Prior to this season, the Vancouver Canucks’ senior-most Elias Pettersson had been struggling for so long that it’ll take a lot more than ten good games to convince most people that he’s truly bounced back. That said, step one of that process was 10 good games, and Pettersson has indeed had 10 good games to start the 2026-27 campaign.

Through 10, he’s got 10 points: three goals and seven assists. The 10 points lead the Canucks and put Pettersson in a tie for 24^th overall in NHL scoring. Over a full 84-game schedule, he’s on pace for 84 points (easy math there) and 25 goals. He’s skating 19:33 a night on average, the most ice time he’s received since 2023-24, and he’s already managed to throw 30 hits, which is almost half of the 67 he threw in the entire 2025-26 season.

It’s a good start for Pettersson, no doubt, and a fantastic start in the context of his more recent performance. But it’s not Pettersson’s best 10-game start ever…not by a long shot. With that in mind, we decided to take a look at each of Pettersson’s 10-game starts throughout his career to see exactly how this one compares.

It might be a bit hard to remember now, but Pettersson arrived in the NHL with the speed and impact of a guided missile. He managed an incredible ten goals in his first 10 games and added six assists for an impressive total of 16 points.

Amazingly enough, this was not Pettersson’s best start of all time, but it was his second-best, and it set a standard that has been difficult for Pettersson to maintain through the rest of his career.

Pettersson’s second start wasn’t quite as hot as his first, but it wasn’t a sophomore slump, either. Three goals in his first 10 games would come to be pretty typical for Pettersson, as you’d see, and this time around he added more assists to the mix to remain over the PPG threshold through his first ten.

This was Pettersson at the very least maintaining his considerable rookie momentum. 

The first slower start of Pettersson’s career came in Year 3, though it must be noted that this was a strange year, and due to the pandemic, these games were played in January. It was another three-goal start for Pettersson, but this time he only added three assists for a total of six. That was fitting for what proved to be an injury- and otherwise shortened, lacklustre third NHL campaign. 

The slow starts continued for Pettersson in Year 4. He only managed a single goal and four assists through 10 games, putting him at a mere 0.5 PPG. He would rebound to post a career-high 68 points over the course of the full season, but that was still a slower PPG rate than his first two seasons overall, and some questions were beginning to be raised about his consistency. Which would, of course, only continue in the years to come.

Pettersson got back on track in 2022-23, which would prove to be easily his greatest season to date. His four-goal, 10-point start was considerably better than his most recent two starts, but almost seems subdued compared to the 102-point finish he’d eventually achieve. This was a high-water mark for Pettersson, to be sure, but it was a case of him building up momentum throughout the entire year…and then carrying into the following year’s start.

Here lies the greatest start of Elias Pettersson’s NHL career. Five goals in 10 games is one thing, and a 42-goal pace in and of itself, but that almost pales in comparison to the blistering pace of 14 assists.

Unfortunately, there was a notable fall-off pending. Pettersson only managed 70 points across the rest of the season, and his career lull had officially begun, though we may not have realized it at the time.

The alarm bells continued into 2024-25. This was, of course, the year it all sort of fell apart for the Canucks, and that’s clearly reflected by Pettersson’s worst start ever. This reportedly led to further conflict in the room, especially as Pettersson more or less maintained this scoring pace for the remainder of the season, even after JT Miller was traded out of town.

Pettersson’s 2025-26 start was decent enough that there were some early whispers of a comeback, though those dissipated soon enough. Another three-goals-in-10-games start only turned into 15 goals across the entire season and what would be the lowest point-per-game rate of Pettersson’s entire career.

By this point, the narrative of decline had firmly taken hold.

And here we are at the present day. Pettersson’s start to the 2026-27 season isn’t his hottest ever, but it is his hottest in a while. It’s tied for his fourth-best start ever, and marks the fourth time in his career he’s started with three goals in his first 10 games.

It’s probably not enough to declare the comeback officially on, but it does indicate that Pettersson is on the right track, or at least a better track than he’s been on of late. Those days of absolute peak Pettersson might be fully in the rearview mirror, but what we’ve got so far is a definite improvement, and that’s not for nothing.