Vancouver Canucks: Wayne Gretzky has major praise for Elias Pettersson

Vancouver Canucks rookie Elias Pettersson has caught the eye of the greatest hockey player ever in Wayne Gretzky — with the GOAT even comparing the talented Swede to his own style of play.

Without the play of star rookie and Calder Trophy favourite Elias Pettersson, it’s safe to say the Vancouver Canucks wouldn’t be anywhere close to first place in the Pacific Division at this point of the season.

Through his first 13 career NHL games, Pettersson already has 10 goals and 17 points. He’d be in the scoring lead race if a head injury sustained via an ugly hit from Mike Matheson didn’t force Pettersson to miss six games.

The Canucks expected Pettersson to make some form of an impact in his rookie year, but few could have thought that he’d be averaging more than a point per game. Certainly, nobody thought he’d have this team sitting atop the Pacific Division through mid-November.

But Pettersson has done all of that, and he’s slowly putting together what could be the greatest rookie season in Canucks history. No matter how the rest of 2018-19 plays out, the long-suffering Vancouver fans at least know that the team’s future is in good hands.

Just how great has the 20-year-old Pettersson been? He hasn’t even played a quarter of a season yet, but Pettersson has already caught the eyes of Wayne Gretzky — the greatest hockey player to ever live.

Appearing on Sportsnet 650 Radio (h/t NHL.com), ‘The Great One’ offered a great deal of praise for the Canucks rookie.

"From my point of view, he’s got a lot of my similarities. His hockey sense and his playmaking ability are as good as anybody right now, and that’s probably where the comparisons come from — much more the playmaking than anything else…It’s exactly what the people in Vancouver needed to sort of move on from the Sedin era…He’s done a lot of good things for that organization already…A guy like Pettersson plays more along the lines of the way Sidney plays and the way I played in that he’s got to utilize his eyes and his hockey sense and rely on his instinctability on the ice…I’m sure the people in Vancouver have to be very excited about the destination of that hockey club. There seems to be a very strong, good direction for that hockey club, and that’s great for Vancouver.”"

Well, you know you’ve made it big when the greatest hockey player of all-time offers that much praise. There are a great deal of superstars dominating the NHL right now, but Vancouver’s new franchise face already stands out to Gretzky. That’s something for No. 40 to feel good about.

Pettersson was drafted with the No. 5 pick by the Canucks in 2017 – in a class that was widely considered one of the weakest in recent memory. But there’s a good chance that Pettersson turns out to be the best player of his class.

The Canucks’ rebuilding process got off to a very slow start, due to the questionable decision by ownership to prolong it — hoping to squeeze out a couple of more playoff berths with the Sedins still around.

But with Pettersson quickly developing into the new franchise star, Canuck fans have something to be excited about for the long run. They deserve a player like him, after these last few years of misery and frustration. So you fans need to enjoy every bit of it.

Gretzky sure is.