I also think your expectations of what $5m is going to get you in a blueliner over the term of Edler's contract are out of whack. 95% of players in this league are going to look markedly worse out there when you don't put them in a situation that works around their limitations, it looked at one point like Edler might turn into one of those exceptional players but that hasn't happened and might never happen. At any rate the guys paid to be effective no matter what are getting $6-8m now.
If your limitation is that you can't play well with any one of our defensemen (who are all quality NHLers IMO) then there is no way you should be making 5m a season. I'm not asking him to be effective no matter what. I'd like him to be effective sometimes. That would be a step in the right direction. The guy has been bailing water for far too long. Bieksa, Hamhuis and Garrison have all had their struggles but have also all played very well for stretches in the last two seasons. When was the last time Edler put a good stretch of games together?