I write a lot about players when they’re making the transition to pro hockey. It’s one of the most fascinating periods because the projected role turns into the actual role during the entry deal. Back in January 2022, before he had played a pro game, I projected Dylan Holloway’s AHL comparables to be Reilly Smith, Warren Foegele, Kyle Palmieri and Troy Terry.
That is quite a range, so I watched Holloway’s AHL season in 2021-22 closely. Turns out, his closest comparable was Warren Foegele offensively when all was said and done. Special circumstances because of the injury history, but questions remained about Holloway’s offense. What about this season?
THE ATHLETIC!
- Lowetide: Five curious Oilers trends that may or may not regress
- Lowetide: What’s Xavier Bourgault’s NHL ETA? Does he get a look this season?
- DNB: Stuart Skinner’s 40 saves lift Oilers over Panthers
- Lowetide: What should the Edmonton Oilers expect from Klim Kostin?
- DNB: Oilers must learn how to cope without Evander Kane
- Lowetide: How close to balanced are the 2022-23 Edmonton Oilers?
- DNB: Oilers’ Evander Kane hospitalized after skate blade cuts his arm
- Lowetide: Oilers top prospect is unclear for the first time in a dozen years
- DNB: Why Oilers’ latest ‘pathetic’ performance from Jack Campbell is a growing issue
- Lowetide: Oilers rookie Stuart Skinner is chasing history
- DNB: Ryan Smyth on Oilers memories, keepsakes and the current team: Q&A
- Lowetide: Making room for Dylan Holloway
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers start October slow but finish month strong
- DNB: The Oilers have a third line that’s settling in
- Jonathan Willis: Jakob Chychrun would look good on the Oilers, but is there a deal to be had?
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers reasonable expectations for every player in 2022-23
- Lowetide: Oilers top-20 prospects, summer 2022
HOLLOWAY AND HIS COMPARABLES
I’ve watched Holloway enough to believe in him as a player. He’s dynamic and creates offense, while also being around the puck often. I don’t know if he’s going to score. One hopes he can reach the Reilly Smith level on this list, and this is going to take some time to suss out unless Holloway spikes on a top line. HockeyProspecting.com has Andrew Cogliano as a comparable, he has been a fine player but never the offensive contributor Holloway could be based on pure talent.
I’m hopeful Holloway gets more games with Draisaitl, the Oilers need a spark and this young man is the most dynamic of the available options for No. 2 LW. My RE for Holloway this season was .31 per game, he could reach that with one good game. A promising talent.
ADAM RUZICKA
It looks like the Calgary Flames have found a young contributor in Adam Ruzicka. Drafted in 2017’s fourth round, his AHL progression during entry deal was textbook: .50 points-per-game in year one, .75 in year two and then 1.25 in year three. He now has scored 2-3-5 in five games for the Flames this season. Edmonton’s recent forward progressions include:
- Jesse Puljujarvi: .72 to .5 to NHL.
- Tyler Benson: .97 to .77 to 1.00 to NHL.
- Kailer Yamamoto: .67 to .70 to NHL.
- Ryan McLeod: .41 to 1.00 to NHL.
- Raphael Lavoie: .53 to .46 to .6
- Dylan Holloway: .67 to NHL.
- Xavier Bourgault: .55
- Carter Savoie: .33
- Tyler Tullio: .3
LOWETIDE AND JAMIESON
A busy day with plenty to discuss, TSN 1260 10-2 in the midday. Bruce Arthur will chat World Cup Soccer expectations, Glen Suitor will give us his take on the Grey Cup matchup and we’ll talk for hours about the Oilers and the tightening of the Pacific standings. 10-1260 text, @Lowetide on twitter. Talk soon!
Tender can’t handle a weak outside shot by Lavoie, nor the rebound floated by McKegg nd Broberg follows up to clean up the garbage for his 2nd of the game.
Condors getting pumped tonight but Broberg takes the puck on the PP in his own zone, goes through 4 opponents, cuts in and buries it – highlight real stuff.
