Is Ed gonna be this generations, Willie Huber, for those old enough to remember that name?
I am, fortunately or not, old enough to have watched Willie in the OHA and attended a few WJC games the year he played on Canada's first sorta all-star team, with Gretzky, Bobby Smith, Gartner, McCrimmon, Ramage, etc. The only similarities he has with Edvinsson are that he was tall and born in Europe. He could get up to a decent skating speed and had a big shot, but otherwise an immobile defenseman with poor puck-handling ability and, by appearances anyway, not the brightest player. Edvinsson is a totally different athlete and player.
To be fair to Huber, the entire 70s and even through early SY era was a terrible time for a young D to develop in Detroit. Reed Larson never really got the hang of how to play defense either.
Comparisons for Edvinsson from that long ago are difficult, just because there were so few physically similar players and play was so different, much looser and crazier in terms of physical intimidation/fighting. Big defenseman Jerry "King Kong" Korab, who had very little skill, had 50 points three times. I knew he'd done it once, but a check of his numbers would suggest a completely different player than what he actually was. People just got out of his way. Any defenseman nudging over 6-2 in the 70s/early 80s was considered unusually tall and many of them were mostly tough guys. Edvinsson's not really similar to Robinson either, but definitely more like Big Bird than Huber.