WATCH: Elias Pettersson reaches 30-goal, 300-point plateaus with snipe against Nashville

Vancouver Canucks forward Elias Pettersson opened the scoring with his 30th goal of the season — and the 300th point of his National Hockey League career — early in the first period of Monday’s game against the Nashville Predators.

Pettersson, 24, picked up the puck at the left circle in the offensive zone, waited for the right lane to open, and unleashed a bullet of a shot past Predators goaltender Juuse Saros to put Vancouver up 1–0 at the 4:32 mark of the opening frame.

Andrei Kuzmenko and Anthony Beauvillier picked up the assists on Pettersson’s 30th goal (in his 61st game) of the 2022–23 campaign. Pettersson previously scored 32 goals in 80 games with the Canucks during the 2021–22 season.

The Canucks originally selected Pettersson with the No. 5 pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, and it’s safe to say all these years later that it turned out to be a pretty good decision. The 6’2″ Swede has recorded 127 goals and 300 points in 306 games over parts of five seasons since joining the Canucks in 2018–19.

At this rate, it looks pretty likely that Pettersson will set a new career-high mark in goals (he’s already done so with assists and points). He needs just one more assist for 50 on the year and one more point to reach 80 for the first time in his career.

Pettersson is now the only player selected in the 2017 NHL Draft to score 300 points in the NHL. He required the second-fewest games to reach that plateau in Canucks history, behind only Pavel Bure (246 games) and one game ahead of Alexander Mogilny (307).

The Canucks currently lead the Predators by a 2–1 score late in the first period of Monday’s game at Rogers Arena. Vasily Podkolzin has the other goal for Vancouver while Colton Sissons picked up the lone tally for Nashville.

You can watch the game on Sportsnet Pacific in the Canucks broadcast region.