Anyone who has watched the sorry, sad-sack mess of an alleged hockey team that is the 25-26 Vancouver Canucks knows that defenceman Marcus Pettersson has been a shadow of himself.

What’s gone wrong?

After Pettersson came to the team last year, (someone else can argue whether selling a brand-new first-round pick for the veteran D-man was wise), he looked good. He was good before he got here, he was good afterwards – and the fancy stats prove it.

From 2023-25, Pettersson’s most frequent D-partner was Erik Karlsson in Pittsburgh. That pair logged 1322 minutes of time on ice, with 76 goal scored for the Pens, 64 against for an expected goals average of 54%. Even in 2024-25 season, which was a disaster for the Pens, the two had 464 minutes of ice-time, and were dead even in terms of goals-for and goals-against. 

The second most frequent partner last season for Pettersson was the oft-maligned Tyler Myers, with 284 minutes of time on ice. Goals-for/goals-against? Dead even. 

In fact, any pairing combination featuring Pettersson for more than 30 minutes last year was either dead-even or positive regardless of jersey worn, on two non-playoff teams. The 2024-25 Pittsburgh Penguins finished -50 in goals differential, the Canucks -17. Similar stats the year before.

(Incidentally, the worst pairing for Pettersson in Pittsburgh? P.O. Joseph, which again makes me wonder why the Canucks signed the guy.)

This year, Pettersson’s defensive metrics are …  not as good.

The Myers-Pettersson pair bleed goals. With that pairing on ice, the goals for are 9 for, 18 against. Pettersson has been partnered with Filip Hronek for 297 minutes so far, with eight for, two against, and the expected goals for is just a twitch in favour of Vancouver.

So…. uh… what changed between this year and last? Pettersson looks lost. 

Pop a painkiller and flip to 2:20 of the highlights/lowlights of the Islanders/Canucks game Monday, Jan. 19. Petterson is out of position. Grossly so. This is a rookie mistake, and it suggests one of two things: lack of confidence in the other four Canucks on the ice or something else.

This isn't a function of a poor centre situation. The Canucks centre depth was horrible after Pettersson came here (Remember, your top two centres for a while were Puius Suter and Teddy Bleuger), and Marcus Pettersson did just fine.

The other variable that changed comes behind the bench. When Adam Foote was in Kelowna, the team was a dead-last in goals scored and were a defensive mess. Last year, one of the focus points of Rick Tocchet was to eliminate the cross-grain passing, in part to eliminate the post-to-post movement of goaltenders. And interestingly the fancy stats suggest the Flyers are playing better defensive hockey this year than last. All year, Vancouver's defenders have looked lost on the ice.

That system - remember that word, it used to mean something - isn't there this year. Pettersson is being victimized on a lot of the cross-ice passing, in part because the system designed to prevent it went with to Philadelphia.

So don’t blame Pettersson. Blame Foote. And the management team that hired him.