A new coach means change. When Todd McLellan arrived in 2015-16, one of the players he had an issue with was Mark Fayne. Fayne surrendered the blue line instead of standing up and forcing the shoot-in, because he had to cheat in order to get back to retrieve the puck. His slower boots ended Fayne’s NHL career, just over one season after McLellan took over in Edmonton. McLellan much preferred Kris Russell, even on his off side. Fayne was a good defenseman. Honest.
You can see, McLellan used him versus elites (390 five-on-five minutes, via Puck IQ), in fact he was the top righthander on the club in minutes versus elites. He didn’t like the performance, and Fayne was sent to the minors for most of the following season.
Coaches get fired when they lose games often, so every coach elevates players who do the things they think are key to winning. For Babcock, it’s keeping the puck out of the net, and making sure there are enough bodies skating in a good direction defensively.
McLellan was pretty quick to dismiss Griffin Reinhart for similar reasons, but elevated Oscar Klefbom right away. Klefbom and Reinhart played about the same number of games that season, and McLellan handled them in an interesting manner. Here are the five-on-five numbers versus elites:
- Klefbom: 226 mins, 7:32 per game, 50 pct DFF, plus 10 percent rel
- Reinhart: 169 mins, 5:49 per game, 42 pct DFF, minus 4 rel
McLellan gave Reinhart a chance (those are impressive minutes versus elites for young players), but didn’t have time to piss around. Plus he did have better options than Reinhart.
If we apply the McLellan thinking to Babcock, I think we’ll see the new coach fade players who are injured (that would impact Jake Walman and Mattias Ekholm most, in my opinion) and he’ll play veterans over kids even if the veteran is not playing at optimal levels. But if he sees a Klefbom? Babcock will play him.
I think we’ll see an effort to increse urgency in making plays with the puck. Evan Bouchard, as good as he is, probably gets a push in situational awareness and peripheral vision. I think Jake Walman could play fewer than 40 games if his foot speed is low. I also think Mattias Ekholm and Ryan Shea could see heavy minutes at even strength and on the penalty kill. Candidates for recall are Damien Carfagna and Beau Akey if Babcock gets to see them in camp.
Babcock has never coached the Oilers, but one of his former coaches (McLellan) did it a decade ago. Expect quick and decisive action on all manner of players. Expect churn. Expect lots of comments on this blog expressing frustration over loyalty to veteran players who are struggling. But you should know he would play a young Klefbom if he had one. Pretty sure.
LT,
Thank you for sharing this interesting morning read on how Todd McLellan used a young Oscar Klefbom and veteran Mark Fayne. This helps inform our expectations of Coach Mike Babcock and adds analysis to recent comments on this blog regarding player deployment for the upcoming season.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend.
Is Shakir Mukhamadullin more likley to be Klefbom or Reinhart?
What a godsend a new Klefbom would be.
Somewhere in the middle? Great comment, a new Klefbom would be excellent. I’ll be watching with interest.
The Oilers absolutely need Walman to be the player he was when he first joined the team.
I think that he’s a bit of a lynchpin for the season. How Walman goes, so go the Oilers.
If he falters, it certainly hastens the end of the Glimmer Twin era.
I don’t see why Walman would have slow foot speed unless he’s injured – if he’s injured and it limits his mobility, yes, sit his ass – that player doesn’t work, we saw it last year for 2/3 o the year.
Healthy Jake Walman has nice boots and plays nightly. Smith may need to coach some chaos out of his game.
Walman played when not 100 percent a year ago. You could tell in all manner of ways, including his patented quick start from behind the net. When he’s healthy, that’s a strong play. I dont think Babcock will go to war with a less than completely functional Walman.
Nor should he. The game is faster now, and many of today’s young players seem to adapt quicker to the NHL, and so coaches should reduce playing time for guys who are injured. Add in a couple extra games to the season and a full 23 man roster, now there’s more reason and more coverage to allow injured guys to sit an extra game or two. Broken Jake Walman was no bueno
Similarly I think of Walman as a burner. And while I like the cut of Shea’s jib, the one thing that gives me pause are his posted skating speeds.
I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure our management was raving about his skating on the drop. Maybe his top speed isnt great but he makes up for it in other ways
Ekholm played 82 gamest last year (41 points, 12th in the NHL in 5 on 5 points among d-man, 36% TOI vs. elites, 56% goal share).
He was injured the prior season but not at all this past year (any more than any other player).
If we are talking about injured players, the likes of Drai, Hyman, Murphy, Dickinson, Kap, Dach are named to suggest prior to Ekholm, based on history, right?
The key stat on Ekholm is age (36). Babcock has talked about fading McDavid and Draisaitl to keep them fresh, that goes double for Ekholm. As well, NHL players dress and perfom in games while also not being 100 percent. Babcock needs Ekholm to be his Lidstrom. Some rest days during the season are indicated.