I’d like to say that I knew something was up Wednesday morning when I passed Alex Edler in the parking garage at Rogers Arena.
Yes, it was a little strange to see Edler leaving the building while his teammates were going on the ice for their morning skate.
But most people who cover the Canucks already knew that he was a little dinged up and probably wouldn’t play that night against the Predators. At least that’s what Dan Murphy told me.
Our quick, polite conversation, was short and sweet with the big defenceman never letting on that he was seriously hurt.
So imagine my surprise this morning when a press release was sent out by the Canucks under the following headline “EDLER TO HAVE BACK SURGERY.”
Edler is gone indefinitely and will go under the knife Monday.
I knew this Canucks season was too good to be true!
The other shoe had finally dropped.
OK, so maybe that’s a little too dramatic. But don’t kid yourself: Edler will be very tough to replace.
He hits, he chews up major minutes and he is a key figure on the power play. If only the Canucks had a player like, I don’t know…a Sami Salo to take his place.
Suddenly, all those money matters don’t seem to matter any more, do they?
There is some addition by subtraction in this case—when it comes to cap relief.
Salo is the perfect Edler clone with just a few more miles on the odometer.
The 36-year-old Finn would slide in quite nicely into Edler’s spot from both an on-ice and off-ice perspective.
The problem is, Salo has not been medically cleared to play as yet and according to Canucks general manager Mike Gillis, his recovery has hit a bit of a plateau recently.
So, I guess we will have to park that solution for now and hope Salo gets well soon.