Recalling and ranking Elias Pettersson’s four career five-point games with the Canucks

Not that long ago, Elias Pettersson willed the Vancouver Canucks to victory over the Seattle Kraken. After missing six days due to illness, Pettersson was the best player on the ice, finishing with five points and the shootout winner.

This was Pettersson’s fourth five-point game of his career. At just 24 years old, he’s already the Canucks all-time franchise leader in 5+ point games. Two of those games have come this season as he evolves into one of the NHL’s best forwards and a true superstar.

While all of his five-point outings have been magical in some way, some have been greater than others. Here are all of Pettersson’s five-point games ranked from worst (or as bad as a five-point game can be) to best.

Pettersson’s first five-point night of 2022 came in November against the Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks have been one of the NHL’s worst teams this season and they struggled to contain Pettersson’s line throughout the entire night. The superstar managed to record an assist on each of winger Andrei Kuzmenko’s three third-period goals, giving the Russian his first career NHL hat trick.

While this was a great performance by Pettersson, it lands in fourth place on this list for a few reasons. The Canucks scored eight goals and there were plenty of points to go around. Kuzmenko had four himself and many other players had multiple. While Pettersson was the best forward on the ice, he didn’t need to drag the team to victory.

The Ducks also didn’t present the toughest competition, regularly allowing opponents to shred them to pieces. Still, this was a classic performance from Pettersson where he showed off with some magical passes.

This game marked Pettersson’s second five-point outing of his rookie season. Managing to score five points in an NHL game as a rookie is impressive enough, but doing so twice before Christmas is almost unheard of.

The most impressive part of this performance is the fact that Pettersson managed to grab five points while playing just 13:41. Loui Eriksson, Nikolay Goldobin, and Markus Granlund are just some of the forwards who saw more ice time than Petey. All five of his points also came at even strength.

While this game lacked the late-game dramatics of the next two on this list, Pettersson’s play was so dominant that there was no need for any suspense.

This was one of the most exciting games in recent Canucks history. The core group was young, full of potential, and facing off against an extremely talented Avalanche team. This game featured 13 total goals and Pettersson was everywhere, scoring twice and assisting on three more.

His insane skillset was on full display as Pettersson, playing in just his ninth NHL game, made plays that we normally only see from the most creative of veterans, such as this bounce pass off the boards that resulted in a Brock Boeser goal.

When the Avalanche scored with just under 1:30 left in the third period to take the lead, all seemed lost for the Canucks. However, it was Pettersson that equalized, finding the top corner with a well-placed laser beam of a shot. That wouldn’t be it for the Swedish star who also managed to get the primary assist on Derrick Pouliot’s overtime winner.

This achievement made Pettersson the youngest Canuck ever to record five points in a single game. This was a standout performance that cemented his status as one of the world’s brightest stars.

After missing a few days with an illness, Pettersson suited up for the game against the Kraken still feeling negative effects. You wouldn’t have been able to tell by his performance against the Kraken as he put together the best game of his career. He contributed towards every single Canucks goal, singlehandedly winning the game and temporarily stopping the Canucks slide down the standings.

To top it all off, Pettersson scored the shootout winner, sliding the puck past Kraken goalie (and North Vancouver native) Martin Jones. It was the cherry on top of one of the best individual efforts in Canucks history.

It’s not often that a single player is so directly responsible for a win in the NHL. Pettersson put the team on his back and dragged them across the finish line. The other three Canucks forward lines were next to invisible and didn’t contribute much of anything at even strength.

Pettersson is a special talent that the Canucks should feel lucky to have in their organization. It’s only a matter of time before he adds manages to have another big performance and this list needs to be extended, perhaps as soon as the end of this year.