Alex Edler - Part II

[y2kcanucks]

Vrbata would be a decent pick. Gotta score goals to win.

Edler is outperforming Tanev this year possession wise and plays in all situations. He has 100 shots to Tanev's 30. Edler has been better. If Vrbata is MVP... he's the unsung hero.

I would certainly have Edler in my top 5 for MVP, possibly top 3 after analyzing his possession numbers. I can definitely agree with him for unsung hero. I'd like to see more offense out of him though before anointing him the MVP.

 

[Lundface*]

Vrbata would be a decent pick. Gotta score goals to win.

Edler is outperforming Tanev this year possession wise and plays in all situations. He has 100 shots to Tanev's 30. Edler has been better. If Vrbata is the MVP... he's the unsung hero.

There's a reason Vrbata hand picked Vancouver to play in this summer.

The teams MVP and engine is Henrik Sedin.

Edler would be second, Tanev 3rd.

Think of it this way. If Van loses Henrik What happens to them ( hint last season ). If they lose Vrbata it will hurt, but Henrik can produce without Vrbata, the other way around not as likely. Vrbata was a 19 goal scorer last season.

I expect it from Pauser, but I'm still surprised some posters still don't understand Henriks importance to this team.

 

[nucksfan8888]

Best overall dman this year for the canucks. While Tanev has been great(IMO as a clear cut #3 and arguably #2 dman level) Edlers physical package puts him a step above and has been playing like a #1. Don't mistake that for franchise #1 dman like a Doughty/Keith but IMO his play is as good if not better than Hamhuis's peak.

So glad he wasn't traded.


On the MVP talk, I think he's definitely in contention but Henrik still takes it, after starting the season with promise Daniel has reverted back to his timid play of the last few years for the past few weeks and Henrik has been carrying him around. Like someone mentioned about putting Edler with Weber, if he could continue his strong play with him then he has to be the MVP, but being stapled to Tanev all season does not make him the leading MVP candidate IMO.

 

[Icebreakers]

I'll consider that you get the fact that I was being sarcastic concerning Hal Gill. What I am saying here is that Edler is having a role that is obviously not meant for him. If he's a defensive defensemen, he should not be on the 1st wave of the PP. He's there because there is no one else.

GOALS
Dennis Wideman : 10 goals
Sami Vatanen : 9 goals
Brent Burns : 9 goals
Whole Canucks defensive squad : 9 goals
Mark Giordano : 8 goals
PK Subban : 8 goals

POINTS
Mark Giordano : 31 points
Kevin Shattenkirk : 27 points
Edler/Vanev/Hamhuis/Bieksa : 27 Points
Sami Vatanen : 24 points
Brent Burns : 24 points

Giordano/Brodie/Wideman combine for 24 goals 59 assists and 83 points (!!) I guess they will cool off at some point, but wow.

Every single one of those dmen are powerplay specialists except for Brodie/Gio/Subban. They are substantially worse than Edler on defence.

Edler is a two way defencemen with a great first pass. He needs forwards to finish for him to be successful. (like Hansen vs SJS) He is NOT A PMD which is why the Sedins are usually the ones to enter the zone on the pp. The reason why our PP isnt that great is because we have limited amount of shooters. Burrows infront of the net aint gonna shoot. The Sedins aint gonna shoot. Edler is the only option from the point to shoot so they cut him off.

 

[y2kcanucks]

Every single one of those dmen are powerplay specialists except for Brodie/Gio/Subban. They are substantially worse than Edler on defence.

Uh PK Subban won a Norris...

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

^ i think you're reading that wrong

 

[arsmaster*]

I would certainly have Edler in my top 5 for MVP, possibly top 3 after analyzing his possession numbers. I can definitely agree with him for unsung hero. I'd like to see more offense out of him though before anointing him the MVP.

I think Edler's bounce back has been a bigger catalyst for our success than Vrbata's goals. It's not as if Vrbata if scoring on his own.

Tanev helped Edler transition into the season, but Edler's bounce back has been HUGE. And his game over the last 10 has been fantastic.

 

[DennisReynolds]

This team would've been in deep trouble if Edler isn't playing like he is right now with Hamhuis gone.

 

[y2kcanucks]

^ i think you're reading that wrong

Yup. Missed Subban listed as an exception. My bad.

 

[y2kcanucks]

I think Edler's bounce back has been a bigger catalyst for our success than Vrbata's goals. It's not as if Vrbata if scoring on his own.

