Canucks' Elias Pettersson trade plans could be ignoring key underlying stats | Sporting News (original) (raw)

Much has been made about the downfall of Elias Pettersson.

In many ways, it's totally fair. The Vancouver Canucks' talented all-around center has not been as good in recent times as he was when he earned himself a massive contract extension. That has put him at the center of plenty of trade rumors in the past nine months.

The idea of a trade just to change things up seems somewhat warranted, even if it'd feel a bit like selling low.

After all, Pettersson's value has tanked, and it's hard to see another team wanting to pay the full remainder of his contract:

When’s the last time we saw a downfall like Elias Pettersson? He went from 102 pt season few years back to 51 pts this past season, production literally cut in half, although he did miss 8 games this season, but still, wouldn’t have made that much of a difference.

— NHL Watcher (@NHL_Watcher) May 20, 2026

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It'd be wise for the Canucks to consider this a little bit longer before they enter into any deals, though, too.

Pettersson's 2025-26 season was bad, but it had reasons to believe.

In a reply to the post above, it was pointed out that Pettersson had 13 points in the Canucks' final 16 games of the season. He had also begun the campaign on a nearly point per game pace.

It was in the middle where things fully fell off a cliff for Pettersson. It's hard to know exactly what happened, and obviously it's key information, but it's also important not to ignore the positive bookends on his season.

Maybe Pettersson never gets back to 100 points in a season. But unless the Canucks get a quality offer, they may be best served keeping Pettersson. If he's able to build himself back up, and if Vancouver conducts a quality rebuild around him, Pettersson could still be useful when the Canucks get this train back on the tracks.

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