While some publications insist on doing weekly power rankings of NHL teams, we thought it would be even more abstract and pointless to do a weekly power ranking of the players on the Canucks. And yes, we understand that Sunday is technically the start of the week, but no one thinks that way.

It’s the first Power Rankings of the year, and though only two games have been played, multiple opinions have been formed.

Let’s jump into it.

19. Michael Del Zotto

After playing in every single one of the team’s games last year (the only defenceman to do so), Del Zotto will be a healthy scratch tonight.

It’s deserved too, as the bad underlying stats and careless play in his own end have indicated. Among NHL defencemen playing over 20 minutes a night, one has to think Del Zotto is at or near the bottom in terms of quality.

18. Jay Beagle

The veteran centre was brought in ostensibly to help the Canucks’ PK and to win faceoffs. To the latter, Beagle registered a ton of shorthanded minutes for the Canucks but was scored on three times by Calgary’s power play. To the former, he has a worse percentage in the dot than Elias Pettersson, who has barely played centre professionally.

17. Tyler Motte

He’s a healthy scratch tonight but Motte played the most minutes of any Canuck forward in the first game against Calgary. It’s still not known who will be sent down once Antoine Roussel comes back from his concussion. The ice time afforded to Motte in the season opener seems to suggest it won’t be him.

16. Markus Granlund

Five shots on goal is promising, and so are the strong underlying numbers even as he’s started a majority of shots in his own end. But he hasn’t necessarily stood out in any meaningful way.

15. Sven Baertschi

No one on the top line has looked great, but it’s Baertschi who has the most to lose and, with Brendan Leipsic running with the first line in practice in the days leading up to tonight, he might have lost his spot with Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat.

14. Jake Virtanen

An awesome goal on a break was good to see from the power forward who is logging tough minutes and tons of defensive zone starts.

13. Brendan Leipsic

An opportunistic goal and some solid advanced stats have seemingly coalesced into an opportunity on the top line tonight. Green loves Leipsic’s versatility and the forward is rewarding his faith thus far.

12. Derrick Pouliot
11. Erik Gudbranson

Because these two have spent most of the first couple of games together, they're getting lumped into a ranking. Look, there shouldn’t be any doubt about what Gudbranson is or isn’t. Is he an effective player at even strength? Not really, no. But if he brings the physicality he’s shown in the early going and can partner with Pouliot effectively against other teams’ weaker forward groups, he can have success on the Canucks. Through two games, the pairing held the team’s highest plus/minus rating and posted a nice Relative Corsi as well.

10. Troy Stecher

Despite the limited ice time, Stecher has arguably been one of the Canucks’ best defencemen. He deserves more time out there, but Green seems somewhat married to his first two pairs. We’ll see if that changes at all when Stecher takes the ice with Hutton tonight. Stecher also deserves to see some special teams time, as he hasn’t really gotten in on the power play or penalty kill yet.

9. Jacob Markstrom

A great first game followed by a bit of a rough second outing leaves Marky on the fringe of the top 10. He’s getting the start again tonight and obviously has management’s trust even after some curious goals that seemed to go right through him on Saturday.

8. Loui Eriksson

Who knew that all it would take to revive Loui Eriksson’s career would be ice time with a dynamic phenom? He may not be the best fit on the roster for Pettersson, but he’s got the spot right now and has looked good, with three even strength assists.

7. Nikolay Goldobin

Is this a little high for the youngster? Sure. But he’s playing great with Pettersson in the early going and if he keeps it up, he’ll have a locked and loaded spot on what could be a very productive second line.

6. Brandon Sutter

The advanced stats aren’t there (when are they ever for the team’s favourite shutdown centre?), but it’s pretty clear Travis Green still has the utmost faith in Sutter. In the coach’s eyes, Sutter’s role is to stifle the opposition’s best players and come out of every situation as an even or better player (in terms of plus/minus).

With two points and a plus-1 rating, it’s hard to argue that’s not exactly what he’s accomplished.

5. Chris Tanev

Tanev remains one of the team’s most reliable players and he’s gobbled up ice time at both even strength (second on team) and on the penalty kill (first on the team). He’s also managed to turn in a positive Relative Corsi, despite tough matchups.

4. Alexander Edler

The advanced statistics haven’t been particularly kind to Edler, but he has chipped in two assists and is second amongst all Canucks in power play time. He’s also leading the entire league in blocked shots with 12.

3. Brock Boeser

Suggestions about why Boeser has gotten off to a slower start than expected and has looked a tad hesitant at times have ranged from protective wrap on his wrist to the fact that he gained a few pounds in the offseason. We think he'll be OK. 

2. Bo Horvat

He didn’t get the captaincy, and though the top line has struggled a bit in the early going, Horvat has been effective. He scored via an incredible Pettersson pass on Saturday and added an assist on the rookie’s powerplay marker. The youngest of the Canucks’ alternate captains has come as advertised.

1. Elias Pettersson

Not a hard one. Pettersson has undoubtedly been the story of the Canucks’ first couple games, as his vision and offensive acumen has been on full display thus far.

It seems like every time he’s on the ice he does something exceptional, and often he does things you just don’t see at the NHL level. Maybe things change when he’s not just picking on the Calgary Flames. We're going to go ahead and say that's unlikely. 

Everyone's getting in on the fun, and we only hope it doesn't stop anytime soon.

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Not ranked: Tim Schaller, Anders Nilsson, Antoine Roussel, Ben Hutton, Alex Biega