After quietly getting hitched over the summer, Elias Pettersson has embraced a more rounded role with the Vancouver Canucks, adding diligent defense to his scoring ways.
In the hockey world, summer is wedding season. And in the social-media era, fans are often invited along for the ride. Every week, Instagram features photos and videos of tuxxed-up players and their partners exchanging vows, celebrating with past and present teammates and posing for portraits in front of spectacular backdrops.
Notoriously private, Elias Pettersson didn’t make the usual splash with his mid-summer nuptials – not at first, anyway. It wasn’t until eagle-eyed fans noticed that the Vancouver Canucks center was wearing a ring in an off-season photo that a Swedish newspaper uncovered a July record of his marriage registration.
Even when Pettersson made his first media appearance of the new NHL season at his team’s annual charity golf tournament in September, the 2019 Calder Trophy winner started out by speaking very generally about his enjoyable summer back in his homeland. When he was finally asked point-blank about his status, he nonchalantly spilled the beans.
“I did get married,” he said. “It was a highlight. Best day of my life.”
Pettersson and his bride, American model and influencer Katelyn Byrd, didn’t upload any photos from their June 22 wedding ceremony to their Instagram accounts until late October – and limited themselves to just a handful of shots. But by that point, interested fans had been treated to a look at how the couple spent the summer in Sweden. Byrd’s new YouTube page included footage of a relaxed Pettersson doing backflips on a trampoline, headbanging to the Red Hot Chili Peppers en route to a dinner date and inspecting the couple’s in-progress homebuild in Stockholm.
After documenting their journey back to Vancouver in September, Byrd has continued posting. And while Pettersson has a longstanding reputation among the local media as a tough nut to crack, he hasn’t shied away from the camera. Footage has included daily errands, carousing with goldendoodle Beau and decorating the Christmas tree that went up in early November as a product of both partners’ busy schedules.
I’M JUST SO HAPPY WITH THE WAY HE’S PLAYING. HE’S PLAYING IN THE MUD. HE’S PLAYING IN THE DIRT- CANUCKS COACH ADAM FOOTE
“I support it, and it’s fun doing what we’re doing,” Pettersson said. “People seem to enjoy watching it, so it feels good. Win-win.”
While Pettersson may have initially been cagey about his new marital status, the 27-year-old did volunteer that a good summer of off-season training resulted in an extra six kilos on his 6-foot-2 frame – about 13 pounds. A year earlier, he had been limited by tendinitis, which many believe contributed to a slow start and a rocky campaign, where he finished with a disappointing 45 points in 64 games and a career-low 0.70 points per game.
This season, Pettersson believes his extra muscle is “definitely” helping him win more board battles – part of his amped-up commitment to the defensive side of the game.
After J.T. Miller was traded last January, and with centers Filip Chytil and Teddy Blueger knocked out of this year’s lineup due to early-season injuries, new Canucks coach Adam Foote has had little choice but to deploy Pettersson against opponents’ top lines. It has been just as important for him to prevent goals as to help score them.
“We’re in a situation with the injuries that it’s hard to get him away from a hard matchup,” Foote said. “I’m just so happy with the way he’s playing. He’s playing in the mud. He’s playing in the dirt. It’s not easy.”
Elias Pettersson (Bob Frid-Imagn Images)Pettersson has embraced the increased responsibilities. “I love it,” he said. “I get to play a lot of hockey, which I love, and I want the matchups. I want the other team’s best lines. I take pride in that and want to play against that.”
Through the first quarter of 2025-26, Pettersson was averaging more than 20 minutes per game. That’s about 90 seconds higher than last season, and his ice time has been boosted by the largest power-play and penalty-killing deployment of his career.
Perhaps more surprisingly, Pettersson led NHL forwards in blocked shots through mid-November, with 14 more than second-place Auston Matthews. On Oct. 19, he drew raves for three extra-attacker blocks against powerful Alex Ovechkin as the undermanned Canucks preserved a 4-3 win over the Capitals in Washington. He remains committed to sacrificing his body when required.
“Some bruises, but it would hurt a lot more if the puck went in,” he said. “I don’t mind blocking shots. I was a soccer goalie at a young age, so I still have those instincts.”
Pettersson made his name in the NHL with his laser-sharp shooting. During his rookie year, he scored 28 goals on nearly 20 percent shooting accuracy and is at 16.2 percent over his career. When he strung together three straight campaigns with more than 30 goals, topping out at 102 points in 2022-23, the Canucks had seen enough to give him the biggest contract extension in club history in March 2024 at $92.8 million.
The rising salary cap has opened the door to more deals with eight-figure AAVs. But amid his injury issues and last season’s dressing-room drama in Vancouver, Pettersson disappointed in the first year of his monster deal. This season, his $11.6-million cap hit ranks eighth in the league. And while his 19 points ranked second on the injury-riddled Canucks through 21 games, his production has lagged behind the league leaders.
During an appearance on Hockey Night In Canada’s ‘After Hours’ Nov. 8, Canucks GM Patrik Allvin reframed a question about whether he hoped Pettersson could get back to being a 100-point player.
“I would be more happy if the team gets over 100 points than one player, which means playing the right way,” Allvin said. “I don’t necessarily see it that way, that he needs to get to 100 points. I think it’s learning to understand that two points for the team is what’s better at the end of the day.”
Elias Pettersson (Bob Frid-Imagn Images)Allvin is preaching a longstanding hockey gospel, which holds up players such as Steve Yzerman as examples of scoring stars who came to terms with sacrificing their offensive numbers on the road to winning championships.
This style of play has always been embedded in Pettersson’s hockey DNA. His favorite players growing up, both now enshrined in the Hall of Fame, contributed to their teams in ways that extended well beyond their point totals. Two-time Stanley Cup champion Peter Forsberg won an Art Ross Trophy but never scored more than 30 goals in a season, and ‘Magic Man’ Pavel Datsyuk earned three Selkes, along with two Cups, while topping out at 32 goals.
After winning the Art Ross and Rocket Richard Trophies, Edmonton Oilers superstar Leon Draisaitl has said he has his sights set on capturing the Selke. Does Pettersson feel the same way?
“I would love to win it,” he said. “I take pride in it and want to be looked at that way, but that comes with playing good throughout the whole year. We’ll see how it goes.”
In Pettersson’s mind, Datsyuk’s contributions with the Red Wings are the gold standard.
“It would be hard to mimic his game fully,” Pettersson said. “I’m just trying to be me out there. Sometimes it goes wrong, but most times, it goes right. Just trying to play hard and the right way.”
This is an excerpt of a feature that appeared in The Hockey News' World Junior Championship issue. We provide scouting reports of the teams and players who will compete in the tournament, and a touch of holiday-themed content.
Elsewhere in the issue, we take a look at 2026 UFAs, and features on the PWHL, AHL, ECHL, NCAA and more.
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