Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet had a stern message for center Elias Pettersson ahead of a crucial summer.
Tocchet said the team's cornerstone forward needs to arrive to training camp in better shape.
"I think he'll tell you this: His preparation has to get better," Tocchet told reporters Friday. "There's no secret. If you want to be a great player, you have to prepare. Almost an obsessive type of preparation. I think he got behind the eight ball early. Then the expectations come, and then there's a little bit of struggle with the team, and he could never gain traction.
"He has to ... move his feet, shoot the puck, change angles. You know me, I'm an honest guy. He's got to practice better. ... Do I think he will do those things? I do, I really do. I think I can bank on him taking this information, going away for four months, and make sure he has a plan. The plan has to change. I'm not sure he can train the same way."
Pettersson is coming off his worst season, as he tallied just 45 points in 64 games. It's been all downhill for him since he signed an eight-year, $92.8-million extension in March 2024, making him the team's highest-paid player.
In his one-and-a-half seasons prior to the extension, Pettersson tallied 177 points in 142 games. Since then, he's had 65 points in 97 games - including playoffs.
Pettersson's struggles this season were magnified by a feud with then-teammate J.T. Miller. The situation was ultimately resolved with Miller being traded to the New York Rangers.
"Listen, you guys know that there was some stuff there before even I got here. What level? I don't know," said Tocchet, who was hired by the Canucks in 2023. "I know that they obviously had a really good year the year before. They had really good years. You never think the smoldering is going to turn up. Did it get uncomfortable? Yeah."
Tocchet added, "Could've something been different? I hear people (saying), 'They've got to go to dinner. They've got to fight it out.' You don't think we tried all that stuff? It just didn't work out."
The Canucks drafted Pettersson fifth overall in 2017. The 26-year-old ranks ninth among franchise leaders in points with 457 across 471 career games.
