Canucks Army Year in Review: Alex Edler
8 years ago
Alex Edler started the 2015/2016 campaign right where he left off the previous season – playing alongside defensive stalwart Chris Tanev. Given the success those two enjoyed as the Canucks top pairing last season, the two looked poised to continue shutting down the league’s best on a nightly basis.
He did so, for a while, but his season was cut short when in early February he blocked a shot that broke his fibula. Sidelined for the rest of the year, Edler got to watch the team spiral into the mess that had Canucks fans actively and emotionally watching the NHL draft lottery.
HERO CHART
NUMBERS
With his 30-game absence, Edler’s scoring totals were quite low. Having said that, his 6 goals were good to tie with Matt Bartkowski for the team lead in goals from the blueline. This probably says less about Edler than it does about the general state of the Canucks defence. It’s normal for players to rack up the penalty minutes when playing against the opposition’s best forwards, but Edler’s 46 PIMs in 52 games do highlight his partner Chris Tanev’s miniscule total of 8 penalty minutes in 69 games.
Only the Sedins (20, 19) and Bo Horvat (12) finished the season with more power play points than Edler and only Daniel Sedin (60) and Radim Vrbata (55) took more shots on the power play (Edler took 31). The team’s power play was not clicking consistently before Edler’s broken fibula and without him it fell apart completely -people were missing his infamous drop pass before long. A healthy Edler would not have saved this Canucks team from its 28th-place fate, but his absence was certainly notable on the power play.
This season was not as kind to Edler in the advanced statistics department as 2014/2015, but given the overall quality of this Canucks team, strong possession numbers can’t be expected. Still, his 46.94 CorsiFor% is quite a drop from the previous season.
BEST GAME
Alex Edler’s best game of the season featured a bar-down power play goal and an equally satisfying slap pass assist on Daniel Sedin’s game winner.
CONCLUSION
Edler’s season-ending injury was obviously a good thing for neither the Canucks nor Edler, but it did give Ben Hutton the opportunity to try his hand at being a top defenceman. Hutton was one of the few bright spots this season, and though he may not have been ready to fill Edler’s shoes, it was mostly fun to watch what young Hutton could do.
At the end of this season, Jim Benning suggested that Alex Edler could become a Chara-like #1 defenceman. Edler just turned 30, so Benning’s wish is not all that likely to come true. However, Edler remains a useful defenceman and a key part of the Canucks blueline going forward. He and Tanev will likely start the 2016/2017 campaign together on the top pairing and lead whatever interesting collection of defencemen that end up on the Canucks roster. Barring a trade or another major injury, Edler will in all likelihood lead the franchise in points by a defenceman within a couple of seasons and though he is not the Chara-esque dman that many wish he was, he will hopefully age gracefully and provide a relatively dependable presence on the back-end of a transitioning team going forward.
And may he stay healthy enough to avoid another fiasco like this:
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