How did Elias Pettersson’s 102 points compare with other 100-point Canucks campaigns?

With 39 goals, 63 assists, and 102 points in 80 games, there’s little doubt as to which Vancouver Canuck had the most impressive 2022/23 season: it’s official team MVP Elias Pettersson.

In fact, with the seventh-highest single season point total in franchise history, Pettersson is now putting up numbers so grandiose that they can only really be understood in a historical context.

So, that’s the context we’re going to seek today in the wake of the season’s conclusion.

Five other Vancouver Canucks have put up 100 points or greater in a single season: Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, Markus Naslund, Alexander Mogilny, and Pavel Bure twice.

Below, we’ll attempt to stack those 100+-point campaigns up against each other, to see just how impressive Pettersson’s performance really was, and where it ranks in the all-time franchise annals.

If we’re just talking total points, Pettersson’s 102 rank at the very bottom of the list of 100+-point Canucks. That said, it’s not a very big range, and Henrik Sedin is only ten points ahead in first place.

If we consider games played and points-per-game, Pettersson sneaks two places up the list, with his 1.28 PPG just barely edging out Daniel Sedin and Naslund’s 1.27 PPG.

Again, the range here isn’t very big, with the exception of Bure’s 107 points in 76 games back in 1993/94 for a PPG of 1.41. That probably puts Bure into a comfortable lead for most impressive scoring season, at least by the raw numbers.

Of course, scoring rates fluctuate over time, the league goes through highs and lulls, and some NHL seasons are just plain easier to score in than others.

In that regard, it’s worth noting that the average goals-per-game for an NHL team in 2022/23 was 3.18, which is right in the middle of the pack for seasons in which a Canuck scored 100 points.

It’s a lower rate than either of Bure’s seasons, about the same as Mogilny’s, and significantly higher than the seasons of Henrik, Daniel, and Naslund.

In other words, Pettersson was probably boosted by a leaguewide uptick in scoring, but not as much as Bure was back in the mid-’90s.

Another way to measure the impressiveness of any given 100+-point season is to look at how many other NHL players achieved that same feat that same year.

This basis of comparison is not particularly generous to Bure or Mogilny, who skated in an era of high scoring and ridiculous individual totals. When Bure put up those big numbers in 1992/93, he was one of 20 to crack the century mark, and only finished 13th in NHL scoring.

Compare that with Henrik, who led the league in scoring in 2009/10 with three other 100-point scorers behind him, or Daniel who was the only player to crack 100, period, in 2010/11.

Of course, this method has its flaws. Sidney Crosby, for instance, was in his prime during 2010/11, but spent more than half the year injured. Had he not been injured, surely he would have cracked 100, too.

In any case, here Pettersson again falls toward the lower-end of the middle of the pack. He was one, and the lowest-ranked, of ten 100+-point scorers. His results are quite similar to Mogilny’s, but nowhere near as impressive as Daniel, Henrik, or Naslund.

It’s not just about what’s going on around the league during any given season, either. No player can score consistently on their own, and so their team scoring rate undoubtedly plays a factor in their own personal success.

Bure, Bure, and Mogilny (attorneys at law) all played on higher-scoring Canucks squads than Pettersson, but only that 1992/93 season was way over and above.

Henrik and Naslund played for slightly lower-scoring Canucks teams, but only barely.

Once again, it is Daniel who stands out from the crowd. When he scored 104 points in 2010/11, he did so on a roster that was scoring nearly one less goal per game than Bure’s 1992/93 teammates.

There is a bit of a chicken-and-egg to consider here, as a high-scoring individual naturally results in their team having a higher scoring rate. Bure’s team, for example, scored so much in part because Bure himself had 60 goals.

In any case, Pettersson, again, fits right into the middle on the 15th-highest scoring Canucks team of all time.

The gap between our 100-point scorers and their next closest teammate could also give us some indication as to who really put in a true solo effort.

Here, Bure’s 1992/93 can’t help but shine, with his 107 points a full 30 ahead of Geoff Courtnall’s 70.

Then there’s a close grouping of ‘93 Bure, Mogilny, and Henrik.

Next comes Pettersson, who finished an even 20 points ahead of JT Miller this past season. It’s not 37, but it’s still quite impressive and notable. Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but he’s at the bottom-end of the middle of the pack.

Then, at the bottom, come Daniel and Naslund with their +10 and +7 ratings, respectively.

Lastly, we’ll look at another, more traditional form of measuring a player’s individual contributions: the percentage of overall team offence that they provided, or how many of their team’s goals they were “in on.”

In this category, the range is again quite small, down to just 10% separating the top from the bottom. It’s ‘93 Bure who loses a bit of shine here for clearly having benefited from being on the highest-scoring Canucks team in history, by a long shot.
It’s Daniel and Henrik, who achieved their 100+-point campaigns on less potent rosters, who really stand out in having contributed more than 40% of their team’s offence.

But Pettersson isn’t all that far off at all with his 37.8%. Sure, it’s the second-lowest percentage of anyone else on the list, but we’re talking some pretty small margins. It’s just plain a lot of production from one player.

Which is as fine a place to conclude as any. By no means did Pettersson just put together the greatest season in Canucks history. Of these seven seasons, he’s probably going to be ranked between fifth and seventh at best. By some measures, what he put together was the least impressive 100-point season by a Vancouver Canuck.

But that’s the thing about 100-point seasons. Even the least impressive ones are still pretty damn impressive.