Monthly Archives: May 2017

Edmonton Oilers, NHL

How Did the Oilers Improve So Much This Season? Part 4 by Andrew Taylor

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This is the fourth of a five-part series looking into the areas in which the Oilers improved in the 2016-17 NHL season, leading them to their first playoff appearance in eleven years.  

The Oilers have been marketing themselves as a developing offensive juggernaut since their first claim that a rebuild was taking place but they consistently fell below the league standards in most offensive categories.  Things changed in that department this season, however, and the Oilers finally began to resemble the team most fans had been imagining they could be.  When you have a generational talent as your first line centre there is a definite likelihood that will happen, but McDavid was somewhat stifled during the playoffs and the team managed to have some moderate success nonetheless.

Of course, we have been watching years of questionable goaltending lead to loss after demoralizing loss where even on the odd night where the offense would seem to fire on all cylinders the Oilers would manage to lose the high scoring games.  While they did reasonably well in 2015-16 going 17-4, they went a remarkable 23-3 when scoring four or more goals in a game this year.  In 2014-15 they were a measly 13-9 in that department.  Yes, still more wins than losses but when scoring league-wide is down where it is losing when you score at least 4 should be a much rarer occurrence.

Improved Special Teams and Goaltending

When the Oilers were able to pry Cam Talbot away from the Rangers on day two of the 2015 NHL entry draft he came with a lot of uncertainty.  He had an impressive record backing up Henrik Lundqvist in New York, in particular during a stint on the IR, but whether or not he would be able to thrive as a starting goalie full time remained to be seen.  Simply getting a goalie who could start 2/3 of the games and deliver league average save percentage would be a breath of fresh air.  Talbot had a few shaky moments in his first year but showed well enough to get a three-year extension.  He was able to post a .917 save percentage, slightly above league average, in 56 games played.

So, the Oilers finally had a reliable starting Netminder and would need to find a back up to replace Anders Nilsson who was traded away at last year’s deadline.  Laurent Brossoit, it was determined, wasn’t quite ready to be an NHL #2 so the Oilers signed Jonas Gustavsson.  This was definitely a failure by Peter Chiarelli as Gustavsson’s NHL days were apparently behind him and Talbot’s most games played in an NHL season prior to that was the 56 he played in the previous year in Edmonton.  Would he be able to handle a large workload?  The answer was a resounding yes.

On April 6, 2017, Cam Talbot broke the single season wins record by an Oiler goalie previously held by some guy named Grant Fuhr.  I think a rule should be that if you break any record held by one of the glory day Oilers you are having a good day, month, season, career, etc.  By the time the horn sounded at the end of game 82 Talbot had managed a .919 save percentage in 73 games; he has become the steady, reliable goalie that many haven’t been able to be during their decade out of the playoffs.  One thing noticeable about him is his penchant for being a soft-spoken, team first guy in interviews.  All around, whether in the crease or in front of the microphone, Cam is calm.

Because the Oilers could rely on Talbot they were also able to roll the dice on Laurent Brossoit and he seemed to do fine in spot duty as a back-up Netminder this year.  Although he had a smaller workload he managed to put up a .928 save percentage in 8 games, 4 of them being starts, and went 4-1.  You’d like your starting goalie to steal you a few games and your back-up to give you a chance to win and it looks as though the Oilers have that going for them for at least the foreseeable future.

The improvement of the power play has also been refreshing.  The success rate jumped up from 18.14% in 2015-16 to 22.86% this year.  Not only have they scored on average more goals on the man advantage but they drew a few more penalties as well.  Connor McDavid is a lethal weapon when the Oilers get to play with more skaters than the other team, and to make things better he registered points in less than half of their power play goals.  Connor is dynamic, but it’s not all Connor.

Now, one area that remained stagnant is their likelihood of killing a penalty.  In 2015-16 they had a PK success rate of 80.71% and it almost went unchanged this year at 80.72%, but through becoming a more disciplined team they fought off 31

In 2015-16 they had a PK success rate of 80.71% and it almost went unchanged this year at 80.72%, but through becoming a more disciplined team they fought off 31 fewer penalties this year.  So even though they didn’t necessarily execute their penalty kill any better they had to rely on it less, which in effect kept the puck out of their net more.  They also seemed to improve drastically by the end of the year and posted an 85.7% PK success rate during the playoffs.

