Elias Pettersson's offseason marketing and branding tour has seen the Canucks star break into fashion, try his hand at YouTube comedy, and make a controversial appearance on a popular podcast. Now the team's franchise centre is joining another young centre on the team in the gaming world.
On Wednesday, Pettersson announced that he is joining Twitch, the live streaming platform used primarily by gamers. A typical Twitch livestream features the streamer playing a game while providing audio commentary, often including video of the player themselves on the screen.
Pettersson will make his debut on Twitch with his teammate and fellow Twitch streamer Adam Gaudette, as announced on his Instagram story with a full-blown teaser trailer.
How extra is it to release a teaser trailer for your Twitch stream? Too extra, just extra enough, or not at all extra?
— Daniel Wagner (@passittobulis) December 10, 2020
(Source: Petey's Instagram Story) pic.twitter.com/2KDTNRroJA
Pettersson looks well-prepared for gaming, wearing yellow-tinted glasses in the trailer that are often used by gamers to reduce eye strain from staring at a screen for too long. The idea behind gaming glasses is to reduce the amount of blue light that reaches the eyes, so Pettersson's incredible on-ice vision shouldn't be affected by staring at a screen while streaming.
We don't often see Pettersson and Gaudette teamed up on the ice, as they play on different lines and on separate power play units, but they'll get the chance to team up online when they stream together at 4 PM on Thursday. Gaudette typically plays Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone on his Twitch streams — though he mixes in other games like Fall Guys from time to time — and from the looks of Pettersson's Instagram, that's what they'll be playing together on their stream.
According to Gaudette, Pettersson is as much a sniper online as he is on the ice.
Part of the appeal of Twitch streaming is being able to directly interact with the streamer. In this case, Canucks fans get nearly-unfettered access to their favourite players and can ask questions via the chat, though there are rules, including no trash-talking other players or teams.
"It’s been great,” said Gaudette when asked about streaming on Twitch in the offseason. “I think yesterday, I had the most viewers I’ve ever had and I barely even played. I just sat there and talked to a lot of fans and it’s a lot of fun. I think it’s good to give the fans some inside intel on what our lives are like outside of hockey.”
Pettersson is certainly one of the biggest stars in the NHL to join Twitch, but there are others like Nathan MacKinnon and Mitch Marner. Many NHLers use video games to relax away from the rink; streaming on Twitch while gaming simply helps them connect with fans while doing so.
For many gamers, Twitch is also a source of income. That's less of a concern for Pettersson, who will be in line for a big raise when his entry-level contract is up at the end of this season and has already made millions in performance bonuses. According to his Twitch, all donations to Pettersson's stream will instead go towards the Canucks for Kids Fund, which supports a variety of charities, including the Canucks Autism Network, Canuck Place Children's Hospice, and BC Children's Hospital Foundation.
