The 2026 Winter Olympic Games seem to be off to a rocky start, and we’re still a good six weeks out from the opening ceremonies. When it comes to the sport of ice hockey, specifically, the rinks being built in Milan are running short on construction time and, well, on rink. In fact, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly has let it be known that the league and players’ association still have some safety concerns. If their expectations are not met in time for the games themselves, then the players will not play.

But those concerns are all outside the responsibility of the players themselves. For the players, the Olympics still represent an enormous opportunity – a golden opportunity. And there is no Vancouver Canuck who is more true for than the senior-most Elias Pettersson.

In the wake of the Quinn Hughes trade, Pettersson is one of the few Canucks’ remaining with a guaranteed Olympic roster spot. Filip Hronek will lead the Czech defence, and will probably be joined by Canucks teammate David Kämpf. Teddy Blueger is a longstanding shoo-in for Team Latvia, assuming he is back to health. Kevin Lankinen may make Team Finland, but is unlikely to start behind Juuse Saros. Thatcher Demko, Brock Boeser, and Conor Garland were all said to have a chance to make Team USA, but probably haven’t done enough this season to get it done. Marco Rossi would have been a slam-dunk for Team Austria, but they did not qualify for the tournament.

It’s really down to just Pettersson and Hronek playing leading roles for their teams at the 2026 Olympic Games. Of course, when it comes to Pettersson and his most recent experience of international hockey, perhaps ‘a leading role’ is assuming too much.

There is no danger of losing his spot on the Tre Kronor. The Swedish centre depth is too lacking, and Pettersson’s performance in 2025-26 has been enough of a rebound to prevent that from happening. But his place on the depth chart is still a bit in question after a 4 Nations performance that was about a 4/10.

Many in the Canucks fandom had hopes that the 4 Nations Face Off might provide a reset moment in a troubled 2024-25 campaign for Pettersson. The tournament came hot on the heels of the JT Miller debacle, and subsequent trade, and some designs on a dominant Pettersson performance putting him back on his regular track.

That did not happen. Instead, Pettersson brought his ongoing struggles with him to the tournament. Through three games prior to elimination with Sweden, Pettersson scored no points, took just two shots, and played a grand total of 40:36 – an average of less than 17 minutes a game.

Some found reason to praise Pettersson’s defensive performance at the 4 Nations, and that’s all well and good. But for the hopes of a Productive Petey returning to take over the rest of the 2024-25 campaign, it was a bit of a death-knell. Pettersson found himself sliding down the Swedish depth chart and was kept off the ice during key moments in close games.

To make matters worse, Pettersson picked up a nagging upper-body injury at the tournament that would continue to bother him throughout the remainder of the campaign.

In general, he returned to the Canucks a less healthy, less confident, and even less momentum-laden player than when he departed.

But there is reason to hope – or wish, if we’re keeping with our holiday theme – for a better result from the 2026 Olympic Games.

For one, Pettersson is a different player in 2025-26 than he was in 2024-25. The numbers still aren’t back to normal – 22 points in 28 games thus far – but Pettersson’s engagement, two-way coverage, and creativity all look miles ahead of where they were a year ago. Pettersson is playing like a player Sweden would want again, instead of a player they pretty much need to take by default, and that’s an important difference heading in.

This year, an injury has come ahead of the tournament, instead of during. It’s conspired to give Pettersson an abundance of time off around the holiday, and he’ll presumably return to action in late December, which should give him at least five weeks to get on a roll before the Olympics begin.

There’s also something to be said about the Swedish roster construction this year. Last time around, everyone was pretty sure that Pettersson was no longer Sweden’s top centre, but there was not exactly anyone making a major case to take over the role. Mika Zibanejad, Adrian Kempe, and Joel Eriksson Ek all took turns in that spot at times.

But the 2026 Olympics will be different, because Leo Carlsson has arrived as the next great Swedish centrepiece. The 20-year-old from Karlstad is in the midst of a true breakout season with 41 points in 36 games, and has turned into a true 1C for the Anaheim Ducks. He’ll enter the Olympics as Sweden’s top centre by a comfortable margin as a result.

Now, this might seem like a counterintuitive turn for our topic at hand. But it’s not. Think of it this way: Pettersson has been given very, very little in the way of support from other centres ever since Miller left town – and, if support is the word, maybe for a little while prior to that, too. The moment the Canucks finally landed a proper 2C in Rossi, Pettersson exited the lineup!

So, for Pettersson to line up as the 2C – at best – behind Carlsson is actually a position he hasn’t been in for a good long while. It’s a removal of pressure that he hasn’t experienced in about a year, and it could lead to some good things.

In fact, Pettersson might be in the perfect spot, sandwiched between Carlsson and Eriksson Ek. Carlsson can take on the premium offensive responsibilities, and Eriksson Ek the defensive. That leaves Pettersson in a nice position at 2C getting perhaps the easiest end of the duties, and that might allow him to focus entirely on offence – or at least more fully than he’s been allowed to in these more recent months.

It wouldn’t take all that much. We’re not asking for an MVP performance. But to see Pettersson put up a few goals and points at the Olympics, to perhaps re-spark some more of that creativity – perhaps while linking up with Carlsson on the power play – and to generally build up some momentum for the latter third of the regular season would go a long way toward restoring confidence.

No matter what happens, the 2025-26 season is probably a bust. Nobody is going to rely on anything that happens there to salvage the year, unlike last year with the 4 Nations. But it could make a difference in the ongoing mission to salvage Pettersson’s career as a 1C. The 2025 4 Nations put him further behind the eight-ball. All the 2026 Olympics needs to do is give him a boost in the other direction.