Welcome back to The Hockey News - Vancouver Canucks site’s 2024–25 report card series. Today, we’ll be reviewing center Elias Pettersson’s season.
It’s no secret that the 2024–25 season was a rough one for Pettersson. Coming off an 89-point year in 2023–24, expectations were that he would repeat a similar performance despite only having a goal and five assists in 13 postseason games. This ultimately didn’t happen, as Pettersson faced injuries and other setbacks that resulted in him putting up a career-low points per game pace of 0.7.
One noticeable thing about Pettersson’s game this season was his lack of shooting. In the past two seasons, he’d registered 257 and 207 shots on goal in 2022–23 and 2023–24 respectively. In 2024–25, he put up 109. The only season in which he has had less is 2020–21, during which he only played in 26 games. His shooting percentage also dipped to a career-low 13.8% this past season, nearly 2% lower than the next lowest. One could count on their hand the amount of times they saw Pettersson fire one of his trademark top-of-the-circle one-timers this season — which isn’t a good sign.
Despite it not being the most reliable stat, Pettersson also posted his first negative plus-minus in his career. In every season prior, he either finished the year with a positive plus-minus, or one set at 0. This season, he ended the year with -10. With that being said, the entire roster had pretty poor performances in terms of this stat. Conor Garland (-13), Jake DeBrusk (-15), and Brock Boeser (-25) all had lower ratings than Pettersson, while Marcus Pettersson led the team with (+6).
Off the ice, this season was not a good one for Pettersson. The rift between himself and J.T. Miller caught fire in the fall and lasted up until the latter was traded at the end of January. Regardless of the two players’ stances towards each other, this storyline took over any and all Canucks-related headlines throughout that time period. It got to the point where Pettersson spoke on it, telling the media, “I don’t know why people still try and make s—t up.”
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As well as the rift, Pettersson dealt with multiple bouts of injuries, with the first dating back to the 2024 off-season. Knee tendinitis resulted in the forward missing valiuable healthy training time during the previous off-season. He also missed time in December of 2024 after netting a two-goal performance against the San Jose Sharks. Finally, an oblique injury took him out for the rest of the season in mid-March.
To put it frankly, the Elias Pettersson that shined in his Calder Memorial Trophy-winning season wasn’t present this year. Fans saw flashes of this player and the potential he has in single games this season — January 11 against the Toronto Maple Leafs, for example — but overall, it was like watching a completely different person.
"He's Got A Lot To Motivate Him, And I Believe He'll Do It.": Canucks Jim Rutherford Discusses His Expectations For Elias Pettersson
The 2024-25 season was disappointing for center Elias Pettersson. He dealt with injuries throughout the year, while his rift with J.T. Miller reached a level that forced the organization to trade the 32-year-old to the New York Rangers. Overall, Pettersson recorded 45 points in 64 games, which was the second-lowest of his seven-year NHL career.
This season was a bit of an outlier for many different reasons. Many can draw attention to the fact that this was the first year of Pettersson’s eight-year, $11.6M AAV contract that he signed back in January of 2024. Others may point fingers at the rift that put the fanbase in a frenzy. At the end of the day, Pettersson’s 2024–25 season wasn’t good enough, and nobody knows that more than he does. Because of this, he receives a C for the season. With an off-season of training and big-name team players locked up long-term, Pettersson will need to show his haters that the 2024–25 season was a one-off and that he can be the franchise center that the team knows he can be.
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