JA
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The 2017 NHL Draft is now only three weeks away and teams have begun to finalize their draft lists. At the top of the draft class, the common names among forwards featured on most draft lists include Nico Hischier, Nolan Patrick, Gabriel Vilardi, Casey Mittelstadt, Cody Glass, and Martin Necas. One player who has polarized draft observers is Elias Pettersson, a 6'2'', 165 lbs forward who plays for Timra IK of Sweden's second-tier men's league, the Allsvenskan. Some believe that he should be considered among that top group of players, while others are more skeptical.
While some have lauded Pettersson's stickhandling abilities and vision, his game possesses numerous faults as well, many of which revolve around the lack of grit and power in his game. Unlike Nico Hischier, Cody Glass, and Martin Necas -- each player being approximately one dozen pounds heavier than Elias -- he currently struggles along the boards and is a particularly ineffective forechecker relative to the other aforementioned players. He does not battle the way that the others do.
This season, he was a prolific offensive threat with Timra IK of Sweden's second-tier men's league Allsvenskan, scoring 19 goals, 22 assists, 41 points in 43 games; the Allsvenskan uses international dimensions for its rinks, however, and so the extra room on the ice for Pettersson to operate has potentially been very beneficial to his game. On the smaller North American-sized ice, Pettersson has up to this point been somewhat less effective against peers of his own age group. At the 2016 IIHF U18 World Championships as one of the older players, he scored 1 goal, 7 assists, 8 points in 7 games but had just 2 points in the three medal round games and no points in the Gold Medal match; at the 2017 IIHF U20 World Championships, he was held to 0 goals, 1 assist, 1 point in 6 games.
He does not possess the quickest first two steps, but Pettersson's top speed is very good. His forechecking ability, however, is much less impressive than that of Glass, Hischier, and Necas. While he possesses excellent skill, his place on the various draft rankings currently ranges from #5 to #27. It would be fair to express some reservations about this player, but his puck skills could cause some teams to covet him at a high draft position.
Not everyone has had the opportunity to watch this player, nor other draft-eligible players. To give viewers a sense of his performance on North American ice, I have developed a package consisting of several games from his 2017 U20 and 2016 U18 tournament appearances: all shifts from five of Pettersson's matches with Team Sweden during the past calendar year. Nobody is expected to watch all of it, although you are welcome to watch as much footage as you like. I have simply prepared the footage for those who are curious enough to examine the player's game, and I have offered a large enough sample size to give people an accurate depiction of the way he plays. The presentation is divided into six segments -- one segment for each match. You may watch all of it, or just some of it.
The games featured here (and their corresponding start times in the video) are:
2016 IIHF U18 World Championship (Pettersson wears #21):
(0:15) 2016-04-24: Team Sweden vs Team Finland (Championship Match)
2017 IIHF U20 World Championship (Pettersson wears #14):
(22:06) 2016-12-26: Team Sweden vs Team Denmark
(38:27) 2016-12-28: Team Sweden vs Team Switzerland
(56:18) 2016-12-29: Team Sweden vs Team Finland
(1:09:05) 2017-01-04: Team Sweden vs Team Canada (Semifinal Match)
The games here were chosen due to the many questions that people have had about Pettersson's ability to perform on the North American-sized ice surface, as well as due to conflicting reports about the quality of his play at the 2017 IIHF U20 World Championships. One can formulate their own opinion by observing and analyzing his performances here. This package features two elimination matches (vs Team Finland, Team Canada) and three round robin matches (vs Team Denmark, Team Switzerland, Team Finland). All of these matches take place on North American-sized rinks, and all of them feature Pettersson playing with and against players of his own age group. While he records no points during the matches featured in this package, what matters most of all is the way in which he plays in these games from shift to shift. The games are featured chronologically in the video.
Hopefully, this offers viewers an informative look at one of the top eligible players for the 2017 NHL Draft, Elias Pettersson.
As always, comments and discussion are appreciated and encouraged. Enjoy.
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