So a few major areas that haunted the Oilers during their years of ineptitude seemed to become strengths; I guess if they had known what the effects might be they could’ve pulled it together years earlier.

Check out parts one, two, and three, if you’ve missed them and do Mr.Taylor a favor and give him a follow on Twitter @drewtaylor1978!

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Edmonton Oilers, G Money, NHL, Prospects

The Oilers Have A Promising Rookie In Leon Puljujarvi By @OilersNerdAlert

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Oops, of course I mean Jesse Draisaitl.

Aaargh, no wait, it’s *JESSE* *PULJUJARVI*.

The comparison to Leon isn’t a coincidence though … not that I fooled any of you into thinking it was.

Pulju has had a bit of an unproductive rookie year, much like Draisaitl did, and people are a little worried about that.

On top of that, a lot of verbiage is being spilled recently on the fact that Pulju isn’t playing much for Finland’s team at the Worlds. Not sure what that’s about (I haven’t followed closely, but I keep hearing he’s been one of their better players, so … ?)

With that said, given all the negative ink, I see similarities in the way Draisaitl and Puljujarvi tracked during their rookie years that keeps me from getting too gloomy, so let me share that with you.

Twins

Let’s start with some basic stats from the rookie years of the two players:

**Note: the Sh% numbers above are on ice EV sh%. Personal sh% numbers were 2.4% for JP and 4.6% for LD**

The similarities here should be clear. Both played less than half a season. Both scored around a quarter of a point per game, and well shy of two points per 60 minutes. Both players had shooting percentages in line with fourth liners rather than first liners.

Pulju was a little ahead of Draisaitl in that regard, but not in any significant way.

But the thing I want to really emphasize is the possession. Both players were positive in possession metrics, both on an absolute and a relative basis.

The ‘relative’ part means the team did better on shot metrics with these guys on the ice than without them.

That’s a really important thing IMO.

Young skill players can often score as rookies, but even the highly skilled ones typically struggle with the defensive aspect of the game … which means they tend to give up a lot of shots and chances. That shows up in poor possession numbers.

If they don’t learn to think that defensive aspect of the game at the NHL level, the offensive skill may not overcome the defensive liability and that can derail or even torch an otherwise promising career (think: Gagner, Sammy; Yakupov, Nail).

That LD and JP at such a young age both allow(ed) their teams to get the better of the shot balance when on the ice is a very good thing indeed.

Replacement Impact

Let me dig in a bit more on this aspect, because there’s something *really* unusual (in a good way) with both players that needs highlighting.

Let me explain what the two charts I’ve posted below mean.

We start with WOWY (WithOUT you With You) data. WOWY looks at pairs of players to see how they do together and then without each other on the ice.

By looking at a player’s WOWY data across a range of teammates, we can start to get a sense of whether that player is carrying/dragging his teammates, or is being carried/dragged by them.

“Replacement Impact” is a specific way of looking at WOWY data where you ignore the ‘together’ data and look at the players as substitutes. That is to say, we compare how Player 1 does without Player 2, and vice versa. In other words, conceptually it’s kind of like we look at it and say “what happens when you replace Player 1 with Player 2 on the ice?”

The charts below show what happens to shot attempts (CF%) when you replace a particular player with Puljujarvi or Draisaitl. (This data is from 2016 for JP and 2014 for LD, and shows all non-goalies with whom they had 30 or more minutes of shared icetime).

Here’s Draisaitl:

And now Puljujarvi:

You see what’s happening?

In terms of replacement impacts, with just one single exception each – Maroon for Pulju and Perron for Draisaitl – the team gets better when Drai or Pulju step on the ice, EVEN AS ROOKIES.

Now let’s throw out a word of caution here … what I’ve put forward for you is hardly an iron clad or infallible type of analysis. There’s lots of confounding factors involved with teammates and competition and usage that aren’t accounted for.

But when you see such a consistent positive pattern across a wide variety of teammates, it’s a tell. A good one!

The Future

So we saw how this played out with Drai – as a rookie, the possession was there, the skill was there, but the scoring wasn’t. With experience and confidence, the scoring came on like gangbusters.

So don’t get down on Puljujarvi’s future.

He’s younger than Drai was (Drai was an October birthday and was 19 most of his rookie season; JP just turned 19 a day or two ago), and unlike Drai did not have the benefit of playing and adapting to North America in Junior, so adaptation *is* going to be a struggle.

Even in the best case, it’s going to take Puljujarvi some time, moreso than it did with Drai.

