To no one’s surprise, Canucks top prospect Elias Pettersson has been invited to the Swedish World Juniors preliminary roster

Pettersson is a lock to make the final roster and will be leaned upon heavily by the Swedes to produce offence. He and Lias Andersson have regularly played together on the international stage, but we could see Pettersson moved around the lineup to help balance the attack.

Pettersson has 11 goals and 20 assists in 24 SHL games. That leads the entire league by one point and leads all U20 players in the SHL by 18 points.

There is a lot to like about the Swedish roster – their defence is extremely mobile and they have some serious depth in the forward ranks.

Pettersson did suffer a slight knee injury yesterday in Vaxjo’s CHL game against Bern, but it was reported to be minor and shouldn’t keep the Canucks prospect out for very long.

At this moment – the Canucks have Pettersson, Olli Juolevi (Finland), and William Lockwood (USA) attending World Junior training camps. Team Canada will announce theirs in about an hour.