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The 28-year-old has a very nice resumé, having put up solid second-line numbersfor the Capitals and Devils. (He ran into injury troubles over his two seasons in New Jersey.)

Given the profile of his performance in the playoffs, you can imagine he’ll be after a solid payday this summer, but as long as the offer isn’t for too many years — or the salary reaches Eriksson levels — he’s sure to be a solid signing for whatever team lands him this summer.

Canucks, Edler at an impasse

On the latest episode of the 31 Thoughts podcast, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman notes what is pretty obvious out here on the West Coast: the Canucks and pending unrestricted free agent Alex Edler are at an impasse.

It’s been clear for some time that Edler wants to stay in Vancouverand that the Canucks would like to have him, but that the sticking point would be over a no-movement clause for the 2021-22 season.

As you loyal readers know, if his contract has such a clause, the Canucks would be obliged to protect him in the 2021 expansion draft.

The Canucks have made it clear since the beginning they won’t give him such a clause, and so here we are.

The logic here is intriguing (goofy? funky? curious?): Edler wants that no-move clause, but if he doesn’t get it and becomes a free agent, would he really go somewhere else after sticking his heels in and saying to the Canucks “I want you to guarantee I won’t be going anywhere else?”

If you’re the Canucks, you know this and so you would bet on him coming back to you after the free agency doors open and saying, “OK, fine, I’ve had a look around and I don’t see any greener grass in the end, so how about that contract, I don’t need a no-move clause.”