They didn’t chose the best angle maybe, but still looks impressive:
https://twitter.com/Condors/status/1592733765239197701?cxt=HHwWisDSrfe6w5osAAAA
Byron Bader Retweeted
Avalanche Forever
@citchmook
Cale Makar needs two points in his next seven games or less to be the first and only defenseman in NHL history to reach 200 career points before playing 200 career games.
Summarizing!
Chiasson acquired an aPPle, but Wanner did not participate in the getting of points.
If I am coaching the Oilers…
JP and Yamamoto are now off of the top six. Neither are scoring and it hurts the team waiting for something that is not guaranteed to ever happen again.
Therefore, from now on or until either shine in the bottom six I start trying bottom of the order players with the big guns.
Starting with Holloway and McLeod. Or Holloway and anyone, if McLeod is vital somewhere else.
while I appreciate the frustration in the performance of JP and KY, unless/until another player, be it McLeod, Holloway, Kostin or whoever force their way up I think you’d be putting those players in a position to fail. JP is not scoring, but he does hold his own defensively, turns over pucks for McD and has played against elite competitors before.
How successful can Holloway be expected to play going from treading water, sort of, playing 6 minutes on the 4th line jumping to 15 against Kopitar and Doughty, or Eichel and Pietrangelo? McLeod’s ahead, but his ace is transporting the puck – how’s he going to do that on a line with 97?
Puljujarvi has played 60 minutes with McDavid, 23 with Draisaitl (83 minutes total).
Yamamoto has played 81 with LD and 52 with 97 (133 minutes total).
Neither man has a point with 97, which is incredible.
All numbers five-on-five.
This is a big reason why we’re 9-7 not 12-4. How can we only be +1 on goals for and against with 4 Centres that should be batting better than their opponents. We should be at +20-30 Goals running up the score on most teams.
It is certainly a contributing factor, but it’s also true the options are either shy offensively (Foegele) or unproven (Holloway). Oilers spent heavily up front and the big money players have been shining on. Need a young talent to emerge.
There certainly appears to be the perfect storm for a relatively unsung prospect to emerge.
Glad that I never got excited about Holloway lol
With respect, I feel like that’s kind of the point. None are.
That being said, I still have hope. And I’m especially heartened by Klostin and Janmark, I feel both have big upside in becoming fantastic depth players that can move up the lineup, and if even one of Puljo or Yams gets going than we’re cooking with gas, especially once Kane comes back.
Meanwhile my post gets a 0-5 “Lowetide” rating.
I’d consider sticking them both in the AHL if I could. Interesting how winning teams usually still know how to control players – Oilers still seem to be shit scared of the players/agents.
As long as McDavid is in town, that’s inexcusable.
I’m relatively sure those two will end up scoring again
Chaulk absolutely singing the praises of Jason Demers – a huge mentor, in particular to Michael Kesselring.
“I don’t know where we’d be without him “.
I really liked simple and effective game of Demers’ last Friday.
He was paired w/ Kesserling most of the night, except when killing the later’s PK 🙂
Anyone that doesn’t think most players don’t go balls to wall on a contract year (excluding J.P he’s a different kind of cat) is full of SH-T. Horvat and his agent are quite aware Bo will be the hottest ticket on the menu if he pops 40. At 28 he’s looking at somewhere around 9-9.5 million for max term.
It actually started last season.
He has scored 28 goals in his last 35 games….a 66 goal pace.
Wouldn’t be surprised if Carolina takes a run at him soon if they can clear enough cap space.
They really need a second line C and there is a history between the teams.
Interesting on who would fetch more in a trade Horvat that needs a contract are Nurse that’s signed sealed and delivered for the next 7 years. I mentioning this because it was either Nurse, Ristro or Horvat that Mac was going to draft back in 2013.
Would very much depend on the needs of the acquiring team.
For example….
Toronto would likely find Nurse more attractive given their ongoing issues with D injuries and they’re loaded down the middle.
In Carolina, Nurse would be a second pairing D but they lack a high end #2C.
Another wildcard in the Horvat sweepstakes might be Colorado since they have the cap space and assets to pull it off.
Leafs and Canes in a bidding war for Nurse? Who will his replacement be, Petry?
