Edler’s value to Canucks has never been higher
Elias Pettersson sat in his hotel room in South Florida with a concussion suffered in his fifth NHL game, a month shy of his 20th birthday and 8,000 kilometres from home.
Under ordinary circumstances, he would have been in the company of roommate Brock Boeser, himself a grizzled 21-year-old veteran of 76 NHL games.
But on this night, another member of the Canucks moved into Pettersson’s room — a man who knows what it’s like to be a world away from everything that’s familiar, a man who sat with the kid, waking him up every couple of hours to make sure everything was OK.
“You go through something like that, especially when you’re young, I think the most important thing is to have someone you feel safe with,” said Alex Edler. “It can be scary for anyone. You don’t know. I think we all said it’s important we were there for him.”
Pettersson is asked about that night back in October and what it meant to him.
“I didn’t know what to expect, but I really appreciate that,” he said. “It’s great to have such a veteran player. He’s made me feel comfortable. Anything I need to ask, I just ask him.”
Which is something you can’t put on the back of a hockey card, but it’s something the Canucks have come to value.
On Thursday, Edler and his agent Mark Stowe met with Canucks general manager Jim Benning to discuss the veteran blue-liner’s future with the club.
Benning described the meeting with the pending UFA as “productive,” and that can mean a lot of things. But in this case, it means the Canucks are looking to extend Edler’s contract, which among other things, will end the annual exercise of guessing what Edler could fetch at the trade deadline.
“I don’t think it’s too often you can play this many games with the same organization,” Edler said. “In that way I feel very fortunate. I’ve gone through some ups and downs here, but it feels like our team is on the way up again and that’s very exciting.”
Hmmm, doesn’t sound like a guy who’s anxious to test the open market.
“He was friends with Daniel and Hank (Sedin) and he’s a lot like them now,” Benning said of Edler. “His workouts, his preparation, the way he handles himself off the ice. I think Petey really looks up to him. He’s the longest tenured player we have and that means something.”
As for how much that means, we’re about to find out. Edler is winding up — can it be? — his 13th season with the Canucks, and while he’s been many things during his time here, a fuller, more complete picture of the big Swede is coming into focus.
As is his style, he quietly passed Harold Snepsts this season atop the list for most career games by a Canucks’ defenceman and, if he remains healthy, he’ll pass Alex Burrows this season and move into sixth place on the team’s all-time list.
Next season he’s poised to pass Markus Naslund and Stan Smyl in games played, which will put him fourth in franchise history behind, in order, Henrik, Daniel and Trevor Linden. He leads all Canucks’ defencemen in scoring by a healthy margin, he’s ninth on the franchise’s all-time assists list, and given a reasonable rate of production, he should move in to the Top 10 among all scorers before he retires.
Add it all up and the conclusion is inescapable: Edler is the greatest defencemen in Canucks’ history. He’s also experienced a renaissance over the last two seasons, playing at a high level while emerging as a team leader.
So why does he remain such a polarizing figure in this market?
The problem, one guesses, isn’t what Edler has become so much as the expectations he created earlier in his career.
In the five season between 2008-09 and 2012-13, the quiet man seemed to be on the verge of stardom, averaging more than 40 points per 80 games on the best-ever Canucks’ team. At that point, he was close to being something this franchise has never had: a Norris Trophy-worthy defenceman.
Then, through some combination of a wonky back, John Tortorella, and a couple of knee injuries, he wasn’t. His precipitous fall remains one of the enduring mysteries in Canucks’ lore but, unlike a lot of other stories, this one may be headed toward a happier ending.
In a perfect world, Edler would be a second-pairing D-man, but in the Canucks’ world, he’s the best defenceman on a mediocre team. Yes, there’s risk associated with extending a 33-year-old player, but it’s not like there are a lot of options at this point.
It appears the Canucks have concluded everything Edler brings to the table outweighs that risk on their young team.
“He’s a great pro,” said head coach Travis Green. “You don’t have to be the loudest guy in the room to be a good leader. He prepares well. He shows up to play. Whatever he has in the tank, you know that’s what you’re going to get. It’s a good example for the young guys.”
Especially a certain young Swede.
“A guy like Elias doesn’t need a lot of help,” said Edler. “I can’t help him on what he needs to do on a breakaway, but things around the rink and on the road, whatever he needs.”
And it’s good to have that man in your corner.