Edler is just one of those players that has one constantly questioning the numbers. "Good" is a relative term. Good compared to what? Other mid-pairing Dmen? Possibly. Against bottom pairing defenders? Definitely. Against other top pairing Dmen? A case would have to be made.
So both of your statements could ring true, in a sense.
Well if we compare Edler with Sbisa/Weber/Bartkowski then sure Edler is superior.
But those 3 are barely NHL calibre players.
When I say he is not that good. The "good" I'm referring to is how Edler is considered a bonafide #1d. I don't see that. He's not a #1 dman that you can build around.
Sure he's prone to mistakes, but at the end of the day he delivers good results. He's evolved very well the past two seasons, he's objectively a good player and gets good results, it's cool that you have an opinion but factually speaking Edler is good at hockey.
This is where I don't agree, a mistake prone dman who plays a major role on the team hurts your team. It doesn't lead to good results.
A lot of people confuse #1 defenseman with a franchise defenseman.
Edler is absolutely a #1 defenseman by pretty much every statistic and metric in the book. Is he a lower tier #1? Yes. But he still is one.
What metric? ice-time? Usage/deployment only tells the role of a player on his team not the quality of a player.
By all metrics Stephen Weiss was a #1C in this league playing in Florida. Do you believe Weiss is a top line C in this league?
the second he leaves florida he is not a #1 C
Edler has been our #1 D for 6 or 7 years now. He plays the most minutes which makes him our top D. Simple metric but you can't refute it.
You want fancy stats? His Corsi Relative to Quality of Comp is the best on the team. He is a#1. He is our #1. He has been for years and years.
corsi stats are related to his D partner Chris Tanev. All that shows is that Edler-Tanev as a pairing are our best at generating shots for against harder competition.
Was that ever in doubt? we don't need "advanced stats" to tell us Edler-Tanev is a superior pairing than hamhuis stuck with a bartkowski/weber or rookie Hutton stuck with a Sbisa etc.
And no Edler was not our best dman for 7 years. Hamhuis certainly was for a few years. And Hamhuis was never even an "elite" dman in this league.
First of all do not use Edmonton as a template for what NHL teams can or cannot do. They are horribly run and are not the norm for NHL management (though maybe for us). You *can* trade for D, you simply have to be willing to give up a good asset to do it. Edmonton's problem is they don't want to give up any of their golden eggs to improve their D. Colorado could pick one up in a heartbeat if they made Duchene or Landeskog available. Columbus simply lacks quality assets, period. Besides, Edler is on the low end for a 1D and will probably slide out of that designation (based on play, not on role) in the next couple of years as his play continues to fall off. We may not get a 1D back but I'm not sure we will have one for much longer anyway.
Secondly, what timeline do you have for Vancouver contending for a cup again? Given Edler's age (30), you must seem to think we will be a cup challenger again within the next 4-5 years to include him on your cup roster. I am not nearly so optimistic and feel it quite likely we will still be in a rebuild/taking early steps of making playoffs within that timeframe. Having a (potentially) first line LW who is 25 at the end of that window >> having a 35 year old D who's game has certainly declined by that point.
My simple point is acquire potential high end assets when you have the opportunity as those opportunities do not come around often. If you want to argue that Drouin is not a high end asset or that his risk level is too high then I can get behind that type of thinking. I don't necessarily agree but it seems a reasonable concern. But refusing to make a deal because of positional concerns at the stage this team is at makes no sense to me. We will be adding and subtracting players for the next 5 years and very few of the ones that are here today will be here then. Don't view this trade as the only one we will ever make in that time frame.
yeah the idea that we simply need to acquire talent - relatively young ones, is on point.