But the speed and skill is there, in spades. The possession impacts are excellent – indeed, for a rookie they are stellar. What’s missing for Puljujarvi is confidence and experience (and also like Drai, some man strength to be able to play his imposing power game against NHL size players).

There are no sure things when you’re projecting young players, and like all of his ilk, Jesse will need to be dedicated to getting better … but this first season tells me we’re quite likely seeing a star in the making.

Don’t forget about Drai, but remember Puljujarvi!

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Edmonton Oilers, NHL

How Did the Oilers Improve So Much This Season? Part 3 by Andrew Taylor 

This is the third of a five part series looking into the areas in which the Oilers improved in the 2016-17 NHL season, leading them to their first playoff appearance in eleven years.  

Taylor Hall is a good left winger, one of the elite wingers in the game, full stop.  I have hashed it out with both sides of the Hall-Larsson equation ad nauseum and I’m simply not interested in debating it any further.  I was a huge fan of his right up until I heard that he was traded.  I have a Taylor Hall jersey still tucked away.  I even considered him a core member of the Oilers during the 2015-16 season.  I don’t buy the rumors about him being a cancer in the dressing room because I didn’t see it with my own eyes. I’m not saying it’s impossible that there were rifts that involved him, I’m saying I prefer not to speak poorly of others, in particular when it’s not factual, so I choose not to do the same here.  I will say this; Taylor Hall was a good soldier for the Edmonton Oilers and they failed to provide him with what is necessary to win hockey games.

On June 29, 2016, Peter Chiarelli pulled the trigger on a trade that may likely go down as one of the most divisive moves in NHL history.  Sending a proven scorer away for an unknown and apparently reliable at best defenseman will do that, especially to a fan base like Edmonton has.  The team was brutal for a complete decade and then you sacrifice arguably their most consistent offensive threat for the last 6 years? All I can say is the team better make a step in the right direction.

Did they ever?!

BALANCE

Balance is a term that the Oilers faithful had forgotten the meaning of as we have become programmed to accept our city and favourite team’s shortcomings.  Can’t get Nylander?  Eventually settle for Dustin Penner after Buffalo decides to hold onto Vanek.  We bought the line that they would need to draft and develop their own stars and assumed that the Oilers had the wherewithal to do so.  As mentioned in my previous blog regarding the start of the rebuild, the Oilers likely thought so as well.

Balance doesn’t necessarily equal winning; if it did there would be slightly more than 90 RHS defensemen and 90 LHS defensemen at any time with NHL contracts.  It is, however, a goal that every team should aim to achieve.  Despite the fairly obvious warts a Netminder from time to time will get on a hot streak so strong that a team can steal a few games, or even series, from some obviously formidable opponents.

The best hockey teams have good centre depth, solid defense, especially in their first two pairings, and a reliable goalie.  The Oilers last season were still strong on the wing while being deficient on defense, therefore they continued to let in more goals than they scored, which led to losing more games than they won.

In the end, the trade was more about Adam Larsson than it was about Taylor Hall.  It wasn’t about a lack of leadership or attitude.  The Oilers traded their most valuable piece from a position that holds the least value in hockey for a player they felt could, at the least, help fill a massive hole on the right side of their defense.  Adam Larsson, along with Kris Russell, was instrumental in helping the Oilers achieve roster balance.

With this sudden balance where the rink was hardly ever tilted against the Oilers’ favor came a dramatically improved goal differential.  Better defense contributed to a 0.43 goals against per game decrease from the 2015-2016 season.  “Well yeah, because they improved their defense, but they traded Taylor Hall so the goals for will decrease right?’  Absolutely wrong.  The Oilers scored an additional 0.54 goals per game on average.  If you combine the two together their goal differential improved by slightly less than a goal per game.  That’s pretty astounding in today’s low scoring game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a17rU-kp1dA

Of course, Connor McDavid helped; as did Leon Draisaitl, Jordan Eberle, Milan Lucic, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Patrick Maroon, and the rest of the team.  Patrick Maroon had a career year scoring 27 goals, and he was sixth on the team in points.  McDavid and Draisaitl led the charge in terms of star values for points, but there were an additional 7 players including 2 defensemen who reached at least 30 points and 3 additional players who chipped in at least 20 goals.  My opinion?  The 2016-17 Oilers had the best balanced and the deepest roster of any Oilers team since 1989-90.

The organizational shift to procuring high-end college players to help fill in depth positions has also been a major boost to the turnaround in the success of the team.  Players such as Matt Benning and Drake Caggiula made immediate impacts at the NHL level and did not appear out of place when the playoffs started.  These players are reasonable cap hits while being a few years older and having some unique hockey experience to build on.  The Oilers continue to pursue at least one big name college free agent in Spencer Foo, and being that he is an Edmonton native and the handling of Benning and Caggiula, can you really deny that Edmonton would be a front runner for him if there is a roster spot available?

In the end, the wins and losses and points in the standings are the most important, followed by goals for per game and goals against per game.  If you want to know why the Oilers all of a sudden are a good team consider this, they improved in all five of those stats, in fact, they improved so significantly in all five that they improved from being below league average in all of them to above league average in all of them.  Every member of the team contributed, both on the ice and likely in areas us as fans aren’t privy to.  Scoring depth, defensive depth, and balance!

Tomorrow will see part four of this series published and it will focus on the goaltending and special teams from this passed season. If you missed the previous parts, you can click here for part one and here for part two.

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Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

The Oilers Massive Holes on Defense And Ebs vs. Nuge

So by now, you’ve already heard the news. Andrej Sekera is outtie 5000 with a blown up knee and to add to that, the leverage the club had with regards to signing Kris Russell just went flaccid.

The rumors of Russell wanting $4M times four years that you’ve been hearing are the same that I’ve been passed along but you have to wonder now if Russell’s agent tries to push that a little bit.

Personally, I’d be happy to move on and let somebody else pay him that much. I was fine with a shade over $3M and that’s how much I still believe he’s worth. That said, the Oilers ARE in a tough spot here and Russell did perform very well in the playoffs.

That should dispell the myth that Russell is a poor playoff player, right? I mean the folks that were saying that, are they the same people that are on Eberle’s ass right now after his one bad playoff?

How this plays out now is that we’re almost back to the same position, trade market-wise, as last summer with Taylor Hall. What I mean by that is, the Oilers are over a barrel a bit and other GMs definitely know that won’t be doing them any favors unless Chiarelli overpays… Again.

The Oilers will need TWO defensemen in this offseason I believe. One that plays a similar style to Russell but is cheaper (Bob Stauffer has been talking about Mark Pysyk all week) and another who is a tad more offensive-minded, can skate well and move the puck.

Off the top of my head, I wonder if Jordan Oesterle has bulked up enough to fill in for Andrej Sekera? He can sure skate and move the puck well. If I remember correctly, his problem was that he wasn’t strong enough to take on the bigger forwards. This would be a very cost-effective solution to ‘Rej’s injury.

Of course, Darnell Nurse could fill in and Matthew Benning did a fine job during the playoffs floating throughout the three pairings but for me, I prefer a more veteran presence and I also believe that leaving Nurse and Benning on the 3rd pairing for at least one more season would be much better use of their talents.

The Mark Fayne supporters will wonder about him and the die has been cast with regards to Fayne’s role in the Oilers organization. Bob Stauffer even spoke briefly about him recently saying that he doesn’t believe the defenseman will be bought out. Probably that is so the Oilers aren’t on the hook for any of his salary when McDavid’s contract kicks in. Mark Fayne will serve as an excellent mentor for the young defenemen who’ll be lacing up the blades in Bakersfield next season.

So if Russell decides to sign elsewhere, who would I like to see replace him? It’s a good question, if I were GM, I’d pick up a veteran like Brian Campbell ($1.5M last year) or maybe a guy like Matt Hunwick ($1.2M last year) to fill in and then toss Sekera on the LTIR until the 2017/18 trade deadline and then activate him for the playoff run.

It’s a good question, if I were GM, I’d pick up a veteran like Brian Campbell ($1.5M last year) or maybe a guy like Matt Hunwick ($1.2M last year) to fill in and then toss Sekera on the LTIR until the 2017/18 trade deadline and then activate him for the playoff run.

Sekera isn’t going to be at 100% when he comes back. He’s going to need time and if the Oilers have more veteran depth then they can afford to bring Sekera back at an appropriate pace whilst blooding the younger players in with said vets.

Hunwick and Campbell are not elite dmen by any means but they are quite serviceable on the 2nd pairing and if the Oilers could get them under contract for around what they made last year, that would give Peter Chiarelli a bit of rope to make some improvements to his forwards. Specifically, he might be able to add a true faceoff man.

