Alex Edler had plenty to prove heading into the 2014-15 campaign. 

Following an awfully unlucky season in 2013-14, it was sink or swim time for Edler. Another season with a league-worst plus/minus rating and I can’t imagine that this city or the team’s new management group would have had much patience left for the talented Swedish defender. 

Luckily, it’s a scenario we were fortunate enough to avoid, as Edler stepped into the first-pairing and had a lights out season alongside Chris Tanev.

Vancouver leaned heavily on Edler in all states of play, playing him almost a full-minute longer each night than the season prior. Ironically Edler salvaged his defensive reputation in a season in which he played more often against top competition and had a definitive shutdown or matchup orientation to his deployment. They say the best way to regain ones confidence is to go right back into the fire and there’s no arguing with these results as an example of that working remarkably well. 

A bounce back from his league worst -39 season the year prior was to be expected, though. The thing about goals is that they are transient – subject to percentages, variance, luck and the like – they come and they go. No matter how poorly you may think Edler played in the season prior, much of these opinions were based on recency bias, developed watching bad bounce after bad bounce land in the Canucks net while simultaneously watching the exact opposite happen at the opposition’s end.

There are a very select few players at each end of the Sh% scale, who possess either markedly good or bad finishing talent, and can subsequently have a positive or negative impact on their personal or on-ice Sh% from a year-to-year basis. The players that appear to sustain a high shooting percentage, also, are generally forwards and not defenders for reasons that should be intuitive. 

Considering that Edler never really found himself on either end of that scale prior to last season, it seemed fair to expect that the 13-14 campaign and the on-ice Sh% of 3.6% was a complete aberration. 

As such, it wasn’t overly surprising that Edler bounced back. There’s still something to be said for the extent to which he did. Looking at Steven Burtch’s dCorsi metric, which takes into account usage, deployments, linemates, team effects, etc. to develop a composite score for how any given player performed against expected results, Edler had a +98.01 dCorsi Impact. 

The Canucks played a much more efficient transition game this season and emphasized the neutral zone to a much higher extent under Willie Desjardins. This kind of high-paced game is best suited to Edler’s skill set – frankly, it eases the workload of all parties involved, but especially defenders with plus transitional ability, like Edler. 

This makes the Canucks decision to shelter the Edler-Tanev pairing from Micheal Ferland’s line in the Canucks first round playoff series all the more confusing. I imagine the thought process behind this decision was that the physicality would be too much for these two. Problem with that thought process being: Edler and Tanev can execute a zone-exit with such proficiency that they’ll rarely suffer these hits. 

Of course, I can’t complain if that decision was made with the sole intention of matching Edler against the Flames top-line. In which case, the Canucks look wise, given that the Canucks controlled north of 51% of puck possession when Edler was matched against the Flames first-line – using his head-to-head data with Sean Monahan as a proxy for the Flames first-line, given that he centered that line for the entirety of the series. 

Relatively solid output for a first-pairing defender. Of course, it’s a far cry less than what Edler produced in his peak offensive years. For all Tanev’s transitional prowess, an offensive facilitator he is not. Were he playing with a more offensively inclined partner, I would expect higher output. 

Fourth on the team and first among all defenders, Edler’s CF%Rel of 3.6% was truly a great showing from a territorial perspective. It’s also Edler’s highest relative mark since the 2007-08 season. Edler surrendered a little offensively from his last campaign to facilitate this mark, but also shaved off north of four attempts per 60-minutes in the process. Not a bad trade-off, given he is a defender after all. 

Another great showing for Edler. The towering Swede’s raw and relative Goals For percentages were at their highest since the 2010-11 season – you know, the one that never happened. Growth at both ends helped lay the foundation for this mark, with the Canucks scoring an extra .9-goals per 60-minutes with Edler on the ice this season, as opposed to last. 

The underlying scoring chance data marks Edler’s first signs of cooling down, purely from the perspective of underlying data. Even then, the results are pretty encouraging. Edler leaves in the black by both raw and relative numbers and that’s highly impressive given his usage. 

Given Edler’s history of clumsy play around his own net, a HSCF%Rel of 5.0% is a sigh of relief for Canucks fans who’ve watched him their entire careers. The Canucks managed just over half a high-danger scoring chance per 60-minutes extra this season from last with Edler on the ice; similarly, they managed less than over a half a high-danger scoring chance against per 60-minutes.

Hate to sound like a broken record here, but again, Edler crushes it. His raw and relative underlying shot data are at their best since the data was recorded in Edler’s career. His SF%Rel of 5.2% is also fourth-highest among the Canucks and first among defenders. 

I can’t envision a scenario where Edler’s situation changes much next season. Fact is he’s the team’s No. 1 defenseman, and he handled that responsibility capably last season.

Edler will likely spend the entirety of the campaign alongside his partner of last season, Tanev. Provided he continues his upward trajectory, he’ll be a crucial leg in the Canucks top-pairing and vital to the club’s success in the short term.

With Adam Clendenning getting dealt, I would expect that Edler’s power play contributions might be heavier than originally anticipated. Still, I don’t expect that the increased workload will prove too onerous given the similarity to the defensive pieces of the Canucks power play compared to last season. 

Given Edler’s age, as just a 29-year old defender, I would expect that Edler can and likely will figure into the medium term health of this franchise. Another season like last would do wonders to secure as much, whether it’s a desirable or otherwise.