The injury bug strikes the Vancouver Canucks yet again.

Elias Pettersson (F) has been ruled out for tonight’s contest against the Minnesota Wild with an upper-body injury, according to Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy.

Pettersson joined his teammates for morning skate, but left early, according to Sportsnet 650’s Brendan Batchelor. Jonathan Lekkerimäki skated in his place, centring the top line with Jake DeBrusk and Linus Karlsson:

Pettersson was ruled out shortly after. The Athletic’s Thomas Drance shared later that the Canucks forward was not injured in warmup. He attempted to play, but deemed he could not go.

On Friday night, the Canucks faced off against the Utah Mammoth. Pettersson played 21:47 minutes, logging five shots on goal but finishing with a minus-three rating. There were no indications of an injury for the Canucks centreman.

The 27-year-old centreman was rebounding from the worst season of his career. Pettersson has scored eight goals and 14 assists for 22 points through 28 games, while averaging a career-high 20:37 minutes of ice time.

With Filip Chytil, Teddy Blueger, and now Pettersson out with injury, the Canucks’ centre depth becomes even weaker. They will ice David Kämpf, Aatu Räty and Max Sasson as their only natural centreman in tonight’s lineup. Usual winger Drew O’Connor will fill in down the middle in Pettersson’s absence.

O’Connor has taken 29 draws before tonight’s game. He has an 18-11 record in the dot this season, good for a 62.1% winning percentage.

He will skate between Arshdeep Bains and Jonathan Lekkerimäki – who was expected to be a scratch for tonight’s contest.

Pettersson dealt with a pair of upper-body injuries last season. After the Christmas break, Pettersson missed the following six games with an upper-body injury. He was durable and even started to show signs of turning his season around in March, scoring four goals and 10 points in a nine-game stretch before leaving a game against the New York Rangers after 7:50 minutes of ice time. This injury kept Pettersson out for the final 12 games of the regular season.

We will provide an update on Pettersson’s injury once we have more details.