Part 2: Elias Pettersson has a chance to move into the top 10 in all-time scoring for the Vancouver Canucks with another big season
Elias Pettersson has accomplished plenty in his first five seasons in the National Hockey League. He was rookie of the year in 2018-19, he has appeared in a pair of NHL All Star games and last season cracked the 100-point mark for the first time.
With all of that, Pettersson has positioned himself to move into the top 10 in Canucks franchise scoring. To do so, he'll need a repeat of the 102 point season he fashioned last season. The 24-year-old Swede starts his sixth season in the league with 323 career points in 325 games. He should move past the 400 point and 400 games played mark at some point late next season.
Before then, Pettersson needs just five points to leap over Mattias Ohlund and to catch Cliff Ronning for 20th spot in franchise scoring. The way Pettersson produces that could happen in the first week of the season. Should the slick centre post a second straight 100-point campaign, Pettersson would move to 423 career points which would bump Bo Horvat and his 420 points to 11th allowing Pettersson to take up residence in the franchise's top 10.
A 40-goal season would give Pettersson 176 in his career which would move him past Petri Skriko into the top 15 in all-time goals scored in Canuck colours.
Pettersson also starts the new season 27th in all-time assists with 187. That means he'll get to 200 in short order and if he can reach the 60-assist mark he will slide in behind Brendan Morrison and sit 12th on the all-time list. He'd need a 70 assist season to catch Morrison.
Another milestone within Pettersson's reach is a top 5 spot in all-time game winning goals for the franchise. Pettersson currently sits with 22 career game-winners which is 13th in franchise history. Three more will get him a share of 10th place along with Horvat and Ryan Kesler. If he goes off and scores 10 game winners next season, Pettersson will join the Russian Rocket Pavel Bure for fifth on the all-time list.
Pettersson starts into the new season with seven career short-handed goals. That's tied for 10th all-time along with countrymen Henrik Sedin and Thomas Gradin as well as Brendan Morrison. Three more short-handed markers would match Ryan Kelser's 10 and four more would equal the 11 Bo Horvat scored in his time here. The top five on the list are Pavel Bure (24), Alex Burrows (17), Trevor Linden (15) and Stan Smyl along with Alex Mogilny both at 13.
If it hasn't been clear from the outset, Elias Pettersson is forging one of the greatest careers as a Vancouver Canuck. And the 2023-24 season should see him take significant strides along that path.
In part three of our series, we'll look at some of the milestones within reach for JT Miller next season.
Previous instalments in this series: