Canucks: Nate Schmidt should still be paired with Alex Edler

After the recent addition of Travis Hamonic, many Vancouver Canucks fans speculated that Nate Schmidt could play alongside Quinn Hughes, but his best fit is still next to Alex Edler.

Unlike last year, the Vancouver Canucks now have many more options on their blueline. Nate Schmidt and Travis Hamonic are upgrades over Chris Tanev and Troy Stecher, and their versatility has given the team lots of different defensive pairs to choose from.

After the news of Hamonic’s addition broke, many fans thought that Schmidt should be given the opportunity to play alongside Quinn Hughes, but I believe it’s a better idea to keep those two on separate pairs. This will allow Vancouver to have one elite puck-mover on the ice for 45 minutes every game, which is a luxury that they haven’t had in arguably a decade.

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Yes, having them together means that the Canucks can play keep-away, but in this case, I think that quantity is more valuable than quality; we all witnessed how hard it was for the team to break out of their own zone last season when Hughes was off the ice, and separating him and Schmidt will allow Vancouver to spend less time in the defensive end no matter who else is playing.

More importantly, Alex Edler is a similar defender to Brayden McNabb, who has been Schmidt’s partner over the last few seasons. Both are physical, defensive-minded blueliners whose offensive game is limited and lack the foot speed to backcheck effectively if caught out of position.

For comparison, the Canucks gave up 2.62 goals against per 60 minutes at five on five last year when Edler was on the ice, while Vegas allowed 2.75 goals when McNabb played, courtesy of Natural Stat Trick. Both defenders are used to logging heavy minutes and playing on a shutdown pair too. In a previous article, I mentioned that Edler spent 35.6% of his time against elite competition according to PuckIQ while McNabb’s number was even higher, at 42.7%.

One caveat to consider is that Edler struggles a lot more with his entry defence. Using A3Z Performance Tool, we can see the large discrepancy in this area between the veteran Canuck and McNabb.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that McNabb was able to focus on defence due to Schmidt’s elite play driving abilities. On the other hand, Edler also needed to worry about bringing the puck up ice since Tyler Myers, his most frequent partner, is mediocre at best in that regard.

By playing alongside Schmidt, Edler can focus more of his energy on defending the rush, which should result in better numbers in terms of preventing entries from the opposition.

Ultimately, Edler is still the best fit for Schmidt, and they can form the shutdown pairing for Vancouver this season. Travis Green might decide to play the former Golden Knight with Hughes when the Canucks are trailing late in games or on the power play, but those are probably the only situations in which we’ll see them together. Let me know if you agree in the comments below!