It’s no surprise that Vancouver Canucks forward Elias Pettersson hasn’t looked up to par from what fans are used to seeing.

His 11 goals and 23 assists for 34 points are on pace to be the worst statistical season of his career. With him missing six games due to injury, Pettersson is on a 76-game pace to score 17 goals and 36 assists for 53 points.

Excluding his 26-game, 21-point 2020 season, Pettersson’s previous low point totals were back in the first two seasons of his career, where he scored 66 points in 71 and 68 games. That’s a 15-point slide from his previous worst career high in the first season of his new $11.6 million contract.

Now, Pettersson has had to deal with some off-ice noise. There was the rift with JT Miller, which became the talk of the NHL and ultimately led to his name popping up in trade rumours — one that was reportedly nearly completed to send him to the Carolina Hurricanes. But dating back even further, Pettersson’s agent spoke about how he had a difficult summer and wasn’t able to train to the level he wanted to.

While these stats alone say enough about how tough the year has been on Pettersson, even by the eye test, you can see something’s just not right.

Where is the speed we once saw Pettersson have?

Where has the blistering shot gone? He won the Hardest Shot competition at the 2023 NHL All-Star game.

Speaking of his shot, where’s the volume been lately?

Where are the plays where he puts both his speed and shot on display that we saw do for his first NHL goal?

Let’s dive into some of his NHL Edge stats and see just how different Pettersson’s numbers are this season and compare them to the previous two seasons.

Let’s work our way to present day.

Here is Pettersson’s overview from the 2022/2023 season.

This was Pettersson’s best year in the NHL. He scored 39 goals and 63 assists in 80 games, eclipsing 100 points.

His top skating speed clocked in at 23.31 MPH, ranking in the 94th percentile. Pettersson finished with 155 speed bursts over 20 MPH, good for the 88th percentile across the NHL.

Looking into it further, he had two speed bursts over 22 MPH, which was one shy of the league average and ranked in the 59th percentile. Pettersson ranked in the 90th percentile with 153 speed bursts between 20 and 22 MPH and the 89th percentile with 595 speed bursts between 18 and 20 MPH.

Thus, he was able to reach that top-end speed while ranking among the elite skaters in terms of the total number of speed bursts.

Pettersson’s shot has always been his bread and butter. During this season, Pettersson clocked in a shot at 95.78 MPH. But the most impressive thing was his volume was so high. Pettersson registered 257 shots on goal, which ranks in the 96th percentile that season.

That one shot didn’t carry his numbers from the season. Pettersson’s average shot speed was 60.55 MPH, which was eight MPH over the league average, ranking in the 91st percentile.

Pettersson had 24 shots that clocked in between 90-100 MPH, ranking in the 99th percentile. His shot speed between 70-80 and 80-90 MPH also ranked in the 96th and 98th percentiles, respectively.

These numbers show that Pettersson’s deadly shot was regarded among the league’s most threatening for opposing goaltenders and led to his career-high in goals scored.

Next, let’s fast forward a year and take a look at Pettersson’s overview from the 2023/2024 season.

Pettersson was on pace to have a similar season to the previous year, where he set career highs. Maybe he would have topped it had he not struggled down the stretch. However, he still managed to finish with 34 goals and 55 points for 89 points in 82 games, which was the second-best of his career.

The top skating speed took a dip, clocking in at 22.48 MPH. This was still ahead of league average, ranking in the 65th percentile. Pettersson would finish the year with 111 speed bursts over 20 MPH, ranking in the 77th percentile. This was 44 fewer than the year prior and an 11% dip in percentile when ranking across the league.

While his top skating speed was down, he actually had one more speed burst over 22 MPH. However, his skating as a whole declined.

Pettersson saw 108 bursts of 20-22 MPH, 45 fewer than the previous season. In 18-20 MPH bursts, Pettersson clocked in 525 bursts of 18-20 MPH, which was 70 fewer than the year prior.

He did come out after the season and said he was playing through knee tendinitis from January on, which could have played into the total numbers dipping toward the tail end of the season. However, it is not an encouraging sign to see.

