Elias Pettersson took part in the Canucks' morning skate ahead of Vancouver's match against the San Jose Sharks.
Surprise hit the Vancouver Canucks’ fanbase when Elias Pettersson left warmups early on December 6 against the Minnesota Wild. The center has missed eight games since his departure due to an unknown injury. With that being said, Pettersson did provide a little more insight into what he’s been dealing with throughout the past couple of weeks during a media availability today.
“A lot of pain trying to shoot the puck,” Pettersson explained earlier today regarding how he’d felt with the injury.
The forward also added that he hadn’t known he wasn’t going to play against the Wild on that particular night. Initially, the plan had been to get on the ice and see how things went from there.
“You don’t know. You can feel better off the ice, but when you get on the ice, it feels better, but trying was too much pain. But it’s in the past.”
All that said, Pettersson is “excited to be back” and ready to start up play with a new-look Canucks team. The last time Pettersson played, the team was with one major player but without three of their most recently-acquired young talents. In some ways, Pettersson is returning to a vastly different team from the one he departed from, as Zeev Buium, Marco Rossi, and Liam Öhgren have all joined since his injury.
“Obviously, a big change since the last time I played, but the new guys have been looking good.”
The big change on Vancouver’s blueline is the departure of Quinn Hughes, who was traded to the Minnesota Wild on December 12 in exchange for the crop of talented young players now in the Canucks’ lineup. Pettersson, who has played in all but one full season with Hughes during his NHL career, also spoke on the defenceman’s trade.
“Quinn is Quinn, we all know how good he is. Tough to lose him. Friend for a long time for me, but it's a business at the end of the day,” Pettersson said. “We’ve got to accept [...] the return we got, the players are looking good, so just turn the page and move forward.”
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