Report: Alex Edler and Canucks won’t get a deal done
4 years ago
There are still two weeks to go before the free agency period opens but teams are getting their ducks in a row ahead of the ‘courting period’ that opens on June 23rd.
On the Canucks front, the biggest question mark was the future of pending free agent defenceman Alex Edler and unfortunately, it appears that the organization won’t be able to come to terms on a new deal.
According to Rick Dhaliwal from Sportsnet 650, the Canucks and Edler don’t appear to have a deal in the future and the veteran of 814 games in a Canucks jersey poised to hit the free agent market.
The organization did not move Edler at the trading deadline as they intended to re-sign him and the added layer of a no-trade clause. Unfortunately, it appears they weren’t able to get the deal over the line and thus Edler could be heading somewhere else. In the past, it was reported that the Edler camp wanted a three-year deal while the Canucks wanted a two-year pact and furthermore, there were questions about the no-move-clause and the Canucks reluctance to include one because of the upcoming Seattle expansion draft.
This wasn’t a simple situation for the organization either.
The reasoning behind keeping Edler was understandable but he is 32-years-old and has struggled to remain healthy the last few years. If they were able to get him to sign that rumoured two-year deal, it made sense but anything longer and it could be a burden.
Ideally, they would’ve moved him at the trading deadline for future assets but the veteran defenceman exercised the right that he had earned.
It will be interesting to see what deal Edler can get on the open market because, despite the issues I mentioned above, there is still immense value in a player like him. With Erik Karlsson closing in on a new deal with San Jose, you can’t really blame Edler for leveraging the situation to get the most they can.
Now, Jim Benning and the rest of the organization has another hole to fill in their defence. They have said that they wanted to rebuild the back-end and here is their chance.
