We’re just a month away from the hockey tournament at the 2018 Winter Olympics. While the tournament will lack NHL players, it won’t entirely lack in intrigue.
Team Canada, for instance, has Wojtek Wolski, who broke his neck during a KHL game just one year ago. If he could go from a broken neck to Olympic gold in a year’s time, that would be a pretty incredible story.
Other countries are also announcing their own Olympic rosters, with Team Sweden including the draft eligible Rasmus Dahlin, giving fans of non-playoff teams ample reason to tune in. There is one significant player, however, not on Team Sweden’s roster: Elias Pettersson.
#TreKronors trupp till OS i Sydkorea. Truppen kommer senare att kompletteras med två forwards. #olympics2018 pic.twitter.com/zxPQTkZ2lX
— Tre Kronor (@Trekronorse) January 16, 2018
Pettersson was on Sweden’s Olympic radar early in the season and has only gotten better, leading the Swedish Hockey League in points-per-game. As has been thoroughly reported, he’s putting up the best under-20 SHL season since Peter Forsberg.
It’s stunning that Pettersson is not on the team. It’s possible that they wanted to see more from him at the World Junior Championship, where he tied for the team lead with 7 points in 7 games, but wasn’t as dominant as he desired to be.
The Swedish roster still has two forward spots open, but Pettersson is reportedly not being considered for either spot. National team general manager Johan Garpenlöv says that four players are up for those two spots: Lias Andersson, Robert Nilsson, Andreas Engqvist and André Petersson.
All four of those players are dealing with injuries currently, so it seems like they’re waiting to see which two of those four will be healthy.
That doesn’t explain leaving Pettersson off the roster, but he’s not the only offensively-skilled player staying at home during the Olympics. The 22-year-old Victor Olofsson currently leads the SHL in goalscoring with 21 goals in 34 games. He’s not on the roster.
The top six highest scoring Swedish defencemen in the SHL are also not on the roster. That includes the 22-year-old Lawrence Pilut, who leads all SHL defencemen with 27 points in 36 games, and Pettersson’s Växjö teammate, Joel Persson, who has 26 points in 35 games.
Pettersson played for the Lakers in the Champion’s Hockey League on Tuesday and seemed unfazed by the Swedish snub, tallying two goals in the 6-1 victory to take him and his teammates to the CHL final. The goals were reflective of what we’ve seen from Pettersson all season.
It started with a bullet of a one-timer on the power play. The pass came slowly enough that the Liberec goaltender, Jaroslav Janus, had plenty of time to come across and get square. With no screen in front, Pettersson just blew it past him.
#Canucks prospect Elias Pettersson with an absolute bullet one timer to put Vaxjo up 1-0 in CHL Semi-Final pic.twitter.com/WlRGP4XLO0
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) January 16, 2018
Then, given a little space in the slot in the third period, Pettersson leaned into a wrist shot, ripping an unstoppable shot top corner.
Pettersson picks up his second goal of the game - takes the pass, loads up, and picks the corner#Canucks pic.twitter.com/G4YvaJgB90
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) January 16, 2018
What’s particularly notable is that Pettersson has been playing at centre for the Lakers of late, easing concerns that he’s been playing mainly on the wing this season. Against Liberec, Pettersson went 8-for-14 in the faceoff circle, for a 61.54% winning percentage. He’s 15-for-33 on faceoffs in the SHL this season and will likely be taking a lot more faceoffs in the second half of the season.
Pettersson now has 6 goals and 9 points in 10 CHL games to go with his 12 goals and 36 points in 28 SHL games.
