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But here’s the thing. Alex Edler, who yes, makes mistakes, is still a quality NHL defenceman. He’s also now the defence corps’ elder statesman, too.

As Sas points out in his tweets, there’s no real Plan B for an Edler-less future. Ben Hutton, as we saw late in the season, isn’t there yet. He might be in a year, but given how players tend to at-best tread water in their second season, it’s not reasonable to expect him to be ready to carry heavy minutes. Luca Sbisa, as we’ve seen, is best suited to a 6/7 role. Nikita Tryamkin could turn into a top-pairing defenceman, but his late-season audition showed him to be still very rough around the edges.

If you’re a team which is claiming to have the playoffs as a target, you can’t start the season with so many unknowns on the blue line. Edler is a known quantity. Maybe you move him as the season gets rolling and it turns out you’ve hit home runs on all your gambles: Ben Hutton has continued to improve; Tryamkin can carry heavy minutes and push play in the right direction, Andrey Pedan or Luca Sbisa are playing a sound game. Maybe, somehow, Olli Juolevi has surprised everyone and come out of training camp with a spot in the NHL lineup.

Then, maybe, you would look at a trade.

This is an added wrinkle from a knowledgable tweeter:

https://twitter.com/Demitra_Van/status/765983789742907392

Who knows what teams Edler would consider, but such a scenario would make things very tight.

In other words, don’t hold your breath.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

twitter.com/risingaction