Great read and pass across by Gallagher, even better finish by DePetey. What a laser beam. #Canucks
CanucksArmy has no direct affiliation to the Vancouver Canucks, Canucks Sports & Entertainment, NHL, or NHLPA
3 Canucks Stars of the Week: Elias Pettersson(s) shines despite early-season losing streak
Photo credit: James Guillory-Imagn Images
Oct 12, 2026, 15:00 EDTUpdated: Oct 12, 2026, 13:04 EDT
Welcome back to Stars of the Week at Daily Faceoff Vancouver! Every week, we’ll be bringing you our Top Three best and brightest performers on the Vancouver Canucks that week. Disagree with our picks or have your own stars to nominate? Let us know in the comments below!
Excellent news from the road this week: the Vancouver Canucks are sixth in the Pacific Division. The previously postponed tank for the 2027 Draft Lottery campaign has been rescheduled expeditiously.
The Canucks have now dropped four games in a row, tallying up three consecutive losses on their East Coast road trip this week. The Metropolitan Division is, respectfully, curb-stomping the Canucks into road dust, with the New York Islanders still left to go on Tuesday.
Make no mistake, however: this is a positive thing. Or, at the very least, decidedly neutral. This week’s Canucks looked much closer to what a rebuilding team should be, and the flashes of high-scoring affairs in the first week of the season are now evidently more of a fluke than an expectation. Between Vancouver’s shaky goaltending – someone, please, give poor Kevin Lankinen a Red Bull or something – and glaring defensive lapses, the scores lately have been as lopsided as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Canucks do not yet have the offensive zone juice to make up for their back end getting repeated error message pop-ups on their browser, but they’re making progress!
That’s all to be expected from a team that, just a few months ago, was last in the league. It’s still early in the year, and as long as the team keeps a positive attitude and shows up to play for each other, they can still lose in good faith. A rebuild can be a long and winding road, and this group is still learning how to play together, let alone well enough to stage miraculous third-period comebacks. It would still be nice to see a little more late-game effort, but there are 77 games left to go, after all.
That said, there are some mysteries left remaining that the Canucks will, apparently, never be able to answer, such as: will Thatcher Demko ever return to the crease? Do his hips still exist? Will Aatu Räty ever be allowed in the lineup for more than one game at a time again? We don’t yet have the science to answer these questions. Reports say some of the greatest minds of our generation are currently on the case.
I, for one, have made my peace with the answers and standout performers we have, for now. Let’s get into it.
Elias Pettersson (Defenceman)
D-Petey has passed the eye test as one of the stronger blueliners over the entire season so far, but he was particularly stellar this week.
The Canucks’ uneven loss to the New York Rangers was the Peteybowl, the first time EP40 and EP25 were facing off against former Vancouver teammate Marcus Pettersson since he was traded out East this past summer. Goodbye, MP3. I will miss calling you MP3. And P3tey. And all the various other joke iterations you could think of.
Beyond his overall defensive prowess and scrappy physicality, which have been kicked up a notch, Pettersson has had an offensive burst lately, culminating in a beautiful shorthanded goal against the Rangers. Not exactly what we meant when we said the Canucks really needed to improve their penalty kill, but hey, I’ll take it!
This is one of those goals that makes you do a double-take to make sure you read the right ‘Pettersson’ on the back of the jersey. While this Pettersson has looked speedy with a shot to boot this year, the other Elias Pettersson (EP40) has found his footing again, throwing his body around like a bulldozer and calling on his defensive skills to make an impact. Yes, the former is a defenceman, and the latter is a forward. They pulled a Freaky Friday swap. One of these days the two may just combine to create the ultimate MegaPettersson.
While in New York, D-Petey also thankfully emerged unscathed after he took an accidental skate blade to the chest from the ghost of Canucks centres past. Et tu, Millsy?
Scary moment late in the game as D-Petey gets J.T. Miller's skate to the chest. Thankfully, he seems to be all right. #Canucks
All in all, it’s been a joy to see the younger E. Pettersson really come into his own this season. Let’s hope he keeps it up.
Jake DeBrusk
It’s certainly been a week for Jake DeBrusk, starting his season off on the right foot, but for the second time. After bouncing back from the flu and a card convention last week (unrelated to the flu; his Pokémon pastime is just too fun not to mention as much as possible), DeBrusk returned to the lineup after missing two games.
debrusk in his natural habitat talking about pokemon cards
DeBrusk has clicked well on the top line alongside Jonathan Lekkerimäki and Elias Pettersson, and the line combined for three goals across two games this week. DeBrusk had a four-point (3G 1A) week overall, and he scored both lone Canucks goals against the reigning Stanley Cup champs, the Carolina Hurricanes. Ignoring the five-goal deficit the Canucks ended up in against the Canes, he was truly dialled in. DeBrusk also found himself back on his usual spot on the first power play unit – DeBrusk is a well-known power play scorer, actually almost exclusively on the power play last season – but almost all of his points have come at even strength, save for an assist against the New Jersey Devils this week. Not bad for a guy who probably still has a little bit of the sniffles lingering.
Elias Pettersson (Forward)
Elias Pettersson (EP40) has been doing all the right things to try to get his game back this year, and it’s noticeable.
Pettersson has eight points in seven games, well within the purview of approaching or reaching point-per-game level this season, if we employ a little optimism. While he has yet to find the back of the net since the first two games of the season – the Edmonton Oilers just bring out a strong sense of spite in him, as they should – if he keeps playing the way he has been, he’ll be scoring again sooner rather than later.
TEE IT UP PETEY ON THE POWER PLAY! 🚀
For those of you keeping score, Pettersson is currently second in hits in the entire NHL. Funny enough, he’s second only to former Canuck Kiefer Sherwood, who seems to still be thriving down in San Jose. Pettersson has 26 hits, 10 behind Sherwood’s 36. For context, Sherwood came second in the entire league in hits last season at 339, while Pettersson put up 67 total. EP40 has already put up nearly 39% of his total hits last season. He has already put up almost 16% of his entire point total from last year. Let’s see if and when he surpasses both of those thresholds this season.
Sponsored by bet365
Breaking News
- 3 Canucks Stars of the Week: Elias Pettersson(s) shines despite early-season losing streak
- JPat’s Monday Mailbag: What more do we need to see from Zeev Buium?
- The Statsies: D Elias Pettersson lights up the stat sheet in Canucks’ loss to Rangers
- The Stanchies: Canucks serve up defensive zone breakdowns in Thanksgiving loss to Rangers
- Instant Reaction: Canucks struggle defending off the rush in 6-2 loss to Rangers
Vancouver CanucksTeam Cap Summary
Cap Summary
2026-27
2027-28
Projected Cap Hit
$88,074,947
$71,329,167
Projected Cap Space
$15,925,053
$42,170,833
Current Cap Space
$16,975,056
$42,170,833
Active Players
23/23
13/23
Draft Picks
Round
'27
'28
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
1
1