Edler's time here is a bit of a mixed bag. We all know the story of how he came to be drafted and his development early on from the the WHL to the Canucks was as good as one could hope for. His size, skating, and offensive ability had us believing that he would one day put it all together and be that #1 Dman we sorely needed. For the longest time, Edler was considered the closest thing we have to a #1 Dman based on his potential. There were brief moments (remember those playoff games where he dominated physically against the Kings?) where he appeared to be capable of that. But that wasn't something he could sustain. He wasn't playing a top pairing role until Hamhuis started to decline and Edler and Tanev formed a #1 pairing (with no one else challenging him for that role). Edler wasn't Ohlund who was basically a rock from the beginning. So I think certainly, Edler underachieved vis a vis his potential. But in his later years he certainly anchored the first pairing. Not a stud by any means but pretty much everyone was better playing with Edler than without. There were also a lot of stats over the years justifying his presence on the first unit PP despite many of us thinking he should be removed from it. So I do think that Edler has gone from overvalued to underappreciated.
