It hasn’t exactly been a November to remember for the Vancouver Canucks, as a whole. As of this Monday morning writing, the team is 3-3-2 on the month for a .500 record – treading water, in other words, which is perhaps all that can be expected given the circumstances.

But on an individual basis, there are some glimmers of something greater. And that includes one player in particular having himself a fine November on a personal basis, and it’s the player the Canucks probably most needed to start finding some success: Elias Pettersson, the Elder.

After another slow start to the season, Pettersson appears to be rounding into form. Whether or not that form approaches the best of Pettersson, as seen a couple seasons ago, remains up for debate. But this is clearly the best Pettersson we’ve seen in a while, and the timing couldn’t be better.

Through the first 16 days and eight games of November, Pettersson has nine points – one goal and eight assists. The nine points put him in a ten-way tie for 19th place in league scoring for the month thus far, and the eight assists are tied for the sixth-most.

If the scoring was all we had to talk about, we’d probably still be talking about it. This is the most productive and the most consistently productive as Pettersson has been in recent memory. Sure, more shots and more goals would be nice, but the Canucks aren’t exactly in a position to be choosy beggars when it comes to offence.

But it’s the context of Pettersson’s November thus far that really sells it as an impressive piece of work.

The defensive load Pettersson has been asked to carry in 2025-26 has been well documented, and it has continued into November. Through eight games, Pettersson has taken just 35.16% of his faceoffs in the offensive zone, and started just 37.74% of his shifts there. His deployment has been about as defensively-oriented as it gets for an NHL centre, and especially for one who is also holding down a top-six scoring role.

All this, while continuing to take on some of the toughest quality of competition in the league, including frequent hard-matchings against opposing top lines.

The actual defensive results haven’t been anything to write home about, with Pettersson and his linemates currently being outscored 2-7 at five-on-five in November. But that’s highly circumstantial, as demonstrated by that old bugbear, PDO. Pettersson has enjoyed just a 3.77% on-ice shooting percentage for himself and his teammates through November, to go along with an .879% on-ice save percentage. Both numbers are on the extreme side of low, which gives Pettersson the worst personal PDO – or is that a PeteyO? – on the entire roster.

Combine that statistical fact with the deployment Pettersson has been receiving, and being outscored is almost an inevitability. It’s the fact that Pettersson is bearing those minutes and then still finding ways to earn that offence back personally that remains most worthy of note here.

Also worthy of note? The faceoffs. Pettersson has taken 193 faceoffs in November so far, the most in the league, and he’s won 97 of them (also the most in the league) for a 50.3% win-rate. That’s not anywhere near dominant, but it is significantly better than Pettersson has performed on the dot prior. That he’s been able to slowly but surely improve this vital component of his game in-season is another positive indicator.

Some have said that Pettersson is the only legitimate NHL centre on the roster right now – pending the arrival of David Kampf notwithstanding – and whether that’s true or not, the minutes certainly support that notion.

Pettersson leads the Canucks forwards in November ice-time with an average of 21:14, far and ahead of Evander Kane in second at 18:50. That’s tied for the eighth-most November ice-time among NHL forwards, period.

The Swede is also second in forward power play time on the Canucks (3:11 a night to Brock Boeser’s 3:26) and second in short-handed minutes, too (1:47 to Kiefer Sherwood’s 1:55). When we say Pettersson is doing it all, we mean that fairly literally.

He’s also doing it without a whole lot of support. Pettersson’s two most frequent linemates, Connor Garland and Kane, have not had terrific Novembers. Garland is on his second injury of the month, as he has just two goals in six games. Kane is doing a little better with four points in eight games, but only a little better.

Pettersson is getting a ton of on-ice support from Quinn Hughes, who is back to his old productivity with 10 points in six games. But that’s about it. Up front, Pettersson is a one-man show right now, and he’s handling that duty with aplomb.

That’s where the Kampf signing becomes far more exciting than any incoming 4C should reasonably be. If there is one thing Kampf is going to be good for, it’s taking some of those defensive zone starts and faceoffs off of Pettersson’s plate. Lighten the defensive load on Pettersson, even a little, and who knows where he can take it from there? He’s been over a point-per-game in November despite the shutdown minutes. Is even more possible over the longer term with just a few more offensive zone draws per game?

That remains to be seen, and will continue to play out through the rest of November. But the indications we’ve seen so far are very, very good.

Is this the best that Pettersson has played as a Canuck? Defensively, perhaps yes. Overall, it’s still going to be hard to top the play of that 102-point 2022-23 season, at least anytime soon.

But there’s really no doubt about this being the best that Pettersson has played since that season.

The timing couldn’t be bigger, and the impact should be obvious. In a situation where Pettersson is being asked to essentially handle the bulk of the team’s centre duties at both ends of the ice, he’s handling it. If the Canucks are just barely keeping their heads above water in November with Pettersson contributing this much, where might they be without him?