The Canes would have zero interest in Nurse.
They already have a better #1LD and Eric Tulsky would immediately determine that the Nurse contract is an albatross ready to land.
Like he determined that Jesperi Kotkaniemi was worth 8 x $4.8M? Lol.
Woody says Yamamoto is day to day – he didn’t skate today.
Sounds like Deharnais will be out of the Condors’ lineup for a while. They play tonight (Pickard starts) – I won’t be able to watch, Sitting Shiva, sigh.
what happened to Desharnais? He took a couple good shots on Friday.
Apparantly he re-aggravated the camp injury and will be out for a while.
Ethan Bear with is first goal of the season.
He’s already one of their all time greats having passed brogan Rafferty
Per @shutdownline on twitter, from the Oilers games he’s tracked this season Darnell Nurse has been targeted for zone entries 52 times this season and has only denied 2 of them.
the only two oilers above league average are Bouchard and Kulak.
Great. Throws more fuel on the “not worth the $9.25M contract” fire.
Yeesh. Can nobody just cheer for team success anymore?
Pointing out a set of numbers doesn’t mean I’m not cheering for team success, it’s just an area that could use improvement.
I’m not sure I see the appeal in telling other fans how to fan, nor do I think this blog would have lasted decades if the interactions amounted to yelling “go oilers go” ad nauseam
Do you have a link?
Wanted to look and see what info is there but I don’t see this on his twitter going back a week.
on second look, it’s chart posted in a group chat I’m in from someone with access to his site. Not sure how to post images on the blog.
Im not on Twitter, but I hear Nurse has become something of a target. But i always wonder, who would you trade him for? Not “you” specifically but generally speaking.
Who would be a better building block for the Oilers today?
He is one of the absolute leaders, he’s a beast in his attitude, character, and confidence. He is the cornerstone of this defense, like it or not.
You can’t trade for an up and coming talent, that wont replace leadership. Can’t trade him for an elite skilled D man, as that would throw the rest of the D corpse completely out of balance.
I can think of maybe 5-6 defensemen that might be better on this Oilers team as its built today. And those guys are just not available.
Thoughts?
Nurse is absolutely a 9.25 mil dollar defenseman and any evidence to the contrary must be burned
but in all reality he suffers from the Rasmus Ristolainen effect. Playing heavy minutes on a bad defensive team does not make a player good.
well I think Nurse is a far better player than Risto. Fairly sure he’s part of the problem.
Yes he is. But the effect is still there. Just because you play very hard minutes doesn’t mean you do it well. Which is the Risto effect. Nurse is a far better player but he got paid for playing very heavy minutes with the best players in the world and while he did ok, he got paid as if he did it great.
Hence Dom gives him a 1.1. So not chewed up dogfood. But not what you expect for 9.25 mil even with inflation.
Yeah I see where you’re going with that now. I agree 100%.
He unfortunately is too reliant on his athletic skills that far outrank his toolbox and when Father Time starts chipping away this ain’t gonna be pretty.
I’d disagree about saying he relies on his toolbox too much because not denying the zone entry is more like passive and cautious play (extreme example Rusty).
Nurse’s toolkit of being fast and big and able to make up for mistakes would make me think he is playing very aggressively and getting away with it. It isn’t what you explicitly said so correct me if I’m wrong but that seemed the assumption. The stat you reference shows that simply isn’t true.
That said, the Hurricanes are aggressive at the line and Slavin denies entry at the highest rate of….22%. I think this is likely coached. A similar big man like Hedman plays much more passively at the line and I heard he’s alright.
To me the coaches have to get him to his best game
To me that means calming his activity down and doing basic D at the high level he can
It’s bees and dog whistles is if he doesn’t focus on what would make him dominant (which he is moving away from) and leaves the trying to do everything because he is t that player
Also Connor and Leon need to as well. They say they care more about team success but still cheat for O like nuts. And regularly get burnt
People really don’t understand what drives gapping by defencemen.
Comparing a player’s first 12 games to other players’ whole season should skew in favour of the entire season. I would assume young players progress, get more comfortable, and get better linemates as the season progresses. If it is readily available somewhere, then it would be interesting to see the first 12 games of his comparables. They might match more closely as will Holloways final numbers at the end of the season if he sticks with the team.
