Bruce Boudreau shares what we can expect from Elias Pettersson this season

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Cooper Godin
September 27, 2024 (8:25)

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Former Vancouver Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau recently shared what we can expect from Elias Pettersson this season.

For most players, having 89 points in a single season would be an incredible achievement and something that most in the league won't reach in their career. But for Vancouver Canucks forward Elias Pettersson, 89 points is considered a down year when compared to the 102 he had in 2022-23.

On Friday's edition of SC with Jay Onrait, former Vancouver Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau shared his thoughts on Elias Pettersson and what we can expect from him during the 2024-25 season after he sustained a knee injury back in January.

"I expect a big bounce back and I mean, again, I really love the player, I think he's super talented and has great vision. If you look at last year, most of the year, he played with Mikheyev and Kuzmenko, that's not really putting him in a position to succeed. I don't think Mikheyev scored a goal in his last 40 games or something and Kuzmenko they traded because they didn't like what they saw." Boudreau said.

He added, "I think if they give him two really good forwards, because he's going to get his powerplay and penalty killing time, I think he will be really successful, I think the team is really good. Every time I was coaching him, he wanted to play against the best players. He wanted to be the guy in the decision, if the game was on the line, he wanted to be that guy. So he's the kind of guy, if people think he didn't think he had a good playoff and last portion of the year, he's going to come in very determined this year. So I expect really good things from him."

Pettersson, 25, had a slow second half of the regular season and wasn't good in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, when the Canucks needed him the most, only scoring one goal in 13 games. He later attributed his lack of success to a knee injury and said that he'd be back to 100% and ready to go for the start of the 2024-25 campaign.

If Elias Pettersson is put on a line with Jake DeBrusk and then someone like Jonathan Lekkerimaki or Nils Hoglander or even Daniel Sprong, he's going to have plenty of success and an opportunity to get back to being a 100-point player in the National Hockey League.