Psychological factors behind Elias Pettersson's prolonged slump revealed

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Maverick Mitchell
October 18, 2024 (3:23 PM)

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There is no question that Vancouver Canucks superstar forward Elias Pettersson is not playing up to his talent and for that matter, his massive contract. In this analysis, we look at the effects signing a monster deal does to a player.

We want to be clear, everyone here at Canucks Daily are huge supporters of EP40 and think that the media and fans are being to hard on him in general, which in turn is only making things worse and adding more pressure to the situation. We understand that his contract is huge, and that he is not playing up to it right now, but we also feel he gets a bad wrap in general, especially with the kind of numbers he put up last season.

Now that is out of the way, we use Elias Pettersson as a case study to show the effects of signing a deal can have on performance.

Psychological Factors effecting Elias Pettersson

Elias Pettersson has had a less than stellar start to the 2024-2025 season for the Vancouver Canucks, but it seems that every game that goes by, the more and more hate and criticism he is receiving. Understandably so, Pettersson signed a 8- year, $92,800,00 contract worth $11,600,000 AAV.

He was fully expected to lead this team moving forward, and get them back to a true Stanley Cup contending group, but his play seems uninterested and no where near to his caliber. His contract which was signed last March has only kicked in this season and he is now the highest paid player on the team, but is hardly playing like it, actually, far from it.

One, is that the 2017 fifth overall draft pick is now resting on his laurels, having finally bagged the big deal. The other, is that he's struggling to deal with the pressure which accompanies such a significant amount of money.

Many believe he no longer cares, that he has worked so hard up to this point that after securing his future, and is financially set for life, that the motivation and effort is no longer is there. It could be true, but we think there is something else going on.

We here at Canucks Daily have the same opinion as the Canucks Way, where we believe that Pettersson could have some motivation issues, but mostly that he is dealing with an going knee injury that he disclosed at the end of season press conference last year.

It would explain him not finishing checks, not forechecking as deliberately and not putting up the type of numbers we are seeing, but we have to stress that it is still only 4 games into the season and you can fully expect him to turn it around sooner ratchet than later.