Canucks’ Pettersson played with knee injury since January

Vancouver Canucks forward Elias Pettersson gave a bit of insight as to why he struggled in the post-season and the back half of the regular season.

Speaking at the Canucks’ end-of-season media availabilities on Thursday, the 25-year-old revealed that he played with a knee injury since January.

“It’s been a nagging injury. The longer it went, the more pain I felt,” Pettersson said. He said the injury doesn’t require any further medical intervention, just “time to heal, time to rest.”

The Swede played at a Hart Trophy-calibre for the first half of the season, posting 72 points in 55 games and was named third star of the league for January. Following the All-Star break, though, his production took a stark downturn, seeing just 17 points in the final stretch of the regular season.

Pettersson played all 13 games for the Canucks this post-season, scoring just one goal and six points. He finished the regular season with 34 goals and 89 points, dressing for all 82 games.

On March 2, Pettersson signed an eight-year, $92.8-million contract extension, which ended a months-long saga of speculation surrounding his future in Vancouver.

“It will be nice to get a break from everything,” he said. “It’s been a very noisy season in terms of contract, how (expletive) I’ve been the last three months. It’ll be nice to get a break from that, get a little break here and get back on the horse again.”