Tanev helped Edler transition into the season, but Edler's bounce back has been HUGE. And his game over the last 10 has been fantastic.

Where is your analysis?

 

[kanucks25]

Well I personally think Tanev has been our best defenseman this season. Though Edler is much improved.

Our MVP so far would probably be Radim Vrbata. He almost doubles our second leading goal scorer.

Tanev and Vrbata are my choices too.

Edler has been amazing but IMO Tanev is better and is one of the main reasons Edler has bounced back.

Vrbata has fit in extremely well with the Sedins and has a knack for scoring key goals. His goal-scoring and general shooting mentality has really downplayed the fact that Daniel isn't a scoring threat anymore.

 

[Scurr]

There's a reason Vrbata hand picked Vancouver to play in this summer.

The teams MVP and engine is Henrik Sedin.

Edler would be second, Tanev 3rd.

Think of it this way. If Van loses Henrik What happens to them ( hint last season ). If they lose Vrbata it will hurt, but Henrik can produce without Vrbata, the other way around not as likely. Vrbata was a 19 goal scorer last season.

I expect it from Pauser, but I'm still surprised some posters still don't understand Henriks importance to this team.

I won't argue that, I just don't think he's had a great start to the season by his standards.

 

[Wisp]

Henrik is the most important part of this team but, you know, the context of this discussion has been a defensemen. Kind of annoying to hear "You're not appreciating Hank enough!" when you're talking about a player with very different set of responsibilities.

 

[FOurteenS inCisOr]

Henrik is the most important part of this team but, you know, the context of this discussion has been a defensemen. Kind of annoying to hear "You're not appreciating Hank enough!" when you're talking about a player with very different set of responsibilities.

The discussion was about the team's MVP.

So it happened in an Edler thread—he is also in the discussion.

Mods will deal with it, if they feel it's getting too off topic.

 

[Verviticus]

Something that wasn't happening a lot last year is the puck is quickly being brought out of the zone. A good feature of the Canucks defense is it's ability to skate and pass, and for whatever reason with Torts, these strengths were being suppressed in his system. Obviously when you can turn the puck up the ice quickly, you're playing to Edler and Tanev's strengths. His flaws get magnified when his strengths are suppressed, of course.

The return of his physical game is huge, though. Those suspensions last year obviously didn't help. I hated the LA game, but I marvelled when he dumped Kopitar onto the ice during the PK. Didn't think you could do that to Kopitar.

I was huge believer of Edler last summer, so it feels really good to be right... but I really should really eat some crow regarding Tanev. I really did think his ability to play in a top pairing was a product of Hamhuis, and that he was too slight and limited offensively to push the needle on his own (I wanted to trade him at the draft). I think he's still overrated by some but he's very clearly a top pairing guy that's ready for prime time.

im really sad that all of this coming together this year has coincided with bieksa's first truly bad year because if he were on his game we'd have maybe the best defence in the league. sigh

 

[Addison Rae]

This man deserves more love, he's having an incredible season. Now ranked 10th in the league in CorsiRel for d-man, doing this while playing tough ass minutes with sub 50% offensive zone starts. He's playing like a top pairing shutdown d-man this year, it's a real shame that it's going unnoticed league wide. I recently saw an article on the main board which suggested that Edler was the Canucks most disappointing player this year (wtf)

Lets add some context to the possession stats above. The only players ranked above him are Leddy, Letang, Keith, Shattenkirk, Barrie, Ellis, Hamilton, Giordano and Brodie. Out of those players Barrie and Shattenkirk are playing extremely easy minutes (3rd pair minutes) than take a look at the next wave of guys ahead of him Leddy, Keith and Ellis are play semi-hard minutes but pale in comparison to Edler's, all 3 of them also start 54% of their shifts in the offensive zone. The only players ahead of Edler in terms of CorsiRel that are deployed similarly are Hamilton and Letang both of which are having absolutely ridiculous seasons than you have Brodie and Giordano who are playing out of their minds right now ahead of everyone else (what these guys are doing is just disgusting)

Point being here is Edler has probably been the Canucks most valuable player this year, and if he's able to get his point totals close to 40 than I personally believe he should be in Norris contention, he's playing the best hockey of his life bar none. Don't give me that "he was on pace for over 50 points in 11/12" sure it's true but he was playing extremely easy minutes and getting spoon fed offensive zone starts with the Sedins at even strength and on the power play.

