OKC V SAN ANTONIO 18.1.13
Its now or never for the Oilers forwards vying for the “future role player” jobs that will come available as Jones, Hordichuk, Eager, Belanger and Petrell fade away. This blog has focused heavily on names like Anton Lander, Tyler Pitlick and Curtis Hamilton, but Cameron Abney and Chris VandeVelde also have skills the Oilers may be looking for in the coming years.
I think it is pretty safe to say that no Baron forward will threaten the high end skill players on the Oilers:
- Taylor Hall
- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
- Jordan Eberle
- Nail Yakupov
- Sam Gagner
- Alex Hemsky
That’s a supreme set and they’re mostly just kids. However, the 6′s and 7′s and 9′s for the 2015+ run are still to be determined. While its true the Oilers could always trade a 3rd round pick for an established role player–like they did with Mark Fistric this week–its always good to have a productive minor league team that is graduating quality each fall. Certainly the Detroit Red Wings, Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings have that kind of pipeline, and the Oilers will need successful AHL-to-NHL players in the coming seasons.
For the group in OKC I think this might be a chance to salvage what has been a very trying season. Lets face it, there is no one in tonight’s lineup who can bitch or moan about not getting called up to training camp. So, the future starts tonight.
Lineups when they arrive via OKC Barons twitter.
(Curtis Hamilton photo courtesy Rob Ferguson, all rights reserved).
Lineups:
- Posted at 5:16pm scratches: Brandon Davidson, Alex Plante, Dan Ringwald, Curtis Hamilton, Antti Tyrvainen, Jordan Henry
- Olivier the starter, Tyler Bunz to backup.
- Line 1: (C-L-R) Arcobello-Green-Cornet
- Line 2: Lander-Rajala-Pelss
- Line 3: Martindale-Byers-Pitlick
- Line 4: VandeVelde-House-Lizon
- 1D: Deck-Fedun
- 2D: Lafranchise-Teubert
- 3D: Hotham-Marincin
Q: why do they keep scratching Davidson?
why isn’t he on the IR? Or, does the AHL not have one…. or, what’s the deal there?
Q: Plante was waived… so… what’s the deal there?
I’ve heard you can land nines, tens, and jacks–or, with luck, a cut above–in the late teens of the first round. We should try. Stat.
A: Davidson is recovering from cancer treatments. Now skating but it’ll be awhile.
A: AHL doesn’t need IR, you can have tons of players
A: Plante was waived because it is required, he’s played enough games in pro to qualify for waivers. No one picked him up.
I knew about his cancer… that’s why I thought scratching him every night, when he’s still weeks away, seemed weird…
but if the AHL has no IR, I guess that’s how it works.
(the video of him from last week was pretty inspirational… good kid, hope he has a long pro career)
RE: Plante… so players who’ve played enough pro games must be waived in order to stay on AHL teams? is that right? if so, what is the threshold? and what level of pro counts (nhl, ahl, echl)?
Why wasn’t Green waived then?
BTW…. did anyone see this:
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=650503
looks like the AHL is ditching hybrid icing until the NHL gets its crap together… seems like an unnecessarily stupid decision to me.
here’s hoping they get on with it and implement no touch soon.
looks like JW covered it here:
http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2013/01/16/hybrid-icing-will-have-to-wait-the-ahl-has-dropped-the-rule-for-the-rest-of-the-2012-13-season/
Green wasn’t waived because he is signed to an AHL only contract. The GP and or age threshold can vary because of different graduation times, here’s a really good article
http://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/2009/11/26/1174855/waivers-101-a-guide-to-the-nhl
Lowetide,
Thanks! Sorry for the tedious questions!
Here’s an idea for your site…
create a resource page where a novice like me can find answers to various questions under headings like “waivers” “two way contracts” etc…
google isn’t discriminating enough for this kind of information. I would be crazy appreciative of something like that.
thanks again.
Rom: good idea. Also, if you’re on twitter speeds @hockeysymposium is an amazing resource.
That kid Kharia has another assist tonight. I love that kid.
Another goal for Zharkov 3-4-7 in his last 4 since coming back from Russia.
Martindale from Pitlick and Rajala. Real nice play by Pitlick.