Just look at how Yamo and Pulu have progressed 🙂
joking. would be interesting to see if the kids do better in the back half of their 1st year …
I wish we had drafted Dobson
so we could talk about how he is stuck behind Barrie while Bouchard is putting up points on Isles top pp unit
Dobson has 6 EVP.
Bouchard has 3 EVP.
It’s always better to chose the smaller sample size (Bouchard has more 5v5 points if you look over this season and last).
So you’re saying Huberdeau will have another 115 point season because of larger sample sizes?
I wouldn’t bet on it.
You might want to have a word with this poster HH in the last offseason
Not at all. 115 points for Huberdeau would be you picking the sample that best fits your narrative. Much like you’re doing in picking the past 16 games for Bouchard.
I’m using the entire ‘since he’s been a regular in the NHL’ sample for Bouchard, in which time he’s outscored Dobson at 5v5.
Huberdeau’s comparable sample (since he’s been a regular) would project him at about 72 points. And like Bouchard, Huberdeau is currently off that larger sample size pace.
Gee I wonder which of these two outcomes would be more likely:
A 23 year old defenseman getting more points in a future season than he did in his first full season in the league.
A 29 year old getting more points in a future season than his did in his 10th season in the league where he recorded the 10th highest total seen in the NHL this century and was 25% higher than his previous highest season.
What a ridiculous and weak counter argument.
Of course it’s ridiculous..that was the point.
It is hardly unheard of for a young player to show early and then plateau.
Way too early to make any determination but suggesting we’re watching an elite young defenseman emerge is mostly wishful thinking.
I don’t recall seeing anyone today write that Bouchard was an emerging elite young defenseman. I did see “trending towards being an elite offensive talent“. Even if Bouchard plateaus, as you reference, it would still be true that as of right now he has been trending towards being an elite offensive talent. That’s not to say he will get there for sure.
What percentage of players who have break out years at 22 (and first full season) scoring in the top 15% of defenseman overall despite limited PP time as well as 15th in EVP, never get better? Unless you can come up with data showing that the percentage of failures is greater than 50% (not including catastrophic injury), I call BS on your wishful thinking comment.
My point is he is not trending that way, based on this season’s results.
The opposite is true.
Scoring star in junior, top ten scoring defenseman as a 19/20 yr old rookie in the AHL after a slow start to the season, top 15% in the NHL in his first full NHL season (effectively a rookie save for 7 games in 2018). Overall seems like a pretty decent long term trend to this point.
How about a real sample size like last season… 5v5 Pts/60 (players with min. 1300 minutes at 5v5), Draft 2018 or younger in bold:
5v5 Pts/60:
1 Roman Josi
2 Cale Makar
3 Brady Skjei
4 Justin Faulk
5 Victor Hedman
6 Morgan Rielly
7 Evan Bouchard 1.42
8 Adam Fox
9 Kris Letang
10 Shayne Gostisbehere
11 Noah Hanifin
12 Jaccob Slavin
13 Jacob Trouba
14 MacKenzie Weegar
15 Shea Theodore
16 Mikhail Sergachev
17 Damon Severson
18 Quinn Hughes 1.12
19 Dmitry Orlov
20 Filip Hronek
21 Noah Dobson 1.11
22 Christopher Tanev
23 Rasmus Andersson
24 Ryan Graves
25 Charlie McAvoy
It was even close last season.
Fun Fact – Bouch has two more EV points this year than Rafferty has career NHL points but three points is equal to Brogan’s total number of NHL games.
Oh my….
And if you look at the last game they played Dobson scored 1 evp and Bouchard 0 so Dobson is infinitely better than Bouchard.
Am I doing this right??
Does this make Dobson a Norris trophy candidate? Not
Not even close which tells you a lot about Bouchard.
Wednesday: return of Mikey Anderson
I hate that guy
Is it possible that at this stage of Dylan Holloways career he should not be expected to be a top line forward scoring goals. He should be focusing on the details, which he seems to be struggling with. He can learn those details playing 4c with Janmark & Ryan, once he masters that, he can move to bigger and better things.
