Why Vancouver Canucks Superstar Elias Pettersson Was Thrown Under the Bus by Head Coach Rick Tocchet

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Maverick Mitchell
October 31, 2024 (1:11 PM)

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Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet throws Elias Pettersson under the bus to the media after he feels there is a lack of initiative to get better on his end.

Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet is at his wits end with Elias Pettersson, you can tell that by his comments and body language when discussing his early season struggles. He clearly feels that he is not doing enough to to change his fortunes around.

Elias Pettersson signed an 8-year, $92,800,000 contract last March, which holds a $11,600,000 cap hit per season. As the highest paid player on the team, he is playing for from it, in 9 games so far, he's only scored 1 goal and 3 assists for 4 points, with a +/- of -3.

It is one thing to have low numbers, all players have slumps, but the issues surrounding Pettersson runs deeper than that. There have been questions of a lack of effort and commitment to wanting to get better, and Rick Tocchet feels the same way.

Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet questions Elias Pettersson's commitment

In a recent interview, when asked about the issues surrounding Elias Pettersson, Tocchet eluded to the fact that the superstar forward's struggles are self induced, and that his work ethic may be questionable.

(paraphrasing)

Today, Tocchet was asked if Petey's struggles were a result of losing confidence. Tocchet responded with "confidence is watching video & working hard in practice".

Rick was then asked if he's seen enough of that from Petey. Tocchet replied "in spurts".

By what Toch said, Pettersson has to take responsibility for his actions, he needs to realize that he needs to dedicate himself to every aspect of the game in order to start making an impact, and as it looks right now, his interest level to do so is not there.