This is the eighth time Elias Pettersson has done it.

Eight years of NHL training camp.

It doesn’t feel that long, the Vancouver Canucks ’ No. 1 centre concedes. And yet here he is, age 26, still young, but in NHL terms very much now middle-aged.

What you might have been able to get away with when you were 20 just isn’t so easy anymore. Your skills surprise no one. There’s a book on you.

You have to be smarter in what you do. Your best scoring years are almost certainly behind you, though you can still be a highly productive player for a few years yet.

Last year was a disaster for Pettersson. He knows this. He doesn’t really want to talk about it. He would rather focus on how he believes he’s put in the work to be the player who was a near superstar all of two years ago. His 102-p

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