Pettersson Sounds Different Heading Into a New Canucks Season

There’s something pretty refreshing about hearing Elias Pettersson talk about the Vancouver Canucks right now. There’s no grand prediction, no promise that everything is suddenly going to turn around. He just sounds like a guy who is happy to be back on the ice and ready to play some hockey again.

That might sound small. It probably isn’t.

The Canucks Had a Tough Season and Face Another One

The Canucks are coming off a difficult season, finishing with just 71 points and sitting eighth in the Pacific Division. They’ve turned the page pretty quickly, with a younger-looking roster and a new general manager in Ryan Johnson. There’s a lot of uncertainty around this team. Pettersson seems perfectly comfortable admitting that and getting on with it.

“I’m just excited to play hockey again, whether it’s wins or losses,” Pettersson said. “We’re just going to try to stack the days, get better every day, and see where it takes us.” Honestly, that sounds like a pretty good place to start.

The Canucks Are Pulling Together Positively

Pettersson said the mood around the team has been positive since the players got back on the ice. There’s excitement about the new group and the chance to start building something, even if nobody really knows yet what that something will look like. And there’s an interesting piece to that in his relationship with Johnson. Pettersson has known the new GM for a long time, and the two have stayed in contact through the summer. Pettersson said the conversations have been open and productive.

More importantly, Johnson isn’t asking Pettersson to become somebody he isn’t. “He wants you to be yourself,” Pettersson said. “They don’t want to ask you to do something that’s out of your comfort zone or doesn’t put your game in the best position.”

It sounds simple enough, but after spending the past couple of seasons under a microscope, that mindset could mean a lot for Pettersson. He doesn’t need to completely change his game—he just needs to start trusting it again.