Elias Pettersson suffers freak injury on Saturday.

This initially looked like nothing at all, but it would appear as though Vancouver Canucks star forward Elias Pettersson has in fact been injured.

On Saturday, Pettersson and the Canucks had a huge game on their schedule as they faced off against former teammate J.T. Miller and the New York Rangers. Not only was the game highly anticipated by fans because of the perceived animosity between former teammates Miller and Pettersson, but also because both teams are currently fighting for their playoff lives.

That's why it came as such a shock when Pettersson took himself out of the game in the second period after an awkward face off. As you can see from the video below, there's not much of anything that happens here, but Pettersson would immediately head back to the bench after this sequence.

Things would only get worse from there as Pettersson remained on the bench for the rest of the second period, including when the Canucks found themselves on the power play. Additionally, Pettersson would head back to the locker room with his teammates at the end of the second period but would not return to the ice for the start of the third due to what now looks like some kind of freak injury.

This was especially notable because the Canucks had a man advantage to start the period, but Pettersson was apparently unable to continue as a result of whatever injury he may have suffered.

This has already been an incredibly difficult season for Pettersson but he had appeared to have found his way as of late with 8 points over his last 5 games, and an injury is the last thing that Pettersson needs after finally getting things back on track.

Update: Canucks have confirmed that Pettersson as well as Nils Hoglander are both done for the day.

Stay tuned for more on this developing story.