No one can play the minutes Edler has to. Myers is too soft, Benn is terrible, Quinn and Tanev aren't physical players, Stecher is too small handle the mean crowd or punish consistently. And our extras aren't NHL level. Edler is the only one who can be effective as a physical presence. Benn is supposed to help in that department but opposing teams don't fear someone who can be skated around in circles.
Green plays Edler as much as he does because he has no choice. The blueliners who are supposed to excel away from the puck don't. This is why the Myers signing sucks so much - he's a room temperature defender best suited as a 4-5, yet he's paid to be the yang to the yin. Then we have no room to fit someone better than Benn. And clearly we can't expect guys we know to be too soft/small to suddenly become wrecking balls. The blueline is poorly built and it shows, and I absolutely agree with lawrence's observation - this is not even the final form of terribleness the defense has to offer, because we have no NHL-worthy defensemen to fill in for injuries.