Green opens up about Edler, Hughes on power play

The Vancouver Canucks are two games into their 2019-20 regular season and have zero points to show for it. Whether or not there’s multiple aspects to the current team and the small sample size, there’s been some immediate changes when it comes to who is playing the point on the top power play unit.

After practice on Sunday, head coach Travis Green discussed his choice on having Alex Edler on the first unit, despite all the hype surrounding Quinn Hughes as an offensively-gifted defenceman.

Really interesting coming from Green.

There’s obviously going to be a lot of line and tactical decisions for the remaining 80 games, and the head coach knows it. Moving Edler up at the beginning of the season isn’t set in stone, with Green talking glowingly about Hughes’s offensive skill, it might as well say that once he shows some of that raw talent, he’ll be placed with Pettersson and the rest of the elite forwards.

Through the two games — extremely small sample size alert — Hughes has played a total of 7:34 TOI on the man advantage, while Edler has 10:43 TOI. Not a lot of difference between the two blueliners.

It makes sense from Green’s point-of-view, with Edler on the unit and having some past success, to keep that group together. But he appears to be open to change when it comes to who is on the main unit.

While Hughes will hopefully be a feature on the Canucks’ power play for several years, Edler is still here and has been historically successful, while also still showing signs of being able to produce all those juicy numbers.

Maybe the second power play unit with the American rookie will score the first game-winning goal and give Vancouver their first win.