Canucks: Elias Pettersson maintains ‘I’ve got to be better’ after slow start

The centre has just one assist and three shots on goal through Vancouver’s opening three games and has not been the play driver the team needs him to be

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Published Oct 14, 2025 • 2 minute read

Elias Pettersson during the Oct. 3 pre-season game against the Edmonton Oilers. Photo by Jeff Vinnick /Vancouver Canucks

Elias Pettersson has just three shots on a goal through the Vancouver Canucks’ first three games and the centre admits that number isn’t nearly good enough.

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“I want three shots a game or even more,” Pettersson, 26, said after practice on Tuesday at Rogers Arena. “But maybe that’s a reflection we have to create more. I’ve got to be better.”

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Vancouver (1-2-0) leaves tomorrow for their first extended road trip of the season, a five gamer that starts Thursday against the Dallas Stars and wraps up Nov. 23 with a visit to the Nashville Predators.

There was lots of hype and hope coming into this season about a bounceback campaign for Pettersson, who slipped to 45 points in 64 regular season games last year after totalling 89 points in 82 games in 2023-24. He looked sharp in training camp and the pre-season, but he has a single assist to show for his first three games. He has not been the play driver yet this season that Vancouver needs him to be.

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Elias Pettersson (40) and Edmonton Oilers' Ty Emberson (49) battle for the puck during the third period in Edmonton on Saturday, October 11, 2025. — Elias Pettersson (40) and Edmonton Oilers’ Ty Emberson (49) battle for the puck during the third period in Edmonton on Saturday, October 11, 2025. Photo by JASON FRANSON /THE CANADIAN PRESS

For what it’s all worth, Pettersson recorded 257 shots in 80 games (3.21 shots per game) in 2022-23 and scored 39 times. He had 207 shots in 82 games (2.52) in 2023-24 and tallied 30 goals. He dipped to 109 shots in 64 games (1.70) last season and notched 15 goals.

Vancouver’s power play finding its footing would boost totals across the board with the Canucks. It’s off to an 0-for-7 start. The No. 1 unit has been featuring Quinn Hughes, Brock Boeser, Jake DeBrusk and Evander Kane alongside Pettersson.

“The talent is there. Everyone can score. We just need to keep working on it,” Pettersson said.

Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko maintained Tuesday that the “consistency level of our execution,” has been Vancouver’s biggest bugaboo and that “the things that have been lacking are super correctable.”

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“I think we had so much momentum in the pre-season games. I don’t think it’s going to take much to get back to that level and having that swagger as a group,” Demko said.

Pettersson added: “I think we’ve been creating some chances. I don’t think it’s been there consistently unfortunately.”

Pettersson started the season playing 5-on-5 between DeBrusk and Boeser, but coach Adam Foote switched up Pettersson and Filip Chytil during Monday’s game with St. Louis and had Pettersson centring Kane and Conor Garland. Foote talked Tuesday about going back to that again to start off in Dallas.

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SEwen@postmedia.com