Although I do think Edler can still realize his potential of all-around top-pairing defenseman, I have been on the "trade Edler" campaign since last season. I think our situation with too many overpriced defensemen and not enough top 6 scoring is like LA two seasons ago. Recall, LA was one of the worst teams heading into the trade deadline in terms of goals for. At the deadline they traded Jack Johnson to Columbus for Jeff Carter. Their reasoning was two-fold: 1) They needed help up front and wanted to bring in an impact player, and 2) they had depth on defence, and Johnson's role was replaced by up-and-coming defenseman Slava Voynov.
Looking at us, we are in the same conundrum. We have, as you said earlier, 19M tied up in our top 4 defensemen and not enough invested into our top 6 forwards. Edler is an expendable asset because we have Chris Tanev who can replace his minutes and provide a better defensive presence. We also have depth in Frank Corrado, who is like a Tanev doppleganger but better offensively and a bit more physical. Gillis needs to realize the weakness of this team and bring in an impact player, not project players or 3rd line players.
I firmly believe that Tortorella can work wonders with a d-group of Hamhuis, Tanev, Stanton, Bieksa, Garrison, and Corrado combined with a world-class goalie in Luongo. We haven't really been letting very many goals against, but we haven't been scoring either. Give Tortorella one more impact offensive player and maybe, just maybe, our Canucks can have another magical run.