Interestingly enough this flies in the face of Ken Hollands preferred development model. Either top 9 deployment or big minutes in the AHL
I don’t know if I see him struggling all that much. He’s had some stupendously bad luck. I would say that neutral zone turnovers are happening to all his teammates at nearly the same rate, but his are standing out as they seem to result in goals against when, most of the time, they shouldn’t.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, he is struggling offensively, it may not just be bad luck, it may be confidence. The easy thing to do would be to send him to Bakersfield.
If they want to keep him in the NHL, they may have to ease up on expectations, put him in a position where he can succeed and gain confidence.
going to the Bake to build confidence is a good idea. What we, or others (Gregor mentioned it on ON today) don’t know is if confidence is an issue. Yes it may be true, but only ones who really know are in the room.
Hard to say if struggling is right word yet…when you are averaging less than 8 minutes a game. I hope they give him a real spin here in top 6 without too much shuffling or stapling to bench for at least 5 games ideally 10. If at that juncture it’s not quite in range of even debatable top 6 – then bako awaits with heavy usage.
-Stay in top 8
-get Campbell settled in patiently there’s 4.5 years more at stake no rush
-Figure out as much as you can with roster flexibility at hand
-save as much cap from kane’s LTIR for deadline
-the kanevalry is coming with hopefully whatever best option reinforcement deadline addition.
As long as we are playing near 0.600 level hockey we should be in good shape.
Finishing isn’t about bad luck
Scorers finish and have to learn the rest
There are exactly two finishers- Connor and Leon. Kane isn’t bad. Everyone else is in the greater sense is not that
Nuge is scoring but he’s 29 and has never been before, we hope it continues
Kane isn’t bad? I think you may be underselling his goal-scoring ability. His entire career is at a 29 goal pace per 82. That’s elite!
SINCE 2009-2010 by top 100 Goals (players with at least 180 goals):
Player G/82GP
I’d be tempted to call everyone on this list elite.
And Nugent-Hopkins has been pretty elite too. Last year was a real down year for him but in the 4 seasons prior he scored at Goal per 82 games rates of: 32, 28, 28, 25. Health and a shortended season didn’t help him, but those are damn good rates at an average of 28 goals per season, which would put him up there in Kane’s territory. He also scored at a rate of 24 in his rookie season and 26 in his 4th season. He’s scoring at a 41 goal pace so far this season. If he stays in the top 6 I could see him surpassing his high rate of 32 goals.
And let’s not forget Hyman. Here are his per 82 paces for his last 4 seasons: 24, 34, 29, 29. And this year he is currently on pace for 36 goals.
I know their current pace is likely unsustainable, but the top 5 of McDavid, Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins, Hyman and Kane were on pace 229 goals.
Too bad they didn’t pick up one of the cheap forwards available this summer. It would be nice to have Rodrigues and his 5 goals in 14 games in the top 6 for $2M x 1 year. Instead of Janmark? Maybe Janmark can move up.
But all 3 of Evgeny Svechnikov (3 goals in 13), Daniel Sprong (2 goals in 9), and Sonny Milano (2 goals in 6) have been decent this season, and they all signed 1 year $750k deals. And Sprong is still an RFA after this season! Would have loved to see Sprong or Svechnikov here this season.
I agree. We talked yesterday about the need for a steady defensive game, and the Oilers offense is too talented not to succeed when opportunity presents.
Holloway needs to use his speed, take his man, dump and chase, puck management – as you stated.
Of course, harder to measure these elements so we go to points for a reference of success. Holloway has played a lot of his minutes with bottom six linemates as a rookie. Even then, hes all over the ice touching the puck and getting chances.
Im very encouraged. I see a player that has the tools and looks like he’s capable of learning. I see him on the Leon trajectory, and by that I don’t mean Leon points, but by growing his game at the NHL level and becoming much more than he was projected to be.
It would not hurt him to go to the AHL, provide some confidence putting the puck in the net, but as far as learning, I think hes moved past the AHL.
Holloway does not need to dump and chase. He is not a checker although he’d make a great one.
