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Elias Pettersson‘s on-ice personality glowed from the moment he stepped on the ice for his first pre-season game with the Vancouver Canucks.

He didn’t score in that mid-September game, but that didn’t matter. He did everything else. He dazzled with puck skills. He stood out as the best player on the ice.

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And then there was the season opener, where he scored one of the finest goals Vancouver has ever seen.

Two months later, the buzz when he collects the puck still picks up.

But off the ice, he’s an athlete Vancouver is still getting to know.

Photo by Jeff Vinnick/Vancouver Canucks / PNG

There are plenty of sports personalities who’ve made their mark on Rain City over the years: the Sedins, Kesler, Naslund, Bertuzzi, Bure, Linden, Passaglia, Buono, Reeves, Sinclair and Nash to name but a few.

Pettersson will no doubt join that group one day.

And though he finds himself in front of cameras and reporters most days, where there have been moments in which his steely glare has drawn attention, or where a dry joke has cracked up his interlocutors, he mostly remains a quiet soul according to those who have come to know him best.