When the Canucks drafted Elias Pettersson, a lot of attention was paid to two aspects of his game: his skill and his size. What may have been missed is just how good a two-way player he is.
That aspect was on display as he and Sweden faced Team USA at the World Junior Summer Showcase on Wednesday. Playing wing on the second line, Pettersson wasn’t able to create a goal at even-strength, but demonstrated his ability to keep plays alive in the offensive zone and break up opportunities for the opposition at the other end of the ice.
I was particularly impressed with his ability to keep in pucks at the blue line, as he regularly knocked clearing attempts down and made quick passes to sustain offensive pressure.
That ability to keep pucks in is likely part of the reason he played on the point on Sweden’s power play alongside Timothy Liljegren. In their system, Pettersson rotated down off the point to play on the right boards, but he frequently rotated back up to the blue line to cover for Liljegren.
He was largely effective in this role and picked up his lone point of the game on the power play. After the puck came to him at the top of the right faceoff circle, he fired a low hard shot that the US goaltender kicked out to a waiting Andersson.
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Lias Andersson () pounces on the rebound from the Pettersson () shot
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech)
Game tied at 2
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Pettersson had other offensive chances, including a , and finished with three shots on goal. You could see him attempting to do more, but his one-on-one moves were stymied, his centring passes deflected away, and he had a couple shots blocked as well.
With five seconds left and down by one, Pettersson picked up the puck in the neutral zone and managed to combine poise and urgency, making a smart pass to the boards then beelining for the net for a tip-in try as time expired. It was impressive to see him identify a way to create a scoring chance with so little time remaining.
Offensively, it seems like a real shame he isn’t being played at centre, where he’d be more involved in creating offence instead of being used as a more complementary player. With his intelligence and vision, Pettersson would be able to contribute more for Sweden at centre.
Defensively, however, Pettersson did everything right. When an offensive rush was turned back, he was the first to bust his behind on the backcheck to prevent an odd-man rush the other way. With his tendency to slow things down in the offensive zone, his speed can catch you off-guard. He has an efficient, powerful stride that gets him up to top speed quickly.
Pettersson’s defensive positioning and gap control was on point and he picked off passes with his great hand-eye coordination. In puck battles, you can see he needs to get stronger, but it was impressive how many times Sweden maintained possession of the puck when he got into a battle along the boards. With more weight and strength, Pettersson will be able to take advantage of his smart skate and stickwork in those battles.
The best part of his performance against the USA is that , which his coach said and other sources called a “muscle strain.” Ěý
