Canucks: Alexander Edler is excelling with smaller role

The Vancouver Canucks’ defender Alex Edler has been taken off the power play this season in an effort to limit his ice time and it’s paying off in a big way.

Before the arrival of the Vancouver Canucks’ rookie phenom Quinn Hughes, the majority of defensive responsibility and point production from the backend heavily relied on Alex Edler. For the Canucks and their 50-year history, Edler served as the good option, and in his 13 seasons prior to this one, he became the franchise leader in points by a Canucks defenceman. That’s his record alone, and he’s making an excellent effort at widening the gap.

For several years, Edler has been the team workhorse on defence. He’s an absolute minute-muncher for Vancouver, a go-to-guy playing a ton on the penalty kill, and being the first d-man out for any power play opportunity. He served the position well, but as he’s crept closer to his mid-thirties in age, he’s been shown to overwork himself and before you know it, he winds up on LTIR.

Edler isn’t the kind of guy who’s going to back down and ask for less ice time to save his health. And to be fair, for the longest time, the Canucks really didn’t have another option. Olli Juolevi, who plays a similar style to Edler, was expected to have taken his place by now, but a long list of major injuries has made the development of the 2016 5th overall pick very difficult.

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He wants to win and he wants to be apart of this winning core moving forward, that’s just how Edler is wired. He was given first unit time on the man-advantage to start the year, but that only lasted seven games. Once Hughes proved to be the quarterback of PP1, Edler saw time on the second unit with Tyler Myers. It was an effective pair, but Edler’s time on ice was still higher than it needed to be, and the Swedish blueliner got hurt.

Edler missed just over three weeks of hockey, but ever since then, Travis Green has kept Edler’s duties to strictly five-on-five gameplay against the opponent’s toughest competition, and he’s still leaned on heavily to pair up with Chris Tanev on the team’s top penalty kill.

A good chunk of the season has come and gone with Edler’s smaller role in Van-city and it’s really paying off. Last season held his career-high in average ice-time per game with 24:34 each and every night. That’s a ton of time for a guy who’s 30+ years old. Looking at the same statistic for this season, and he’s averaging just shy of 2 minutes less per game. As of March 11th, the average is 22:37.

The eagle hasn’t been hurt since the decline in his playing time, and he’s on pace to put up his third-best season statistically in 14 years. It’s clearly been the right move for Vancouver. Hughes makes the power play a top-five threat, Myers earns his paycheck on unit two, and Edler benefits with all the help from his supporting cast.

This just might be exactly what Edler needed, and with any luck, maybe the Canucks can get another year or two of good defence from their franchise guy. He has what it takes to score 40+ points by the end of game 82, and that’s without power play time. It’s crazy what a little extra rest can do.