This is such B.S , Edstrom is not an NHL player. He couldn't even produce well in the AHL. I don't care what he did in the training camp. Those games were meaningless.
Both of them aren't that talented BUT at least Rempe is a fighter who can fire up the crowd and teammates. Poll the fanbase and the teammates on who should play, Rempe wins.
The assumption here that I think is erronious is that a player needs to score points in the AHL in order to be a more effective 4th liner.
There's a reason why NHL 4th lines are generally occupied by players like Sam Carrick, Adam Erne, and Darroll Powe, none of whom were big AHL producers to start, and not players like Greg Carey or PA Parenteau. The're there to play 8 minutes, knock into people, play responsible defense. In some cases, as the bottom end of the lineup a simple "Get the puck to the net and look for screens/rebounds" is actually more effective at producing offense than watching a skilled fourth line try to pass the puck into the net.
Edstrom is marketably better at preventing chances against than is Rempe. That's the top priority for a sparingly used checking line. We wouldn't be better off with a 4th line of Othmann-Henriksson-Berard over Edstrom-Carrick-Vesey.
Remember when we had a 'shootout' 4th line of Wolski-Christensen-Zucc under Torts? It was a disaster. They were awful.