Lowetide,
Are Zharkov and Khaira looking good to finish their respective seasons then?
Khaira’s been good all year, but Zharkov was subpar before the WJ’s. Good arrows now.
OKC playing more like a team than I’ve seen all year. 19-3 shots in their favour in period 1, I believe
Wish Lowe used the same approach with Pronger
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=413886
I’m at the oil kings game. Did we know Gernat is back? This is good news, yes?
Very good, Bubba! His second game back tonight.
It’s not often that you see a team icing two scoring lines entirely composed of their own 1st round draft picks. Lordy have the Oilers sucked the last 6 seasons.
McCarron with an assist for Cornell; goal was taken away from Zharkov and now Rieder has a goal. Khaira still with the assist.
Terrible play by Pitlick in the offensive zone on the PP–errant pass–and then he did a terrible job covering on the jailbreak. 1-1.
And that’s why the Oilers love Pelss
Rajala (Pelss, Lander). Agreed on Pelss. Jesus.
What did he do??
That’s it, Pitlick is my pick for the goat in OKC, his PP decisions are awful.
Hard forecheck to steal the puck behind the net, and a beauty pass to Rajala for the goal.
That’s a pretty astute observation.
Thanks for pointing that out.
Note: Not being an ass. Re-read what I wrote and it looks like I’m being an ass. I’m actually serious.
Wonder if another team has iced a top 6 comprised entirely of their own 1st round draft picks?
Pelss may not score a lot of points, but he’s an ice tilter and Lord knows the OIlers could use those type of players at the bottom of the roster.
Pelss has been the best Baron by my eye, Rajala also very strong.
12 shots for Arcobello
6 Shots For VandeVelde
4 shots for Pelss and Green
Hmnnn only 2 shots for Rajala, which doesn’t seem right.
Fun fact: Lizon had more shots on goal than Pitlick did.
Lizon – 3 shots
Pitlick – 1 shot
Yeah, agreed. I thought Rajala had way more than that. Anyway, some stunningly bad hockey decisions in this game, specifically by Tyler Pitlick.
Edler re-signs in VCR.
6years @$5m per.
Gillis gets another hometown discount.
Thats a very good deal imo.
Lowetide,
One more season for the Sedins at $6.1 each.
What do you think happens after that?
Don’t know. They’re not fast, so you’d think playing deep into their 30′s at a very high level is unlikely. However, suspect there’s one more long term deal in there.
I don’t understand the fascination with Edler. Good, yes. Rockstar? Don’t see it.
Just 26 years old, entering his prime.
6’3″ 215
7th among NHL defensemen in points. #4 in SOG by a defenseman behind only Karlsson, Weber and Boyle.
Lead all Canucks defensemen in goals, assists, points, shots and blocked shots.
Potential top pairing defenseman playing #3 on a very deep Canuck defense.
What’s not to like?
Edler the’s real deal.
Great contract by Gillis.
Captain Happy,
Ouch that will be one of those Horcoff type contracts in my opinion. Not quite up there with that brutal New Jersey contract given to Zajac(makes it tough for Dallas to sign Benn). For the most part the GM’s around the league have been signing reasonable contracts such as the Kulikov and Del Zotto.
Here is hoping the Oilers sign Arnott, not enough size in the lineup and he is pretty good in the circle.
Good grief.
A top 10 D for $5M?
You’re really out of touch.
Yeah, I would do that contract all day long. I know the Canucks are a good team, but that seems like a heavy discount on what he could get on the open market. He’s making less than Wideman for FFS!
Captain Happy, Oil Leak – Edler is a trumped up 3/4. Bieksa and Hamhuis do all the heavy lifting. Arguably this guy they are now paying 5 million dollars a year plays the softest minutes in hockey. Once he has managed to be in the top 10 in scoring. That is a result, mostly, of major minutes on the power play and rolling out for 55+% OZ faceoffs and getting the heck off the ice as soon as real hockey starts – the kind where you might be required to play in your own end. Even so he barely breaks even either in Corsi or +/-. Look what Christian Erhoff did with the same minutes and look what happened when he wasn’t do 60% OZ with the Sedins and had to play D. Same thing with Edler.
