Here we go again.

Last February, there was some optimism that an opportunity to play international, best-on-best hockey would reinvigorate Vancouver Canucks’ Elias Pettersson.

That didn’t happen, as Pettersson finished Sweden’s final game with the lowest ice time among all players.

While he’s not the low man in ice time anymore for Team Sweden, he certainly isn’t being relied upon as a go-to player.

Pettersson played just 10:05 overall during Sweden’s 4-1 loss to Finland during round robin play at the Olympics on Friday.

There were actually three Swedish forwards who had fewer minutes than Pettersson on Friday, including Pontus Holmberg (8:00), Filip Forsberg (9:31) and Jesper Bratt (9:38).

For Bratt, it appeared as though he got benched after being a minus-two through two periods. He played less than a minute during the third frame.

Not being the low man in ice time could be a moral victory for Pettersson, but his place on the depth chart is pretty clear.

With the game on the line, Sweden head coach Sam Hallam is choosing to put other players on the ice.

It’s unfortunate for Pettersson because in the third period of their win over Italy, the Sundsvall, Sweden native was one of his team’s best players. Pettersson hit a post in the third period and was robbed on a breakaway by Italian netminder Damian Clara.

He also screened the Italian netminder during Sweden’s fourth goal of the game.

However, with the stakes raised against a tougher opponent in Finland, Pettersson’s role diminished.

His ice time dropped by more than three minutes compared to the game against Italy, where he skated 13:22 overall.

Not only that, but Pettersson was hammered into the Finnish bench by 5-foot-10 forward Mikael Granlund.

Nobody wanted to help Elias Pettersson 🫣 pic.twitter.com/xI9txGAboX

— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) February 13, 2026

Pettersson did make it onto the ice at the tail end of the game, while Sweden had the goalie pulled down two goals. Unfortunately, Mika Zibanejad’s pass went off Pettersson’s skate, Finland recovered, and scored into an empty net.

With the Canucks entering a rebuild, one of the hopes entering the Olympics was that Pettersson would find chemistry with another Swedish forward, in hopes that it might spark interest from another NHL team.

Hey, some chemistry with Los Angeles Kings forward Adrian Kempe would be nice, considering that the Kings could be a viable destination for the highest-paid NHL player on Team Sweden. Not only that, but Kempe was very complimentary of Pettersson entering the 4 Nations last year.

Instead, Kempe led all Swedish forwards with 21:42 of ice time, putting him on the opposite end of the spectrum from Pettersson.

So far, outside of one standout period against Italy, it’s been a quiet start to the Olympics for Pettersson.

Sweden has one game left in the round robin against an undefeated Slovakia team on Saturday, Feb. 14 at 3:10 a.m. PT.