. For the last time in 2018, let’s get silly!

There are already enough storylines coming into the 2018-19 season, I’m about to explore and maybe even add a few more. This three part series will be some of the ideas that have crossed my mind late at night when I really should not be thinking of the Vancouver Canucks. Most of these ideas are driven by Crown Royal and late night conversations with fellow Canuck fans, so bear with me.

These hot takes may not be exactly what I believe are true but they are ideas that I’d like to explore. I would like to see if they do have a possibility of coming true or if they should bypass my imagination like a shooting star through a clear night sky.

First Take:  Elias Pettersson will get over 60 points in his rookie season.

The hot take is 60 points. Let’s examine how that could be possible.

The young Swedish stud has arrived in Vancouver and he brought along his game with him. Elias Pettersson should be a key component in replacing the Sedins’ points on the powerplay (well, one of them). Pettersson’s ability to shoot the puck and work the right wall is an ideal fit for the Canucks in their 2018-19 powerplay. And that “spot” is where he will have the ability to put up a lot of points.

Pettersson will probably have 20 goals and 40 assists to get to 60 points. Daniel Sedin had 17 points on the powerplay last season, I can see Pettersson being over 20 on the powerplay this season. It’s the spot where he’s played ever since he has been on my radar pre-draft in 2017.

The Canucks rookie scoring record is held by two players. Pavel Bure who had 60 points in the 1991-92 season for the Canucks to tie the original record held by a 31 year old rookie that was named Ivan Hlinka, you know that big tournament that Wayne Gretzky slid his name into recently?

So to imagine that Elias Pettersson could be the rookie scoring leader in franchise history would be a dream, passing a guy like Bure would make this market lose their minds, but what’s wrong with a bit of craziness? Canucks twitter is already crazy anyways.

Main points

It’s going to come down to a few main points for Pettersson.

-If he can stay healthy and play at least 75 games.
-His success in the SHL immediately translates to the best league in the world (NHL).
-Pettersson gets more than 20 powerplay points this season.
-Pettersson’s linemates show tremendous chemistry and compliment each other well

Pettersson would have to stay healthy all season long. We already know that with his smaller body, there could be a problem as he jumps into a bigger and faster league. The Swedish Hockey league is a more open game, the NHL is quite a step up on different sized ice and it clearly is the best hockey league in the world. We have seen an evolution over the past decade or two where young and fast players have found success as there is such an advantage from the new rules for players who can skate like the wind and have the hands to keep up with that skating speed.

Brock Boeser admitted that teams were putting a defender in his shooting zone late last season and that it would open up more space for others on the powerplay. The others he talked about should be someone like Pettersson, who has shown that his shot has improved a lot since we saw him last year at Canucks prospects camp.

I’ve got more on why Pettersson should be on the first powerplay unit in my last article.

Big questions

One of the biggest questions in training camp this year is where Elias Pettersson fits on the opening day roster:
Is he ready to become an NHL centre?
Who will his wingers be?
Will we see him along side a guy like Brandon Sutter for some defensive support?

My ideal linemates for Pettersson changes practically every week but I think a good start to the season would be to have Pettersson at centre with Loui Eriksson and Jake Virtanen flanking on his wings. Eriksson has good hands in close to the net, well he did before he got to Vancouver and a confidence boost would be provided from playing with a fellow Swede on the second scoring line.

Jake Virtanen has a lot to prove this season and starting off with Eriksson and Pettersson would give him no excuses to succeed. Playing with the Canucks top prospect, and many would say one of the league’s top five prospects, would be a big boost for Virtanen. He needs a chance to show how much work he has done in the offseason to become a top six forward. Jake’s speed is unmatched on the Canucks and if he can round out his game, hit the net more and be a physical presence on the ice, then we could see a bounce back season for both of Pettersson’s possible wingers.

Shooting for the stars

All in all, 60 points in definitely shooting for the stars but Elias Pettersson is a star in the making. He has proven it at every level and looked at home when playing with NHL talent at the World Championships in the spring.

More from The Canuck Way

• Which team won the Bo Horvat trade?
• What to expect from newcomers Anthony Beauvillier, Aatu Räty
• Back to the future: How the skate uniforms became a regular Canucks’ feature night
• Canucks kick off 2023 with disappointing 6-2 loss to Islanders
• 2nd period penalty trouble sinks Canucks in 4-2 loss against Winnipeg

I want to believe that as Canucks fans we can be shocked by a rookie in back to back seasons. Brock Boeser gave us more than we could have asked for and though the expectations were high for Boeser, especially after his nine game stint at the end of the 2016-17 season, he out performed even our craziest predictions.

Looking way too far ahead, who knows, maybe we can be shocked by rookies three years in a row. Looking at you Quinn and possibly Jack.

LET ME DREAM!

Elias Pettersson is the best prospect we have in the Canucks organization and if this young stud can translate the success he has had in other leagues to the NHL then we could be surprised by the performance of the “Swedish Gretzky”.

I hate that nickname.

What are the chances of this happening?

I’m an optimist so I am going to put the chances of Pettersson reaching 60 points at 35%. I think a lot has to go right for him to eclipse 60 points and even a season of 40-60 points where we see some improvement throughout the season and development into a future number one centre would be an amazing start for this young talent.

At the end of each of these hot takes I’m going to give my rough idea of what I think the chances are of this happening. I’d love to hear everyone’s percentage of this coming true in the comments.

I’ll see you all there, Rick, Don, Crofton, Two down, even you Bender.

Catch me for part two where we will get into a hot take on Thatcher Demko, cheers to all!