Not really.RoyalDude wrote:I'm quite astounded by the lack of postings in this thread confronting the harsh reality that good defenseman are not growing on trees in this day and age. If you trade Edler you best be replacing him with another top 4 defenseman.
We already have Hamhuis and Garrison, who are solid, two way, top four, left side defensemen. Edler cannot play the right side to save his life. We cannot afford to have $4M+ defencemen playing on the bottom pairing anymore with a decreasing cap if we intend to seriously upgrade at forward.
If Edler is traded and Ballard is bought out, the Canucks will need to find somebody to play the left side on the bottom pairing, which is easy to accomplish through free agency or a minor trade.
Another pressing question is are the Canucks comfortable going with Bieksa, Tanev and Corrado on the right side? I say yes, IF the Canucks can make serious upgrades to the forwards by getting a big scoring winger to play with Kesler and a legitimate third line centre.
Fans want to talk all day about re-tooling and upgrading at forward, then are afraid to move any assets. The only assets we have that do not have NTCs and do not involve moving futures are Edler, Burrows and Hansen. Hansen is a cheap, useful third line guy, while Edler and Burrows have those big contract extensions looming which is why I would look at moving them.