 

[wonton15]

He was great tonight, loving his turnaround!

 

[David71]

thanks to willie d and doug lidster for turning alex around.

 

[LiveeviL]

Two years ago people was dropping him out of top 20 d-men, last year not mentioned as a factor and now arguably (this commonly used word on HF) could be considered a top 5 but certainly a top 10.

His last three seasons have been tough on him back injury; post-back injury; Torts. I hope and am also convinced that those 3 years was a long parenthesis. With that said, he he might be exceptional this season, but it is closer to his "normal" game than the 3 last seasons have been.

 

[opendoor]

This man deserves more love, he's having an incredible season. Now ranked 10th in the league in CorsiRel for d-man, doing this while playing tough ass minutes with sub 50% offensive zone starts. He's playing like a top pairing shutdown d-man this year, it's a real shame that it's going unnoticed league wide. I recently saw an article on the main board which suggested that Edler was the Canucks most disappointing player this year (wtf)

Lets add some context to the possession stats above. The only players ranked above him are Leddy, Letang, Keith, Shattenkirk, Barrie, Ellis, Hamilton, Giordano and Brodie. Out of those players Barrie and Shattenkirk are playing extremely easy minutes (3rd pair minutes) than take a look at the next wave of guys ahead of him Leddy, Keith and Ellis are play semi-hard minutes but pale in comparison to Edler's, all 3 of them also start 54% of their shifts in the offensive zone. The only players ahead of Edler in terms of CorsiRel that are deployed similarly are Hamilton and Letang both of which are having absolutely ridiculous seasons than you have Brodie and Giordano who are playing out of their minds right now ahead of everyone else (what these guys are doing is just disgusting)

Point being here is Edler has probably been the Canucks most valuable player this year, and if he's able to get his point totals close to 40 than I personally believe he should be in Norris contention, he's playing the best hockey of his life bar none. Don't give me that "he was on pace for over 50 points in 11/12" sure it's true but he was playing extremely easy minutes and getting spoon fed offensive zone starts with the Sedins at even strength and on the power play.

Corsi Rel has its drawbacks and one of those is that your numbers can be inflated if your teammates are poor. Edler's (and Tanev's) relative numbers are quite high because the other two pairings have generally been a disaster possession wise all season, particularly Sbisa and Stanton. Edler's raw Corsi F/A is actually identical to what it was last season; the main difference in his Corsi Rel is that the other two pairings have been much poorer in that regard. Obviously that's by design, as Corsi Rel is used to weed out players being carried on good teams, but I think it kind of breaks down when you're looking at a team with two great defensemen on one pairing and 4 guys who are all near the bottom of the league in possession numbers on the other two pairings.

That's not a criticism of his play either, as it also means that his pairing is pretty much solely responsible for any success the Canucks' have had on their back end. He's having an excellent season and he and Tanev are one of the best shut down tandems in the league right now. I shudder to think what position the team would be in right now if Edler wasn't playing as well as he is.

 

[Proto]

That's not a criticism of his play either, as it also means that his pairing is pretty much solely responsible for any success the Canucks' have had on their back end. He's having an excellent season and he and Tanev are one of the best shut down tandems in the league right now. I shudder to think what position the team would be in right now if Edler wasn't playing as well as he is.

Me too

/thought bubble over my head showing Jack Eichel in a Canucks uniform

 

[arsmaster*]

Where is your analysis?

Ahh. Just saw this. Nice one.

My analysis, is that last year Alex Edler could barely handle secondary minutes and looked absolutely dreadful. If this team had last years Edler, coupled with Bieksa's regression, Sbisa's addition, Stanton's slow start, Weber being on the team, and even Tanev's start that wasn't as good as he was last season we're probably nowhere close to where we are in the standings.

Vrbata throwing in goals riding the Sedins coattails, with almost half of them on the PP isn't an MVP for me. He's been a key cog to be sure.

If Edler wasn't able to form our top pair with Tanev we'd be sunk. Look at Bieksa against poor competition, he's a nightmare right now. Pains me to say that because he's my favourite guy on the team.

 

[Scurr]

Edler went into Philly last night and ran the ice like a boss. The way he handles scrums and pushback from the other team now is impressive. He's mastered the icy Viking stare and dares them to get to him through his stick. The turnaround in confidence is amazing.

 

[Tobi Wan Kenobi]

Edler is easily the teams MVP so far.

 

[ItsAllPartOfThePlan]

Lidster for coach of the year!