Welcome to the 2025–26 installment of The Hockey News - Vancouver Canucks’ Player Report Card Series. Throughout the off-season, THN will conduct a deep-dive into how each member of the Canucks performed throughout the 2025–26 season. Today’s article will focus on forward Elias Pettersson. 

There was no player on the Canucks, or potentially even the NHL as a whole, under more pressure heading into the 2025–26 season than Pettersson. 

Exiting this year, the forward has only contributed to the polarizing image surrounding his mysterious status. 

Despite once again leaving things to be desired from the better-half of his performances on somewhat of a nightly basis, the center still led the Canucks in points by the end of the season with 15 goals and 36 assists in 74 games played. He also finished tied with Linus Karlsson for the fourth-most goals scored of players still on Vancouver’s roster by the end of the year. 

There are, of course, factors that play into Pettersson’s individual performance. Injuries, familial matters, and more set the forward back a fair bit on the ice. Adding to that are the multiple changes throughout the year left Vancouver with a roster that didn’t quite find its legs until the tail-end of the season. 

While his performance as a whole was far from the star player Pettersson has shown himself to be in the past, there were times this year that the center showed flashes of greatness. Through a 10-game span in November, the forward put together a notable five-goal, seven-assist stretch that saw him play some of his best hockey of the season. He also finished the year with the most blocks of all forwards in the NHL with 108, a total that set a new single-season franchise record.  

On the topic of records, Pettersson continued to cement himself in Vancouver’s books despite his overall season performance. He tallied his 500th-career NHL point on March 24 against the Anaheim Ducks while also sliding into ninth all-time in franchise history in power play points on the same night. In January, he claimed possession of ninth all-time in assists as a Canuck. Pettersson also scored his 200th-career NHL goal this season, putting him only one back of ninth in franchise history. 

One slight point of concern that dates back to the 2024–25 season is Pettersson’s low shot totals compared to the rest of his career. While he’d logged an average of 3.21 and 2.52 shots per game in two of his most offensively-productive seasons respectively, 2022–23 and 2023–24, this season, he only registered 1.78. This was the second-lowest shots per-game total he produced throughout his career, with only last year’s total of 1.7 ranking lower. 

In his end-of-season media availability, Pettersson once again re-iterated his desire to get better. 

“I want to be the best player out there. And obviously, it hasn’t gone the way I wanted the last two seasons and a half. But it’s like trying to change up [...] see what I did good, what felt good, what [did] not felt good. Change up my summer training, and go from there. I know I have a lot of good hockey in me, and I haven’t showed it, but I’m confident in myself, but definitely will change up my training a little bit with certain things.” 

While the 2025–26 season was expected to be a bounce-back year for Pettersson, the forward was unable to put up a consistent showing throughout the entire season. For his overall effort on the season, Pettersson receives a C. 

Whether Pettersson is able to build his performance back up again for the 2026–27 season will be dependent on a few different things. Having a new but familiar coach in Manny Malhotra may help him rediscover having fun while playing hockey, while locker room leaders in Luke Schenn and Brendan Gallagher could help the team improve their environment as a whole — something that could contribute to the forward getting back to his most efficient style of game. That said, given that Vancouver’s new management staff has not been shy about their desire to make changes up-and-down the lineup, this will all depend on whether Pettersson is even with the Canucks to start the next season or not. 

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