This seems to fly in the face of the rest of your post though so i guess I’m just taking the piss.
Yeah, my reference was just about playing a safe game.
must be a non-game day thread….arguing about rel comps and hindsight 20/20 drafting.
I am a little worried about Holloway adjusting to NHL speed; It will come, but as a fan, we’d like it to come sooner rather than later.
I would welcome a good discussion on how to best get a young player adjusted.
I think the best way to let a young player adjust to the NHL is by giving him consistent minutes with a good fit for linemates.
By my eye, one of Holloways most interesting attributes is his ability to transport the puck into the offensive end with control. I’ve seen him chip a fair few pucks in deep and play too deferential at times. His confidence might be at a bit of a low point and I wouldn’t mind it if they let him get some reps in the AHL.
You have to let them play and make mistakes. In Holloway’s case, there’s so much good the organization should be willing to live with the pain. Unfortunately, the team’s record and the early standings make it more difficult, but I’d run with him on the Draisaitl line.
I wouldn’t b/c he’ll be matched up against no 2line and very good D pairings.
It’s the 3rd line or the AHL, Tho this year’s 3rd line may not be stylistically ideal for him.
but what do I know 🙂
That Foegele comp for Holloway is difficult to digest.
I see the similarity in their college and AHL seasons, but Foegele is shifted older. Foegele also never had a breakout offensive season comparable to Holloway’s draft + 1 in college.
Their first college seasons (Holloway was about 6 months younger) look comparable.
Then Foegele moved to the OHL and scored about 1.0 pts/game. Holloway had a huge 1.5 pts/game 2nd college season (6 months younger than Foegele).
Then Foegele returned for an overage OHL season (again about 1.0 pts/game), compared to Holloway’s injury recovery and 1st AHL season.
THEN Foegele had his rookie AHL season where he scored similarly to Holloway last year (but at a full 1.5 years older). Foegele was 6 months older for his rookie AHL season than Holloway is now.
Then came Foegele’s 77 10-5-15 NHL debut shown above, where I think he was about 1.5 years older than Holloway is now.
I do think we should temper expectations on Holloway’s offense a bit, but I also think that expecting ‘more than Warren Foegele’ is reasonable.
Since the late game collapse against the NJD, per NST, the Edmonton Oilers rank 30thin xGA/60.
26th in xGF/60. 28th in xGf%
Prior to November 4th, the Oilers were 8th in xGF/60 and 17th in xgf%. Starting to wonder if a good chunk of the team got caught in the RSV/Flu/Covid maelstrom rocking most of NA?
I too wondered about that? It would explain the Jekyll and Hyde performance. They will likely not even make the playoffs if those numbers don’t improve significantly.
Yes. The second line has been ugly by the underlying metrics and even McDavid has seen a stark drop year over year. Almost enough to make a guy wonder if Woodcroft just caught lightning in a bottle last year?
Should probably note that these are (I assume) 5v5 only numbers.
All situations since NJ the Oilers are 11th in xGF/60, 28th in xGA/60 and 20th in xGF%.
Bad, but not nearly as bad as the numbers posted.
Yeah, they are 5v5.
The odds of other teams not catching viruses while the Oilers have been sick are exceedingly low. They had a run of poor play marked by poor defending, poor goaltending, and missed grade A chances to score.
We saw Covid rip through the league and hit different teams at different times, but I concede this is a fair point.
craps the bed vs Dallas then the 4 game roadie into the Southeast valley of death… still emerging 2-3… they’ll regress (as in improve – did I do that right?)
Pretty much. I’m less concerned with the outcome of the trip, more concerned with the process. They had great goaltending and a few timely goals in two games but they didn’t control play for any serious stretch of time. This team has too much talent to be outchanced the way they have been.
Replace Hyman with Puljajarvi or Holloway on the Oiler PP1 will get either of these two unstuck.
If they can get a 2 or + lead in a game, it’d be nice to see JP get some at bats there.
Only if we have a good lead and are saving Hyman for the next game.
