Over the first seven games of the 2025-26 season, ice time has been a big talking point surrounding the Vancouver Canucks. The main focus has been center Elias Pettersson, who ranks sixth among forwards on the team with 12:56 of even-strength ice time per game. The trend has become even more concerning over the past week as Pettersson has been below 13 minutes at even strength in each of the last four games. 

At morning skate on Thursday, Head Coach Adam Foote was asked about Pettersson's low even-strength ice time on Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. During the 5-1 loss, the Canucks number one center played 9:41 of even-strength ice time, which was the lowest among Vancouver's four centers. According to Foote, Pettersson's ice time was impacted by both the score and special teams' play. 

"It was eight minutes special teams and two, probably two shifts in the last eight minutes, because we're down five one or less, probably six or seven minutes," said Foote. "So when you're playing eight minutes on special teams, mainly because of our injuries, those are harder minutes. Killing penalties, things like that. And then you take the three games in three and a half days, where you look at Washington, physical hockey, and three hard road games, and he played really good. So you try to manage hard penalty kill minutes, hard PK minutes and 20 shifts when you're getting eight minutes compared to the previous year. 

Foote also spoke about Pettersson's being used in a matchup role. With Filip Chytil and Teddy Blueger out of the lineup, the 26-year-old is Vancouver's only center who has played over 150 games in the NHL. According to Foote, constantly playing matchup minutes has also impacted Pettersson's minutes recently. 

"He's going to have harder minutes five-on-five right now, because he's the most veteran center man, so we have to put him probably more starts in his end than we would prefer, but he's really good at finding his guy off face-offs and things like that."

Regardless of the result on Thursday, Pettersson's ice time will be a talking point on social media and on local shows Friday morning. While it is still early in the season, the Canucks need to find a way to get Pettersson more than 12:56 of even-strength ice time a game. If not, this discussion will continue to be a major talking point in the market.

Vancouver concludes their current road trip with a game against the Nashville Predators on Thursday night. The Canucks played with a depleted lineup against the Penguins and will be missing some key players when they take on Nashville. Puck drop is scheduled for 5:00 pm PT, and the game can be viewed on Sportsnet. 

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