The Vancouver Canucks' roster just got a little bit more complicated.
On Sunday, the Canucks reportedly called up Elias Pettersson from the Abbotsford Canucks to join Elias Pettersson on the Vancouver Canucks, so now there are two Elias Petterssonae on the roster. The Canucks have not made an official announcement of the call-up but an initial report from Daily Faceoff's Irfaan Gaffar was confirmed by other sources and both Eliases are on the Canucks' official roster.
The younger Elias Pettersson can be differentiated from the older Elias Pettersson in that he's a defenceman, not a forward. He's also bigger, heavier, and throws more impactful bodychecks. Not that the older Elias Pettersson is any slouch when it comes to playing the body but the younger Elias Pettersson makes it a staple of his game.
Pettersson is in his rookie season in North America after playing last season in the HockeyAllsvenskan for Västerås IK, where he had 14 points in 34 games. This season, he has 4 points (all assists) through 15 games with the Abbotsford Canucks but has arguably been Abbotsford's best defenceman on a nightly basis.
The 6'3" Pettersson plays big minutes for Abbotsford and is a go-to penalty-killer, which is a credit to him at just 20 years of age. He blocks a ton of shots in the defensive zone but also isn't shy about putting pucks on net in the offensive zone. While plus/minus can be a flawed statistic, it seems notable that on a team full of minuses, Pettersson leads all Abbotsford defencemen at plus-3.
Pettersson plays solid shutdown hockey at the AHL level but can handle and move the puck effectively and doesn't panic under pressure. The question will be how he handles playing against the faster and more physical forwards at the NHL level.
In order to accommodate the call-up, defenceman Derek Forbort has been placed on Injured Reserve. Forbort hasn't played since November 2, as he suffered an injury in practice following that game.
Fortunately for the Canucks, Erik Brännström has been a revelation since getting called up from Abbotsford earlier in the season in place of Forbort. His ability to transition the puck up ice has been a boon to the Canucks' bottom pairing but both Vincent Desharnais and Noah Juulsen have struggled on Brännström's right side.
Juulsen has been on the ice for at least one goal against at 5-on-5 in every single game he's played this season, for a total of seven goals against in just five games. Meanwhile, Desharnais has struggled to do the things that he theoretically should be good at doing as a 6'7", physical defenceman: winning board battles and boxing out in front of the net.
If Pettersson gets into the lineup on Sunday night against the Nashville Predators, it could be on a pairing with Brännström, who has experience playing on his off-side at the NHL level. Playing with a puck-mover like Brännström will allow Pettersson to focus on his defensive game, where he can hopefully do better at protecting the middle of the ice than Desharnais and Juulsen.
Whether or not Pettersson gets into the lineup, his call-up seems like a strong statement that the Canucks are dissatisfied with the performance of their defence corps this season.