While his skating dipped, his shot remained quite similar. His shot volume dipped slightly, finishing with 207 shots on goal, 50 fewer than the previous year. Yet, his shot speed improved. Pettersson clocked in at a top shot speed of 97.67 MPH, 13 MPH higher than league average and 1.89 MPH higher than the year prior.

While his top shot speed went up, his average speed went down. Pettersson clocked in at an average shot speed of 56.18 MPH, which was still above the league average by nearly 3.5 MPH but still ranked in the 76th percentile. His number of shots, clocking in at 80-90 and 90-100 MPH, still ranked among the league’s elite.

So, his shot didn’t change much from the 2022/2023 to the 2023/2024 season. Pettersson was still using it as a weapon, scoring 34 goals that season.

And finally, here are Pettersson’s stats from this season.

As we touched on above, Pettersson is on pace to have the worst statistical season of his career. And his NHL Edge numbers reflect that.

We see a massive dip in both skating categories. Pettersson’s top skating speed sits at just 21.58 MPH, which is below league average and below the 50th percentile. This is 1.73 MPH lower than 2022/2023 and 0.9 MPH lower than 2023/2024.

Again, his 55 total speed bursts over 20 MPH are below the league average of 56.2. It wouldn’t be fair to compare these raw numbers, having not played a full season, but for his 76-game pace, Pettersson would finish with 85 speed bursts over 20 MPH. This is a much more significant drop-off compared to 155 in the 2022/2023 season and 111 in the 2023/2024 season.

In the previous two years, Pettersson had five total speed bursts over 22 MPH. But this season, he hasn’t even clocked in at this speed once. Again, we won’t compare the total numbers, but even where he ranks among the league is a noticeable decline. His 20-22 MPH speed bursts dipped from 90 percentile in 2022/2023 and 77 percentile in 2023/2024 to 56 percentile in 2024/2025. Pettersson’s 18-20 MPH bursts don’t have as drastic of a drop, falling from 89 percentile in 2022/2023 and 80 percentile in 2023/2024 to 73 percentile in 2024/2025.

With the skating continuing to dip, at least he’s continuing to use his shot volume to his advantage, right?

Pettersson has just 92 shots on goal this season, ranking in the 69th percentile. He is on a 76-game pace to finish with 143 shots on goal this season. This would be 114 fewer than 2022/2023 and 63 fewer than 2023/2024. Where has the volume gone?

But at least his shot speed remains similar to years past.

His highest shot speed this season clocked in at 93.44 MPH, which is good for the 94th percentile in the league. When comparing him around the league, this is about where he sits, but it is still under his fastest of the two seasons prior.

However, this shot came on November 9th against the Edmonton Oilers. And the rest of the way, he has only clocked one other shot within the 90-100 MPH range. Pettersson still ranks in the 92nd percentile in that regard, but compared to the 24 he had in 2022/2023 and the 15 he had in 2023/2024, he isn’t firing with as much oomph as he used to. On a 76-game pace, Pettersson is projected to finish with just one more 90-100 MPH shot the rest of the season.

Even in the lower speed ranges, Pettersson isn’t utilizing his speed. He sees a dip in both 80-90 MPH shots (98th percentile in 2022/2023 and 96th in 2023/2024 to 89% in 2024/2025) and his 70-80 MPH shots (96th percentile in 2022/2023 and 84th in 2023/2024 to 72nd in 2024/2025).

It’s not like a player to see such significant drop-offs over just the course of three seasons. In almost every statistical category, Pettersson’s skating and shot speed have decreased substantially. While he spoke about dealing with knee tendinitis, he continues to play through it, which should indicate that this isn’t bothering him enough to hold him out of the lineup.

Maybe it’s just a lack of confidence, given his slower production from the tail end of last year to this year. Maybe it’s the lack of training he was able to do during his difficult summer. Maybe it’s all of the outside noise that’s been going on surrounding him this season.

Who really knows?

But just looking at the overall circle graph on the right-hand side and seeing how many categories are close to the edge indicates how well the player ranked among his peers just two seasons ago. Pettersson has shown he can be the contributor he was paid so handsomely to be last season.

Maybe this 4 Nations Face-off will allow Pettersson to step outside of the noise, play with his fellow countrymen, and hopefully return to Vancouver and have a strong finish to the season and propel the Canucks into the playoffs.