Elias Pettersson Continues to Add to His Skillset in Sophomore Season

He may be just over 50 games into his NHL career, but young defenceman Elias Pettersson has already shown enough to get fans excited about his future in this league.

The 21-year-old has already shown growth from his rookie season, and by playing to his strengths, he is avoiding the sophomore slump. Assistant coach Kevin Dean, who runs the defence, has plenty of praise for the guy they call ‘Junior.’

“He is resilient. He competes hard. He does the things that you ask him to do, which I think is a great sign. He’s very receptive to coaching. So, there are a couple of areas that I’m on him consistently about, and he’s improved in those areas,” said Dean.

“For him now, it’s just a lot about reps, and getting a little bit more ice time, and some of that’s on me. I’m really happy with his game. I mean, he’s played 20+ games this season, and he hasn’t had many stinkers, that’s for sure.”

Pettersson has averaged 13:29 of ice time per game this season and has two games where he has played over 20 minutes, including a career-high 21:05 on November 14th against the Carolina Hurricanes.

“I feel like I’m just improving more and more. I want to get better every game. Tom [Willander] and I talk about it a lot. We want to have trust from the coaches. We’re young, we’re learning, we’re just trying to get better every day,” said Pettersson.

Pettersson enjoys having another young defenceman on the team with Tom Willander on the roster. The two Swedish defencemen have different styles of playing the position, but in terms of where they are in their young NHL careers, there is plenty in common.

The two young defencemen have played 61:49 of five-on-five ice time together this season, and in that time, they have been on the ice for five goals for and just two goals against.

“It’s just fun for us to play together. We’re young, and we want to have that trust so they can play two young defencemen together out there. We just want to eliminate the mistakes and play hard, and we want to play more,” said Pettersson about playing with Tom Willander.

Overall, Dean is really happy with how Pettersson has performed in his sophomore season. The thing that impresses him most is how the young defender shows up game after game with the same strengths and is hyper-focused on making improvements. He also appreciates Pettersson’s eagerness to add penalty killing to his repertoire.

Getting more time with the shorthanded unit is something Pettersson wants to bring to his game, and the experience he is gaining in meetings and in-game is helping him build confidence as a penalty-killer at the NHL level.

“I want to just keep getting better and building more to a defenceman that is solid and doesn’t make a lot of mistakes,” said Pettersson. “I want to be hard to play against and be a guy you can trust that doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. So, I need to keep working every day.”

As he continues to gain experience, Dean is excited to see where Pettersson’s game can go. He likes how Pettersson has strength at such a young age and believes that comes from his strong skating skills.

“He’s such a good skater, right? I think any player who’s a good skater seems to be strong. It’s just the way it is. He’s an excellent skater. I think he’s very strong when he initiates contact. I think he’s going to get stronger when he is the one holding the puck,” said Dean.

There’s plenty of growth left in Pettersson’s game, but the experience and knowledge that the 21-year-old is gaining this season will do nothing but help him as he looks to carve out a long career as an NHL defenceman.