The 2025-26 season will be Marcus Pettersson’s first full season with the Vancouver Canucks. It also marks the beginning of the six-year, $5.5M contract he signed with the organization.
Eschewing a chance at free agency, Pettersson and the Canucks agreed to an extension shortly after being acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins as, ultimately, the primary piece coming back to Vancouver in exchange for JT Miller. Both the Canucks and Pettersson have shown a lot of trust in each other. The upcoming season will, hopefully, show that they are both justified in that belief.
What makes the lanky Swede so valuable is that he slots into the second-pairing perfectly behind Quinn Hughes. He doesn’t need offensive touches or zone starts to be effective. Quite the contrary, Pettersson is most effective at pushing the puck out of his end. His role will be that of a second-pairing anchor. Regardless of who his defensive partner is, he is expected to play heavy minutes against tough competition.
Speaking of which, there are a lot of options for who will ride with “The Dragon”. Filip Hronek formed a very effective pairing with him to end the season, and there’s a good argument to be made that they should remain together. Having a towering duo of Tyler Myers and Marcus Pettersson is tantalizing. Those two are a combined height of 13’1″ (398cm)!
There’s also a slew of young bucks vying for playing time that may force their way into elevated roles. Victor Mancini impressed in the AHL playoffs and brings an offensive panache that could complement Pettersson’s simple yet effective style. Maybe Tom Willander bursts onto the scene and the two form a Swedish shutdown pair that frustrates opponents with speed and length. Or perhaps the other Elias Pettersson brings the physical element that Marcus doesn’t, as well as a booming point shot.
There are a lot of combinations, but make no mistake, Marcus Petterson will be the one to anchor that second pair.
A significant part of management’s goal was to fix the culture in Vancouver. Part of that was moving out players who, in various ways, were a problem, but an even bigger aspect was bringing in strong cultural careers. A very strong locker room presence, Canucks’ management has long sought to acquire him. He’s vocal. He’s funny. He’s the consummate teammate. He works hard at every aspect of his game and encourages his teammates to do so as well.
Mackan, as he’s known in Sweden, will be judged for his effectiveness with a stick in his hand. While not a prolific offensive player, the vast majority of his consistent 20 points come at 5v5. He hasn’t scored a power play point since the 2019-20 season. His biggest contribution, which was extremely evident last season, was on the penalty kill. He was a big part of the Canucks finishing the season with the third-best penalty killing unit in the league.
Exceeding expectations for Marcus Pettersson
To do this, he would have to score more than 30 points, which would be a new career high and do it at 5v5. His career high for goals is four, so if the tall defenceman can set a new career high for goals at the same time, that would fit. If he can do this while touching on the best plus/minus he’s had (plus-28), that would be an excellent offensive season from a player who is mostly just there to get the puck onto the stick of his more capable teammates.
Continuing the penalty killing dominance since joining the Canucks would be a massive boon. The entire PK unit was so strikingly dominant in the latter half of last season that replicating it should not be expected. Doing so would be an incredible feat.
His biggest role will, ultimately, be playing his minutes well enough that Quinn Hughes doesn’t have to be on the ice all the time. So doing better than simply letting Hughes rest for 20-plus minutes a night would be massive. If Pettersson and whoever his partner is are generating positive results at both ends of the rink, then that allows for a fresher, and presumably healthier, Hughes for the entirety of the season. The trick is to do it at a level where the coaching staff doesn’t feel pressured into overplaying Hughes.
Meeting expectations for Marcus Pettersson
To meet expectations, he just has to hit his career norms. 20-25 points at 5v5 while being a big part of a very good penalty kill. It’s what he’s done his entire career.
Wanting to see a positive goal differential while also taking on matchup minutes should be the expectation as well. If Pettersson’s doing that, he’s earning his keep.
Ideally, he can anchor that second pair to the point where Hughes gets a normal amount of rest, but not necessarily his pair be a 1B situation.
Below expectations for Marcus Pettersson
If he’s performing below expectations, there’s a good chance the season is sunk. That’s what happened last season, where Carson Soucy couldn’t replicate his prior season’s success, and it meant the Canucks were running two third pairs that were unplayable at times.
Anything under 20 points over a full season would be seen as a poor outing. Pettersson hasn’t averaged under 20 points per 82 games since he became a full-time NHL player, apart from an injury-filled 2020-21 season.
If the penalty kill falters, even if the blame does not rest on his feet, he will still need to shoulder some of it. Penalty killing is largely about scheme, communication, and working as a unit. Reading off each other and trusting the rest of your teammates will cover you if you make a mistake. Pettersson is an extremely effective penalty killer; how could he not be, given his incredible reach, but he can still make mistakes, and those can accumulate over a very short timeframe.
Perhaps he won’t be able to effectively anchor a second pair and, once again, Adam Foote is forced to overplay Hughes. This would be more about moving the puck and generating offence than pure shutdown ability. To win your matchup, the puck still needs to end up in the other team’s net on occasion.
The defence beyond Hughes-Hronek last season was an Achilles heel for the team and one that they weren’t able to effectively fix until it was too late. Marcus Pettersson is being paid to stabilize the Canucks’ defence beyond Quinn Hughes. He’s a defenceman who doesn’t need to play with Hughes to be effective and can play with anyone — viewed as the perfect guy to be your third man on the depth chart and give the big gun. A lot rests on him staying healthy and effective for an entire season.