Zach Hyman 7 G, 10 A, 17 points
Jesse Puljujarvi 1 G 2 A 3 points
Dylan Holloway 0G 2 A, 2 points
PP is too important to use as a development tool.
Oh stop. Results and scoring-wise there’s been very little to choose between them.
This season and last Hyman has played 2x as much on the PP as Puljujarvi and 3x as much as Yamamoto.
The Oilers 5v4 GF/60 with each player:
Hyman —- 9.7
Puljujarvi – 10.3
Yamamoto 8.0
The Oilers 5v4 SF/60 with each player:
Hyman —- 60.1
Puljujarvi – 61.6
Yamamoto 62.3
The Oilers 5v4 HDCF/60 with each player:
Hyman —- 27.8
Puljujarvi – 29.1
Yamamoto 30.2
Each players individual 5v4 G/60:
Hyman —- 2.22
Puljujarvi – 1.71
Yamamoto 2.67
Each players individual 5v4 P/60:
Hyman —- 4.17
Puljujarvi – 3.42
Yamamoto 5.34
Also,
Total 5v4 minutes:
Hyman —- 216
Puljujarvi – 105
Yamamoto 67
5v4 minutes with PP1:
Hyman — 188 (87%)
Puljujarvi – 81 (77%)
Yamamoto – 41 (61%)
So the numbers Puljujarvi, and especially Yamamoto, posted were less assisted by McDavid and Draisaitl than Hyman’s.
The Canucks are such a dysfunctional organization – less than three months after HH was bragging about adding Rachel Doerrie to their analytics teams, they fired her. Her experience there was so traumatizing that she no longer wants to work in hockey.
Then you have Rutherford throwing shade on Boudreau in the media, after signing JT Miller to an albatross of a contract.
Good times to proudly wear my Oilers apparel in the BC.
suspect the Aquilini’s are a big part of the problem. The Linden fiasco was another example.
It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out with the Sedins – can’t see those guys putting up with any BS. They’d simply walk
The HH kiss of death is real and spectacular
He really did a number on the Kings prospect pool.
Yeah…
Kaliyev
Vilardi
Kupari
Anderson-Dolan
Anderson
Durzi
Clarke
Moverare
All under 25 and on the NHL roster with Byfield coming back as soon as his conditioning stint is over.
Impressive.
Rutherford and his errand boy Alvin have not impressed me in the least. So tired of his drama queen act. Feel bad for Boudreau, who doesn’t deserve to be publicly slagged over and over.
eagerly awaiting another post about how 31 other teams “forgot” to sign Matej Blumel
or how we missed on Dobson?
Given how Dobson has been playing relative to Bouchard, I’d classify that as a draft miss.
i don’t think Bouchard has been as bad as the narrative around here in the last week or so has portrayed him to be. He’s getting rocked by the PDO pony. It was a poor road trip for him but in large part the entire team was beyond bad and trending towards awful.
I know people will argue some of the low oiSV% is on poor defensive coverage, and to a certain extent that may be true, but he’s been very unlucky on the offensive side of the ledger.
FWIW, Bouchard has done a better job relative to his teammates in reducing shot quality and chances against than Dobson has. Not exactly murderers row in Edmonton but still noteworthy imo.
There are healthy and unhealthy ways to look at things. This is nice and healthy.
Bouch is a 2nd year full time NHLer, if folks thought it would be an immediate and direct arrow upwards that’s on them not the player. Especially when Coach gives you a boat anchor of a partner to carry around to start the year.
Offesnive #’s a bit shy, defensively taking on a bigger role and load and doing it alright. Wasn’t happy wi9th the Shin pad special and cross-check to the head in Wash but whatever, spilled milk happens. Overall, I’ll take it. Lets see what the next stretch has in store here. I bet the man settles right in and starts jamming.
Lets check back in at Year end and see where he’s at.
100%. Bouchard owns some of his poor pdo. But not all of it. Both the ONSV% and the S% are putrid.
Also, his numbers away from Murray are decent. 0-6 with Murray.
He needs to improve, but things are not as dire as many suggest. He went from having a quality veteran partner last season to a carousel of partners this season. Keep him with Kulak. Profit.
