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The Stanley Cup Champions limp into Vancouver, while Elias Pettersson’s struggles continue.
Published Mar 17, 2026 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 11 minute read
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There are six more seasons left on Elias Pettersson’s contract. Photo by Matthew Stockman /Getty ImagesArticle content
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For decades, starting in the mostly woeful 1970s when the Vancouver Canucks were awful, there was still a buzz in town when the Stanley Cup Champions paid a visit. The Montreal Canadiens, the Philadelphia Flyers, the New York Islanders, even once there were the hated Wayne Gretzky rivals — long suffering Canucks fans would get excited about going to see a truly elite team play.
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The Florida Panthers are in town Tuesday night, winners of the last two Stanley Cups. And while it’s still funny they rubbed the Edmonton Oilers faces in it the last two years, they’re a shell of themselves this season. The Panthers sit 12 points out of a playoff spot, 25th in the league, a truly embarrassing fate for a defending Stanley Cup Champion.
It used to be worth going to see Gretzky or Guy Lafleur or Mike Bossy. Even though you can get tickets right now on Stub Hub for under $50, is it really worth it to go out in the middle of an atmospheric river and pay the gross cost for parking and food just to see Carter Verhaeghe or Anton Lundell? Boy, wouldn’t you love to tell the grandkids about the day you saw Evan Rodrigues on Vancouver ice?
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The plus side of it, though, is you could go and boo the crap out of MAGA Matthew Tkachuk every time he touches the puck. That might be worth the price of admission.
What isn’t worth it, though, is the home team. We’ve documented daily how awful this Canucks team is and Ben Kuzma now tries to highlight things that you should pay attention to in these games, largely the prospects like Liam Ohgren or Zeev Buium. Remember when it would be a huge news story if the Canucks “best” player was mired in a slump? Is it any surprise that Elias Pettersson hasn’t scored in 20 games?
Pettersson hasn’t scored since Jan. 13 and has just 24 shots in the past 20 games. He’s still tied for the scoring lead with 38 points (13-25) on the league’s last-pace club that’s averaging the second-fewest goals per outing (2.52).
This final stretch of a slow 16-game slog to end a dreadful season is supposed to be about building something for next season. It shouldn’t be about another perplexing riddle in the middle.
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“He was out there today at 11:05 for an 11:30 practice and working and then after practice working,” coach Adam Foote noted of Pettersson on Sunday. “He’s on the bike after games. He’s doing the work. One (goal) goes down and he’s had breakaways. I’m sure at times he feels like it weighs on him, but when he’s moving his feet, he’s having success.”
It sure would be nice if someone would pay me $11.6 million for riding an exercise bike or showing up to work 25 minutes early. Goodness the bar is low for this guy.
It should be noted Pettersson has more hissy fits, storming away from media, than he has goals in the last two months.
Matthew Tkachuk, who could have been a Canucks’ pick, collides with Stuart Skinner during Stanley Cup Final on June 9. Photo by Steph Chambers /Getty ImagesGAME DAYCanucks, Panthers feel injury pain
The Canucks held an optional morning game-day skate Tuesday and there was a Pierre-Olivier Joseph sighting in a red non-contact jersey as the blueliner works his way back from an upper-body ailment. It was another sign of the banged-up times.
Nils Hoglander returns to the lineup in replace of Curtis Douglas and Kevin Lankinen gets the starts in net
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How they should line up tonight:
DeBrusk-Pettersson-O’Connor
Ohgren-Rossi-Boeser
Sasson-Blueger-Karlsson
Hoglander-Raty-Kane
(defensive pairings were rotating in practice Monday)
The Canucks and Panthers are connected by more than sorry seasons in which they will both miss the playoffs, unless the defending Stanley Cup champions go on a ridiculous run. They need to leapfrog seven teams just to claim the final wild-card position.
And with eight current injuries that include Aleksander Barkov (LTIR), Seth Jones (LTIR), plus Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett and Brad Marchand, the Panthers are struggling on a 4-6-0 slog that includes being hammered 6-2 in Seattle on Sunday.
Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said following the game-day skate that Jones and Bennett will play and that defenceman Nolan Foote, son of Canucks head coach Adam Foote, will make his Panther debut after being recalled from the AHL on Sunday.
Florida ranks 19th in scoring with 2.54 goals per game and has surrendered the seventh-most goals at 3.32 per outing. That said, bewared the the wounded beast.
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“This is a team that knows how to play,” said Foote. “They play in your face and have been doing it a long time, so we’re going to have to be ready.
Even with all those Panther ailments?
Foote knows how hard it can be to manage an injury-ravaged roster with nine players out at one point in a condensed schedule that invited fatigue and pain. It’s like Foote and Maurice could form a support group to share the misery.
“I don’t think Paul needs help,” chuckled Foote. “He’s definitely being challenged. And when you win two (straight) Cups, I’m sure it’s a different situation for him. But when you’ve played a long time with a core that has won, players who come in feed off it and already know in being led by a group that knows how to play.”
Do new draft rankings rate?
There’s a raft of new draft prospect rankings out to pay attention to. Again, the names to watch are Gavin McKenna and Ivar Stenberg. Though with Pettersson’s continued ambivalence toward shooting the puckm their biggest need remains centre and, by most accounts, Viggo Bjorck is the top centre on the boards, ranked between 8-10, all 5-foot-7 and 177 pounds of him. Sigh. Caleb Malhotra, son of Canucks Manny Malhotra, is up there in some rankings, too, and may be the best bet if the draft lottery lands the Canucks without a top-two pick.
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Here’s The Athletic’s top pair in their rankings by Scott Wheeler:
1 Gavin McKenna, LW, 5′ 11″, 170 Ibs
McKenna is a captivating and supremely gifted winger who had one of the most productive age-adjusted seasons in modern CHL history last season. The college game has come with a learning curve for him at five-on-five, highlighting his lean build and some bad habits (notably, a need to be more physically engaged and show more effort off-puck/detail), but the dam has broken and he has come on really strong in the second half offensively. The talent and upside are undeniable, but he’s imperfect and can frustrate evaluators.
McKenna is a flowing skater with corner speed more than straight line speed, great edges and an ability to make plays at whatever pace is required — with a preference for slowing things down, at times to a fault. He’s impressive at carrying and dodging sticks through neutral ice to create entries. He has a first touch like glue where the puck just lands and sticks to his blade when he’s catching it, even when it’s coming in hot or into compromising positions. He’s an excellent puck transporter and get-out-of-jail-free card who can skate pucks out of the zone himself and relieve pressure (though I’d like to see him be lower for that more often instead of cheating up ice). McKenna is extremely shifty with the puck, blending shoulder fakes into his playmaking. He has impressive maneuverability and adjustability from his hips down. He plays pucks into space and leads guys at an advanced level. He shields pucks well from defenders’ sticks when he can play in open ice and they try to close on him. He’s constantly changing directions and keeping defenders off him. He pre-scans and sees and reads the game at an elite level. The elements of a brilliant perimeter playmaker are all there.
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And though he’s a natural playmaker first, he’s also got scoring elements, has tons of pre-shot deception in his movements, and can attack the middle as a passer — though he can also stray to the perimeter against tougher competition. He has begun to shoot it and attack for himself with more authority in college (which a lot of people were waiting for after he was one of the WHL’s leaders in shots on goal from the time he entered the league).
I believe that McKenna and Ivar Stenberg are a cut above the top D prospects in this class and have flipped them back and forth on my board throughout this year.
2 Ivar Stenberg RW, 5′ 11″ 183 Ibs
Stenberg is a dynamic left-shot winger who’s comfortable playing both wings and whose statistical track record, skill set and play across levels have made him one of the draft’s clear top-two prospects for me. He outproduced recent top Swedes like Lucas Raymond at the J20 level in his draft-minus-one season, has dominated internationally at U17s, the Hlinka Gretzky, the World Jr. A Challenge, the World Junior Summer Showcase and the World Juniors, where he took over in the medal round. And he produced at a historic level in the SHL this season, registering 33 points in 43 games and finishing plus-10 (28-18), putting together one of its all-time under-19 seasons (in the same realm as the Sedins, and more productive than recent top-three picks like Leo Carlsson and Anton Frondell). He also helped them to a Champions Hockey League title this year and had a really strong SHL playoffs last year, becoming just the third player ever to score in the SHL post-season in their draft-minus-one season (after Rasmus Dahlin and Victor Hedman), and registering six points in 12 games (tied for the most ever by a U18 skater).