Captain Happy,
Top 10 in the whole league really I made up my own top defenseman list I went with top 13 defenseman just to be lucky. 1. Shea Weber 2.Zdeno Chara 3.Drew Doughty 4. Alex Pietrangelo 5.Erik Karlsson 6.Kris Letang 7.Tyler Myers 8. Duncan Keith 9.Ryan McDonagh 10.Ryan Suter 11.Bryan Marchment 12.Brent Seabrook 13.Gord Mark ……sorry couldnt fit Edler on my list.
VOR,
So given what the market is paying free agent defenseman, you wouldn’t pay Edler 5 million a season to get him on your team? Is Edler the best defenseman in the league? No. Is he very good offensive defenseman that could help a hockey club? Yes. Free agent defenseman aren’t going to start getting paid less.
Even if he’s not a top 10 defenseman he is pretty darn good and considering what a lot of other defensemen are getting paid, that is a pretty good deal especially for UFA years of a defenseman entering his prime. He would have gotten another million if he tested the market.
Just looked at his WOWY for the last few years and he’s been not driving the bus, Salo was better without him last year and Erhoff the year before.
That might be a function of him moving to the 1st pairing when needed and therefore the shots getting harder to come by, but I didn’t expect to see that.
Didn’t know the OZ thing as well. Seems to be on the ice with the Sedin’s at most times.
Nice job if you can get it.
Given the NHL money machine will be fully ramped up and pushing the cap higher after next year, $5 is probably not far off market, and the market pays on offensive numbers and he has them.
Woodguy,
My point went like this:
Amongst dmen with 50 plus games last year in the NHL Edler-
had the 9th easiest zone start
faced the 69th toughest competition by rel corsi
faced the 135th toughest competition by corsi
faced the 85th toughest competition +/-
he had the
15th best teammates by relative corsi
30th best teammates by corsi
29th best teammates by team +/-
with all those advantages at EVs he was 49th in points per 60 minutes, had the 37th best corsi on and 81st best relative corsi. He was 106th in +/- per 60.
He is now making $5,000,000 a year because apparently all GMs care about is points (and even there he is coming off a career year). Smart move, great asset management. Not to mention the Canucks arguably have three other guys who can do better against better competition and with worse zone starts. None of them make $5 Million dollars a year. So your fourth best defenceman is your highest paid because he gets the cherry minutes.
Nice to see Martindale get a goal. He is probably the best offensive talent left in the system, except maybe for Rajala. I hope he is able to get his crap together, even though it looks like a long shot.
How did he do the rest of the game?
The team (imo) played mostly well with some astoundingly poor plays. Pitlick was awful at least twice on goals against, it was ridiculous because he also did many things well. I think Nelson has them on the right track though.
It’s amazing how hard some people will work to build a Rube Goldberg contraption.
Edler faces the 3rd toughest competition among Canuck D and while you may try and modify that by Corsi (lol) it remains true.
It is also true that he gets favourable zone starts because he generally plays with the Sedins but using that to criticize his play is ludicrous. He could just as easily get fewer off zone starts and do just as well.
That he also had the lowest ONSV% and the lowest ONSH% among Vancouver’s top 4 and a PDO of 987, it would appear he was unlucky last season and should regress to the mean this season.
We can do this all day
So lets see Captain Happy – by your own estimation he is the 3rd best defenceman on your team and is worth $5,000,000. Not to mention, thanks for pointing out that he lowers his goalies save percentages, I’d missed that.
I get that you have no idea how to respond to the fact that by every metric he is at best an average defenceman who is paid $5,000,000 a year. The only possible explanation is that Mike Gillis is so stupid he only looks at box cars.
You’re veering into DSF territory here.
Dear Steve,
I made a cogent argument for the fact the Edler is a manufactured scorer who just got a huge raise because of how his team uses him. I don’t think that is good management now or ever. You could put Marc Andre Beregron on the ice for those minutes and he’d outscore and out play Edler (statistically speaking). Never mind Tobias Enstrom or Zack Bogosian. Perhaps the Canucks had to pay that much because he was the only high value D on the free agent market this season but that doesn’t make it a value contract.
CH responded with a beggarly account of empty boxes. I simply filled one of the boxes with crap and handed it back to him.
VOR,
I concur.