Elias Pettersson is climbing up the Vancouver Canucks franchise leaderboards.
The Swedish star recorded two points in last night’s win over the Calgary Flames, giving him a total of 421 in a Canucks sweater. With that performance, he passed former teammate and captain Bo Horvat for 10th all-time in team scoring.
NHL.com
The Canucks have 68 games left this season. If Pettersson can match his career points-per-game rate and score another 68 points over the course of the rest of the season, he will pass three legendary Canucks.
The Swedish forward needs just 29 points to pass power forward Todd Bertuzzi. He should easily manage that this season, barring an injury.
Once he passes Bertuzzi, he’ll have Tony Tanti and Pavel Bure in his sights. Pettersson needs just 50 points to pass Tanti and 58 to pass Bure. While it might be close, he should surpass both players by the end of the season and will do so if he can keep up near a point-per-game pace.
That would place him in seventh place at the end of this season. He would then be in a position to catch Thomas Gradin the next year.
Pettersson is just 649 points behind Henrik Sedin for the most in franchise history. Considering he’s just 25 years old, that’s a number that is well within his sights.
If he keeps scoring at a point-per-game pace, it will take Pettersson just under eight more seasons to claim the top spot. That would make him the Canucks all-time leading scorer while still being in his early thirties.
Pettersson has scored well above a point-per-game pace over the last two seasons. While he’s had a slow start this year, there are signs that he’s starting to pick things up. If he can get back to peak form, he’ll reach all these milestones well in advance of what’s predicted above.
A few of Pettersson’s teammates are also moving up the list. J.T. Miller is currently in 12th place and will likely pass Horvat within the next month, as he’s just five points behind.
Brock Boeser is 15th on the list. He remains out indefinitely after taking a brutal headshot from Los Angeles Kings forward Tanner Jeannot in a recent game. When he does return to the ice, he’ll be just 25 points behind Horvat.