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The younger brother of St. Louis Blues first-rounder Otto, Ivar’s puck skill, offensive instincts, hockey IQ, combo scoring-playmaking package are all high-end. He makes guys miss with the puck on his stick, beats goalies one-on-one with his handles regularly and has both a lethal wrister release and a confident one-timer that give him quick-strike ability and power play pop alongside his control and vision on the half wall. He’s not an explosive skater, but he’s a good one who beats guys wide with speed, escapes pressure and is agile on cuts and changes of direction, building through his crossovers or forward strides to play to challenge the opposition. He’s also a heady passer and facilitator who sees the ice at a very advanced level, is creative, puts pucks into space and can pick teams apart on the power play when they focus too much on him.
Stenberg’s biggest standout tool for me, though, has repeatedly been his wall play and strength on his stick. He’s not big, but he’s very, very strong in hockey terms. He stays over pucks, wins a ton of battles along the boards with strong stick lifts and just finds pucks along the wall with his blade. He has an uncanny ability to hold and protect pucks against and through contact in the offensive zone. That ability also helps him draw a lot of penalties. He’s also fearlessly poised under pressure and makes plays under tight coverage in difficult spots (including one-on-one as the last man back at the offensive zone blue line). He’ll turn over the odd puck playing that game, but can also create something out of nothing, and because of his ability in protection, usually finds a way to delay until something opens up.
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Sportsnet’s Jason Bukala has them flipped with Stenberg first and McKenna second, if you favour the Swedish flavour of the Canucks.
No. 1: Ivar Stenberg
Stenberg’s production has slowed recently. He only produced three goals in his most recent 10-game segment, but his approach hasn’t changed. Stenberg was getting between 14-18 minutes per game in this segment, with all of his shifts coming at even strength or the power play. He didn’t kill penalties, but he has shown he is more than capable in the role over the course of the full season.
Stenberg’s three-zone detail is reliable. He never cheats the game defensively. Despite the fact his offence has been down recently, his plus/minus was even and he averaged 3.4 shots per game. His body of work this year has been exceptional. Stenberg has produced 11G-22A in 43 games playing in Sweden’s top pro league.
No. 2: Gavin McKenna
For the first time in several months, I found myself really wrestling with my No. 1 overall ranking, and that’s because McKenna has addressed most of the concerns I’ve had about his overall game while launching his offensive impact into an entirely new level. In his last 10-game segment, McKenna produced 5G-13A, with 2G-4A coming on the power play.
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He averaged over 24 minutes of ice time with the bulk of his shifts coming at even strength and with the man advantage. He very occasionally killed penalties. Over the segment McKenna’s rating was minus-2. He’s a dynamic offensive talent, but still has some growing to do defensively and it’s what continues to separate him and Stenberg at this stage of my process.
B.C. boys the Ruck brothers are better than the ranks indicate – Craig Button
Button was on The Donnie and Dhali Show this morning talking about the brothers who are atop the WHL scoring race.
Liam and Markus will both be in the top 15 of my list. That I can assure you. … it’s no accident that these guys are top scorers. And you know what they are? They are hockey players. I hear this, they’re not great skaters. Oh they don’t do this, they don’t do that. Oh really? I’m not evaluate them how fast they can skate around a speed skating oval. I’m evaluated how well they play the game of hockey.
And let me tell you this: they kill penalties, yhey play on the power-play, they play hard minutes. They understand what it takes when the challenges become greater and they deliver. And they are well coached by Willie Desjardins. These two guys are really, really good prospects for the NHL draft. Much better than many guys you might see rated ahead of them on lists around.
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