Continuing down the left side of the blueline, a look at defenseman Alex Edler’s second season with the Kings. Edler re-upped on a one-year contract for the second straight summer to provide a veteran and left-shot presence on the backend for the Kings, after a strong debut season in his first time away from Vancouver.
Alexander Edler
LAK Statline – 64 games played, 2 goals, 9 assists, -1 rating, 34 penalty minutes
Playoff Statline – 4 games played, 0 goals, 0 assists, -1 rating, 4 penalty minutes
Possession Metrics (Relative To Kings) – CF% – 50.9% (-2.4%), SCF% – 49.9% (-4.3%), HDCF% – 53.7% (-1.0%)
Alex Edler was a terrific, value signing for the Kings when he originally joined the organization in the summer of 2021. Coming off a season when he posted outstanding metrics around a serious injury, Edler re-signed this past July on what amounted to a very favorable contract for the Kings, no matter how you slice it. His output this season saw him play in more games, though he didn’t play every night in an effort to keep him as fresh as possible as he went along.
Edler’s season wasn’t quite at the level of his terrific 2021-22 campaign, but he brought a veteran presence amongst a group of younger defensemen. Edler brought leadership, stability and calmness to the team’s collection of blueliners and was trusted by the coaching staff in a bottom pairing role. An effective penalty killer and a calming influence on those around him, even if he wasn’t at his heyday levels from Vancouver or his resurgent 2021-22 season.
Trending Up – Fair to start with a milestone moment as it pertains to Edler. After he lost a large chunk of last season with a long-term foot injury, Edler’s road to 1,000 career games in the NHL got a lot tougher. He rebounded, however, re-signed and stayed healthy for the bulk of the season, playing game number 1,000 on December 31 against the Philadelphia Flyers. Edler became the sixth defenseman born in Sweden to reach 1,000 games at the NHL level. For a player who spent the bulk of his career in a different role and another organization, it was still a special moment to hit that milestone as a member of the Kings. Stick taps to a classy and battle-tested veteran on hitting that mark.
Edler also proved to be one of the brightest spots on the penalty kill for the Kings this season. Five defensemen played 80 or more shorthanded minutes this season and Edler posted the best goals against per/60 metrics of the bunch. Edler ranked fourth in the NHL in shots blocked per/60 while shorthanded and posted some of the team’s best relative shorthanded totals, meaning on-ice metrics with Edler on the ice versus without Edler on the ice. From a relative standpoint, he led the Kings as it pertains to goals against and shots on goal against on a per/60 basis. When signed from Vancouver, Edler came off a season in which he led the NHL in shorthanded time-on-ice. His penalty-killing presence was big here with the Kings as well.
Trending Down – Edler’s metrics weren’t what they were in the 2021-22 season. Now, for starters, those metrics were terrific, which made his re-signing at such a low cap hit look like a steal for the Kings. He still trended on the right side of the line, but across the three numbers shown above – shot attempts, scoring chances and high-danger chances – his chances for dropped off while his chances against rose. Last season, Edler’s numbers in these categories were the benchmark for the Kings on the backend, providing numbers towards the top of the NHL in several categories. This season, while still generally on the right side of 50 percent, the ice was much more evenly tilted, versus a pretty heavy slant in his direction. His goals for and against took a similar trajectory.
Where Edler also took a step back was in his availability. Edler was an everyday player last season, playing in all seven playoff games as well as each regular season game he was available for, minus time spent recovering from his injury. This season, he was healthy for almost the entire season, but frequently sat on half of back-to-back sets. The positive side of that was spot starts for younger defensemen, but the negatives were forcing changes when perhaps they weren’t wanted.
2023-24 Outlook– Edler is one of three unrestricted free agents the Kings have as they enter the offseason, one of two who are veteran, left-shot defensemen.
Edler was in this position one summer ago as well, coming off the original, one-year contract he signed with the Kings in 2021. He signed a much more modest deal this past summer, driven by easily achievable bonuses, as finds himself as a free agent once again. As of last update, Edler believe he’d like to play another season, though it was unclear at that time. By his own admission, the future is unclear.
“I’m not sure,” he answered, honestly. “The easy answer would be to keep playing until I’m 45 or something like that, but there are a lot of factors now, with getting a new contract, seeing how the body feels, and talking to my family. We’ll see.”
It’s also unclear if that season would come with the Kings, who have several younger players coming through the system on the backend, all pushing for NHL minutes. Edler’s cap hit was a modest $1.5 million with all bonuses factored in and would likely be modest once again moving forward. Remains to be seen when and if that moving forward will occur. If it’s not with the Kings, stick taps to a player who made an impact on the locker room in the short time he was here.
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