After a 13-game playoff run that saw the Vancouver Canucks within one game of the Western Conference final – a feat the franchise hasn’t reached since the 2011 Stanley Cup Final run – Elias Pettersson returned to Sweden for the summer.

Pettersson has returned home to Ånge, where he’s recently started an “EP40 Skills Camp” to help the youth in Sweden. On Saturday, July 13th, Pettersson met with Simon Eld, a reporter for the Sundsvall Newspaper, to talk about his camp. The following quotes are translated from Swedish.

“Mainly I want to give back to Ånge, all the money goes to them. But then I want to offer kids to come here and teach them. Things that we teach here are things that I have practiced every summer,” Pettersson said. “There are many [players] who look good, I think. Everyone eats, and everyone listens. It’s the first time I get to act as a coach, if you can say so. I thought it would be hard, but I think it’s been great fun.”

The 2023-2024 season was the second-best statistical year of Pettersson’s career. He scored 34 goals and 89 points in what was his first full 82-game season. Not only did he have personal success, but it was Pettersson’s first taste of true playoff hockey in front of a hectic Canadian market of his career.

With his future in Vancouver looming as he needed a new contract, Pettersson signed an eight-year $92.5 million contract extension that pays him $11.6 million annually. The former first-round pick reflected on the reasons he extended in Vancouver.

“We have something good going on now,” Pettersson expressed. “Life in Vancouver is great. We have something good going on now. We have very good players, good coaches, our new general manager, Patrik Allvin, and since president Jim Rutherford came here, the club has been turned upside down for the better. We were close to reaching a conference final last season, but now it’s just a matter of building on [that].

Although his struggles in the playoffs cloud his regular-season success, returning to his home country to give back to his community will help Pettersson recharge for the 2024-2025 season.