Despite being the only team in the tournament not to lose in regulation time, Sweden is finished after three games.
They fell in overtime to Finland and Canada and then beat the undermanned United States on Monday. Sweden finished tied with Canada with five points but the Canadians advanced because of the head-to-head victory.
Among the biggest letdowns for Sweden in the tournament was Vancouver Canucks forward Elias Pettersson, who was one of three forwards on the team who played in all three games and didn’t register a single point. The other two were Filip Forsberg of the Nashville Predators and Elias Lindholm of the Boston Bruins, another couple of players going through difficult seasons.
After scoring 89 points and helping the Canucks win the Pacific Division with a 50-23-9 record in 2023-24, Pettersson has declined to 34 points over 49 games this season. Vancouver has a 26-18-11 record and sits a few points up on the Calgary Flames for the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.
Adding to the pressure for Pettersson is that he’s in the first season of the eight-year, $92.8 million contract he signed in March of 2024. Pettersson’s contract will have a no-movement clause kick in on July 1 so the Canucks will have to decide before then if want to get out from under the deal.
President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford is no stranger to big trades. The team already moved J.T. Miller earlier this season because of a rift with Pettersson and they traded captain Bo Horvat away a couple of years ago when the two sides couldn’t agree on a contract.
Moving Pettersson won’t be easy for the Canucks after his performance at the 4 Nations Face-Off. Frank Seravalli noted on Daily Faceoff Live that the forward’s trade value was “damaged significantly” playing outside of Vancouver and still showing a lack of confidence.
“I think the fascinating part of this conversation as you look at Elias Pettersson’s tournament, he had sub-10 minutes in the last game. He played two shifts in the third period. I think it significantly damages his trade value.
I think the rest of the league was kind of looking at this tournament like, ‘Let’s get him out of the Vancouver bubble. Let’s get him out of that situation and see if playing with his countrymen, maybe some familiarity, does he find his confidence again?’ And not only did he not find his confidence, I think in some ways he displayed a confidence that was so badly shaken with the way he threw pucks away, the way he flubbed on shots.
I don’t want to hear again from anyone about Elias Pettersson and how he is playing good defense. That’s not why you make $11.6 million. No one is paying you for that. We can get a guy who makes $1.8 million to go play defense. That’s not it. The bar is different for Pettersson.
He was supposed to find it. His Swedish teammates told us that we would see a different Elias Pettersson. We saw the same. And we saw the same that we have seen for the last calendar year.”
The Canucks went into the break riding a three-game winning streak and they’ll begin a five-game road trip immediately after the conclusion of the 4 Nations Face-Off on Thursday. Vancouver will play in Vegas on Saturday, Utah on Sunday, and then Los Angeles, Anaheim, and Seattle next week.