LATEST | Tocchet revealed the reason why Pettersson is not a unanimous choice for captainship

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Felip Gosselin
May 1, 2023 (7:39 PM)

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Everybody was lucky enough to witness it. Elias Pettersson took his game to the next level this year and entered stardom as was expected of him ever since the Canucks drafted him. Author of 102 points this year in a down season, the Swede's been nothing short of fabulous for the Vancouver-based team.

The team has gone captain-less ever since Bo Horvat left the ship for Long Island and when he went away, he stated that Pettersson would be getting his vote for captainship moving forward.

While the team's leaders have undisputedly been J.T. Miller, Quinn Hughes, and Elias Pettersson, it seems that Rick Tocchet sees Pettersson behind in this race. The Canucks' bench boss was on the Missing Cufew podcast stated and explained his point of view on the subject:

''He's an interesting kid. He's very quiet. Not saying he's tough to get to know, but as the months went we developed a good relationship. He wants to be the best. He thinks he could be one of the best players to ever play the game. I love that swagger. Now to get there, I think it's about the leadership now. He's to drag people with him. That's his next level. He's uncomfortable speaking in front of his teammates. I told him the player you are, you have a lot of cachet when you speak. Young guys wanna hear you speak. He does it on the ice. Very special. He's a guy that for me, he's gonna get his points, but the next level is his leadership and I think he wants that. He's gotta get a little more uncomfortable, he's gotta learn to speak to his teammates. I'm so lucky to have him''

There's lots of confidence in Tocchet's speech regarding Pettersson's ability. Tocchet has stated on multiple occasions that he really liked Hughes and the way he stepped up every aspect of his game. Miller on his end has always been a leader in this locker room, whether it was positive or negative, he always had an important impact on the way the team played.

Tocchet has hope that Pettersson can take the next step in his development and there is no doubt that if he puts his mind to it, there are no limits to what the Canucks' number 40 can achieve. The persisting question though, does he need to wear the 'C' in order to achieve greatness?

SOURCE: Missing Curfew podacst