Have you watched Dobson play or are you just throwing his PP1 numbers on the board.
He has 6x the powerplay time of his next teammate (almost triple Bouch) and 8 mins total of PK (Bouch with 23). He’s been put in a position to succeed and is doing fairly well at it. Good for him.
Other than that his 5v5 TOI suggests a 4 or 5 dman. Certainly no heavy lifting while hovering around 50% in individual metrics. Not a killer in sheltered minutes.
Bouch hasn’t been good defensively but I would suggest he is being exposed alot more, out of necessity for sure because we don’t have a Pelech or Mayfield.
It will be interesting to see how the handling of the 2 works out. Bouch is learning PK and has solidly #3D minutes. He has some PP but Barrie is getting the Dobson treatment.
As poor as Bouch has been defensively (it’s been overstated in the comments imo), he looks far better than the rest of our blueline in terms of isolated metrics. By relative metrics, his performance blows Dobson out of the water.
Bouchard may never be a true “all situations” stud 1D, but he’s trending towards being an elite offensive talent. If he can be a league average defender, that’s a hell of a hockey player to have on your team.
once again I am left shaking my head at Tippett’s decision to waste a good chunk of a year of development for the player.
Curious what has convinced you that Bouchard is trending toward becoming an elite offensive talent?
Third best xEVO impact per EH amongst all defensemen from the start of last season on. 11th in 5v5 p/60 for D last season. Third in 5v5 points for 23 and under D last season.
looking forward to your rebuttal
A different look… via Natural Stat Trick, I see Bouchard as #1 at 5v5 Scoring last season of players under 23. 1st ahead of Hughes, Dobson, Dahlin, and Seider. As you stated if it is under 24 (23 and under), then Makar and Fox are ahead of him. But he was first in his own draft class and younger. I don’t know how anyone would see that as not trending toward becoming an elite offensive talent.
So what’s happening this season?
There currently are 90 defensemen with more EVP.
yeah, and very few defensemen have had a greater impact on xGF than Bouchard. This leads me to believe that your victory lap may be a little premature.
He has to get there early in case he needs to move the goal posts………
The same thing that makes you think Quinton Byfield is an elite offensive talent?
Maybe they were to busy signing their own prospects.
Indeed. Thank you for keeping this going.
If the Greatest Drafting GM of All Time didn’t want to sign him, and nobody else signed him immediately, that means it’s a perfect (but bizarre ) opportunity for some intellectual yoga.
Regardless, it’s nice reminder of the Because Oilers days
Is it possible the player looked at the Oilers as a tough nut to crack for a forward, and wanted the freedom to select whatever team they wanted?
It’s a risk, because injury/poor performance could sink you. But perhaps Blumel’s agent knew there was other interest around the league, advised MB to play a year in the Czech league and then grab a contract this year in the NHL.
He could pick the best situation. Good for him, it’s worked out and he’s in the show.
Fox, Schultz, Marino and a few other select few chance the loophole in the U.S.A College ranks. If you can name any other player that has taken the Blumel path feel free to list them because I can’t think of any same case scenario’s as Blumel . Signing a ELC is life changing event it’s going from eating Kraft dinner 3 times a day to ordering Chinese food and driving a car that’s not 15 years old.
its possibly. He also stated a desire to earn a contract in Edmonton but things can change. I’m not sure it’s a great defence of it either way.
Is it possible for an NHL GM to convince a player that their organization is the right place to grow their game? selling the org is a big part of acquiring talent.
As a left shot who is listed as a RW but has played both, I don’t think we had a single slam dunk prospect at RW in June of 2021. Probably a prospect pool in the bottom third of the league.
Prospectocada!
The 306 will host a pair of games featuring Oilers prospects this night, as Chiasson’s Kings of Wheat are on the road, while Wanner’s Warriors are within the cozy confines of the Friendly City.
Both games begin at 6 p.m. Breton time, 9 p.m. Cape Breton time.
Cogliano and Foegle as comparables for Holloway? This doesn’t match what my eyes are seeing…. Holloway will break out in spectacular fashion I have zero doubt…I see large numbers in his future.
Comparables are math comparables unless otherwise stated.