Not much went right for Elias Pettersson and the Vancouver Canucks this year, but Pettersson is admitting that he is guilty of overthinking things.
It was a truly difficult year for the Vancouver Canucks, who missed the postseason only a season after winning the Pacific Division and advancing to Game 7 of the WCQF.
Not only was there a confirmed conflict in the dressing room between star players Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller, but there were also injury issues with top players Quinn Hughes and Thatcher Demko that hampered their successes.
Miller would eventually be traded to the New York Rangers, while Pettersson struggled to recapture the form that made him the Calder Trophy winner in 2019. Additionally, head coach Rick Tocchet, who won the Jack Adams Award in 2024 as the top bench boss, departed for the Philadelphia Flyers.
Now that he's preparing for next season, Pettersson is looking back on 2024-25 and admitted that he's guilty of overthinking things amidst his struggles.
Maybe it was that early in the season I had the wrong attitude that yes, 'now I've signed a big contract and now I have to do more, instead of just being myself.' And when the points didn't come, I tended to start thinking and overthinking everything instead of just doing what I usually do.
Pettersson was also hampered by a lingering knee injury that affected his summer training last year.
My game [last season] was obviously not at the level it was in the two seasons before that I had a knee injury last summer, and that hindered a lot of my training then; it was hard to really train 100%. Now I'm just trying to look forward.
Pettersson had just 45 points (15G, 30A) in 64 games, numbers he'll be hoping to boost next season.
