VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks have been fun to watch in the pre-season. They just haven’t been successful.

It’s probably wise if everyone gets used to that during this evolutionary stage of the rebuild. Hey, at least they’re fun.

The arrival of uber prospect Elias Pettersson from Sweden makes the Canucks more watchable. Prior to the Canucks’ game against the Los Angeles Kings in Salt Lake City on Monday night, the 19-year-old Swedish Hockey League scoring champion and most valuable player had five points in three pre-season games – all of them on the power play. He is hugely talented and, even at a wiry 172 pounds, looks fine on smaller ice and against bigger players.

But the Canucks had managed just eight goals in the four games, losing three of them. They were, however, leading the National Hockey League with 34.25 shots per game and should have more goals.

There just doesn’t yet appear to be enough players who can score for the Canucks to be successful, especially if their unchanged defence doesn’t contribute more offensively than it did last season and Vancouver’s goaltending continues to be average or worse.

"I think we’ve got better team speed this year," general manager Jim Benning told Sportsnet when asked for his initial impressions of the pre-season. "Our execution needs to get better and our goaltending can be better than it’s been.

"Even though we’re playing young players and developing young players… we still want to try to find a way to be competitive and win. We’ve got some good young players coming. Some of them are going to need more development time than others. But we still want to be as competitive as we can be."

THE GOOD NEWS: PETTERSSON

The Swedish centre is the most talented Canucks rookie since Pavel Bure showed up during the 1991-92 season. Like Bure, Pettersson could win the Calder Trophy.

His importance to the Canucks’ future – and the importance of dynamic defenceman Quinn Hughes, who is spending a second season at the University of Michigan – cannot be overstated. Pettersson is too big to fail, and it sure looks early on like he won’t.

The power play already runs through him and his poise with the puck on the sideboards reminds us of Henrik Sedin. Especially encouraging is that Pettersson has been able to play centre after spending most of last season as a winger in Sweden. He is only 8-for-17 on pre-season faceoffs, but is working on that with Canucks assistant coach Manny Malhotra.

There is a cockiness to Pettersson. He expects to be the best.

THE BAD NEWS: THATCHER DEMKO

It was always going to be challenge for Demko, an outstanding goaltending prospect, to be good enough in the pre-season for the Canucks to keep him as Jacob Markstrom’s backup rather than send him back to the American League where the 22-year-old can get another 45-50 games with the Utica Comets. The college and AHL all-star would have needed to be almost perfect.

But in two starts and five periods of the pre-season, the third-year pro allowed seven goals on 42 shots for a save percentage of .833. Canucks management and coaches always figured Utica was the most likely landing spot for him. But considering Demko’s impressive and fairly steady ascent towards the NHL, it is surprising that he has not played better.

"Thatcher was so good through camp last year and through the pre-season games, I expected him to be performing at that level again," Benning said. "It’s not that he is performing badly, but he hasn’t grabbed the ball and run with it.”

By default, it appears Anders Nilsson, who won only one of his final 16 starts last season while finishing with a .901 save rate, will be the backup again this fall.

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WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?

Few players last season frustrated coach Travis Green as much as defenceman Ben Hutton and winger Nikolay Goldobin. Green called out Hutton on his conditioning and frequently healthy-scratched him, while Goldobin, a highly-skilled winger who spent much of the season in the minors, would look dangerous one game and then disappear for the next four.

It would have surprised no one had Benning traded one or both of them in the off-season, and had there been a market for Hutton or Goldobin, he might have.

But Hutton reported to camp leaner and lighter and in his first two pre-season games logged 56:08 of ice time. He was Green’s go-to guy on the point of the dangerous first-unit power play and appears to be reclaiming his future with the Canucks. If you’re scoring the race to be the sixth defenceman, Hutton is miles ahead of Derrick Pouliot and Alex Biega.

Goldobin, meanwhile, has earned both praise and criticism from Green. As usual.

But he has also looked motivated and dangerous as Pettersson’s second-line winger. At this point, the Russian, who is subject to waivers if the Canucks wish to send him to Utica, appears to be the favourite to claim the last spot available in the top six.

"He’s one of our most skilled players," Benning said. "Him and Pettersson seem to have good chemistry together; they know where each other are and they work well together. Overall, Goldobin is having a good camp. We can’t expect him to win puck battles all the time and on the forecheck he’s not necessarily going to hit. We want him to do those things, but he offers us something (offensively) that we don’t have a lot of."

INJURED VETERANS

The biggest surprise on Day 1 of training camp was news that rugged winger Antoine Roussel, signed by Benning to a four-year, $12-million free agent contract, suffered a concussion while scrimmaging in Montreal in August and was out indefinitely.

Green said he hoped Roussel would be participating in practices in Whistler before the pre-season schedule began. But five games in (after Monday night), there’s no sign of him and Benning admits it’s unlikely Roussel will be ready to start the regular season against the Calgary Flames on Oct. 3.

Another winger, Loui Eriksson, suffered a bone bruise in his leg when struck by a shot in the pre-season opener and hasn’t played since. But the 33-year-old, who contributed just 21 goals during the first two seasons of his six-year, $36-million contract in Vancouver, has rejoined the team and the Canucks are counting on him to partner and mentor Pettersson on the second line.

MOTTE VS GAUNCE VS LEIPSIC

Assuming the Canucks start the season with 13 forwards – with Roussel on the injured list – Tyler Motte appears to be pushing incumbent Brendan Gaunce and speedy Brendan Leipsic for the last spot on the roster.

Motte, a 23-year-old grinding winger who inspired more derision than hope in the fan base when acquired for Thomas Vanek at last year’s trade deadline, is having an excellent pre-season and could push Gaunce and Leipsic on to the waiver wire.

Of the three players, Leipsic has the most skill. But he appears to be behind Goldobin in the competition for a top-six role.