OILERS SIGN PAIGIN, STARRETT

The Edmonton Oilers continue to add players for the 2017-18 season, making two more additions to the projected 50-man list.

• In signing 2015 draft pick Ziyat Paigin, Edmonton has four (Connor Mcdavid, Caleb Jones, Ethan Bear and Paigin) of their six picks under contract. Only John Marino and Miroslav Svoboda remain unsigned from that draft, with Marino having three more years of eligibility at Harvard. It is unclear to me in regard to Svoboda’s rights, NHL teams sometimes retain rights on players long after their signing eligibility expires (they have a secondary reserve list behind the 50-man list).
• With the signing of goalie Shane Starrett (from the Bellingham Starrett’s), the Oilers are now close to a full boat at the position (probably room for an ECHL starter from the Laurikainen tree). Starrett’s numbers look good from here, he seems to have been starter or damned near all four years leading up to his signing. He’s tall and thin (6.05, 180), ran a .925SP during his time at Army and seems a very solid bet from here. I can’t tell you if he is a better prospect than Nick Ellis, suspect these two men will figure it out on the streets of Bakersfield.

I’m a fan of Paigin because he’s a big defenseman who can defend, plus he can pass the puck well (from what I have seen) and his big shot from the point gets mentioned quite often. Mobility is going to be the key, and if you’re going to ask and my answer, it will be hell if I know but if you see mobility issues in a scouting report you’re halfway to the answer. Always give these kids time though, you don’t know what you don’t know. Now that we have him in North America, let’s let him find his way.

I’m going to be a fan of Shane Starrett because of something Emily Kaplan (of the Boston Kaplan’s) wrote about him back in the summer of 2013. The Boston Globe article is here, and Kaplan wrote about Starrett’s draft experience. Seems he wasn’t interested at all in the NHL draft until he found out he wasn’t on the draft radar. Once Starrett found out about the rankings, and that he wasn’t on the list, that fact motivated him:

• So began a nine-month stretch in which Starrett became singularly focused. He initiated individual sessions with a goalie coach, had late-night workouts, and endured a few close calls with his boarding school’s strict 11 p.m. curfew.

So he worked his butt off, got ranked, NHL teams passed on him. That’s not the story. The story is that (based on numbers) he has progressed well. So we’ll see, but he’s a worker and he can stop pucks and he’s got his chance and screw all those guys who got drafted. We’ll see.

PROJECTED 50-MAN LIST

Now I’m estimating the RFA’s and suspect the club will buy out Mark Fayne, but I included him just in case. They are going to sign all of these RFA’s, maybe they let Laleggia go but that’s kind of nuts since he scored 20 goals this season.

• UFA: David Desharnais, Matt Hendricks, Tyler Pitlick, Kris Russell, Eric Gryba, Jonas Gustavsson, Justin Fontaine, Jordan Oesterle, Mark Fraser
• RFA and not listed: Anton Lander, Henrik Samuelsson, Bogdan Yakimov, Jere Sallinen, Zach Pochiro, Eetu Laurikainen, David Musil.

This looks about right. Keep working, Shane Starrett, we’re cheering for you. Paigin, welcome to North America.