Elias Pettersson Makes Team Sweden’s World Junior Hockey Championship Roster

Teams are finalizing their rosters ahead of the World Junior Hockey Championships, and today Team Sweden took their turn. They made their final cuts, sending Lukas Elvenes, David Gustafsson and Jacob Olofsson home. Elias Pettersson, meanwhile, officially made the cut.

Pettersson’s security on Team Sweden for the World Juniors was never really in doubt. From lighting the Allsvenskan up last season to setting scoring records in the SHL this year, he’s proven himself to be an elite talent regardless of his age. The only real question is whether he’ll make Team Sweden for the Olympics in Pyeongchang, but that’s a topic for another day.

Before leaving for Sweden’s selection camp, Pettersson was the SHL’s leading scorer with 35 points (11 goals and 24 assists) in 26 games. Last season, Pettersson had 41 points (19 goals and 22 assists) in 45 games.

One storyline to follow will be where Pettersson plays. The Canucks made a point of prioritizing a centre at last year’s draft, and Canucks general manager Jim Benning was adamant that they’d done that with the Pettersson pick at fifth overall. Centre is Pettersson’s natural position, but he’s played mostly on the wing in the last two seasons, which isn’t uncommon for someone his age who’s playing against men. Now that he’s playing against peers in his age group, I wonder if Sweden will move him to the middle of their lineup.

Sweden’s first game of the tournament comes on Boxing Day at 9 AM Pacific. The Pettersson .gif machine Ryan Biech will likely have you covered on Twitter, but CanucksArmy will be providing full recaps of the day’s action as it comes to a close, each day of the tournament.