Welcome back to the next instalment of our NHL Draft lookbacks here at CanucksArmy. So far this offseason, we’ve looked at Brock Boeser (10 years later), Quinn Hughes (8 years later), and Nils Höglander (6 years later), and are more than open to suggestions of who else we should tackle!
Next up is Elias Pettersson, who the Vancouver Canucks selected with the fifth overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft in Chicago.
TOP OF THE 2017 CLASS
Based solely on the numbers, Elias Pettersson would certainly be selected higher than his original draft slot if NHL teams were to reconvene and have a second crack at the 2017 Draft. But as the hockey world knows by now, things are complicated when it comes to the Canucks centre. Up until the 2024 All Star Game, Pettersson would likely have been the second player redrafted from the class of 2017. Since then, however, his stock has plummeted. Still, for all his struggles over the past year and a half, Pettersson remains the most productive goal scorer and point producer selected in his draft year.
Pettersson’s 185 regular season goals are 14 ahead of Nico Hischier, who went first overall to the New Jersey Devils. And his 457 points are 29 in front of Cale Makar, who would almost surely be the top selection in a 2017 redraft.
Beyond goals and points, Pettersson is third in his class in both assists and games played. So graded against his 2017 peer group, Pettersson has been an absolute home run selection for the hockey club.
A 2017 draft refresher
As noted above, Hischier went first overall to New Jersey, followed by Nolan Patrick to Philadelphia. After those two forwards, two of the game’s top defencemen were selected back to back: Miro Heiskanen third overall to Dallas and Makar went fourth to Colorado. After the Canucks nabbed Pettersson with the fifth selection, Vegas took Cody Glass, the New York Rangers opted for Lias Andersson, Buffalo drafted Casey Mittelstadt, Detroit went for Michael Rasmussen, and Florida picked Owen Tippett to round out the top 10.
Teams that fared well outside the top 10
With the benefit of both time and hindsight, it’s easy now to see which teams made out well with picks beyond the top 10. Carolina snapped up Martin Necas with the 12th overall selection while Vegas used its second first-round pick that year (13th overall) to take Nick Suzuki, who was traded to Montreal, and has emerged as one of the best young centres in the league. The St. Louis Blues landed Robert Thomas with the 20th overall pick, and he quietly sits fourth in the class in point production. Ottawa hit a home run finding Drake Batherson in the fourth round (121st overall), and he is eighth in the class in scoring. But the biggest winners at the 2017 Draft were the Dallas Stars, who mined the top 40 and hit the motherlode with Heiskanen (third overall), Jake Oettinger (26th) and Jason Robertson with the 39th selection. Robertson is third in the class of 2017 behind only Pettersson and Hischier with 168 goals so far in his career.
Other long(er) shots that have panned out
Obviously, not all draft selections are graded by their point production. To that end, Vegas made out well selecting Nic Hague 34th overall, New Jersey landed Jesper Boqvist with the 36th pick, Carolina found Eetu Luostarinen with the 42nd selection, San Jose nabbed Mario Ferraro 49th overall, while Los Angeles unearthed Mikey Anderson with the 103rd overall pick and Tampa found Nick Perbix in the sixth round (169th overall).
How does Pettersson stack up?
As noted earlier, Elias Pettersson is at the top of his draft class in overall production. He can’t do better than that. However, in saying that, it’s almost a certainty that Cale Makar would be the unanimous first overall selection in a 2017 redraft. After that, Pettersson would likely find himself in the mix with Nico Hischier, Miro Heiskanen, Jason Robertson and Nick Suzuki for the second pick. It’s quite possible the pair of elite puck-moving defencemen would be selected first and second overall in a redraft. After that, it would be team preference whether they valued the goal scoring of Robertson, the responsible habits of Hischier, the offensive thrust Suzuki brings, or the elite two-way game Pettersson has displayed for most of his career.
Conclusion
Recent struggles would likely give most teams pause when considering Elias Pettersson in a do-over of the 2017 NHL Draft. Still, it’s impossible to look past his 102-point season in 2022-23 and think he’d fall further than fourth on any team’s list. And based on Pettersson’s overall body of work, there would have to be teams that would take him second overall and several that would have him slotted third.
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