EBERLE OR NUGENT-HOPKINS

This is pretty simple right. I know Jason Gregor had it out with Ryan Rishaug on his show a couple of days ago and he wrote a post over at OilersNation about it. So he believes that Eberle has more value for the Oilers than RNH. I’m sorry but I think that’s complete horseshit.

I get that Eberle had a rough year and that happens but to say that he’s more valuable than RNH… Come on man!

Can Eberle switch to center? No.
Can RNH switch to wing? Yes.

Ok, argument over. Not really.

Peter Chiarelli talked about giving his coach players with versatility. You do not have that with Jordan Eberle but you do with Nugent-Hopkins.

One of Gregor’s main points is that consistent scoring is tough to do in the NHL today and he’s not wrong but we’ve never seen what RNH could do on the wing, have we? And that goes back to the versatility. Also, I can’t remember completely but didn’t Nuge play wing during the World Cup of Hockey and didn’t he end up amongst the leaders in scoring for that team?

Last year, Nugent-Hopkins had 18 goals and Eberle had 20. Now, who had the most responsibility during the season? Would it be fair to say that honor goes to #93? So with all of the things that he had to battle through to get those 18 goals, surely his skills would hold more value than Eberle’s, no?

I think a similar question came up last summer too after Taylor Hall was traded. Who will replace Hall’s production? Well, the TEAM did. Pat Maroon got 27 goals, Milan Lucic score 23 goals, Mark Letestu had 16.

So if you’re going into next season sans Jordan Eberle’s 20 goals, I have a feeling the combination of Jesse Puljujarvi, Tyler Pitlick, Anton Slepyshev, and Zack Kassian could reach over 40 goals and not break a sweat. All for around $7 or $8M…

The question of who holds more value for the Oilers isn’t really a question at all or should it be one at this point, both players will be playing on other teams come 2019 unless Chiarelli can work some serious magic and get some surprises from his prospects. The only reason we’re talking about it is because one of them has to move.

The Devils have a kid named Steve Santini that I really like. He’s a righty and he plays defense. Very stay-at-home type and good with the stick. Doesn’t mind the rough stuff and apparently has quite the shot. Wonder if Ray Shero would part with him to bring Eberle over?

If I had to choose, I’d say Nuge would bring you more in a trade but why would you handicap yourself like that? Yes, in two years when McDavid’s contract kicks in, RNH’s $6M won’t be affordable but why not keep him, move him to the wing when need be and have that insurance policy right there in-house in case of injury or slumps? Then next summer deal him and sign your “Nick Bonino”.

Plus, the free agent pool could be a tad deeper next summer,

  • Tyler Bozak
  • Lars Eller
  • Riley Nash
  • Kyle Brodziak
  • Colton Sceviour
  • Leo Komarov
  • Matt Stajan
  • Mikael Backlund

Just to name a few.

One player I believe the Oilers will go all-in on this summer is Martin Hanzal though and that could change things. He really needs to offload Pouliot and Fayne in my opinion.  But faceoffs were a huge problem for the Oilers in the playoffs and Chiarelli said it himself, he didn’t like all the puck chasing the team did vs. Anaheim.

But say Edmonton goes into the 2017/18 season with these line combos, do you like it?

Maroon-McDavid-RNH
Lucic-Draisaitl-Puljujarvi
Caggiula-Hanzal-Slepyshev
Pitlick-Letestu-Kassian
(Khaira)

Klefbom-Larsson
Hunwick-Campbell
Nurse-Benning
Gryba (Sekera)

Let me know in the comments section what you figure!

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Edmonton Oilers, NHL

How Did the Oilers Improve So Much This Season? Part 2 by Andrew Taylor 

This is the second of a five-part series looking into the areas in which the Oilers improved in the 2016-17 NHL season, leading them to their first playoff appearance in eleven years.  

Connor McDavid was “gifted” to the Edmonton Oilers on April 18th, 2015.

A week prior to that their season had officially wrapped up with 62 points.  It could easily be argued that their season was likely done much earlier; they hit the mid-point of the season with 27 points, on pace for 54 which they actually surpassed for a grand total of 62 points.  Their roster for that final game of the season was, to be as polite as possible, cringe-worthy.  Are you ready for Oilers fan shell shock?  Keith Aulie, Matt Fraser, and David Musil all played more than 10 minutes that game for the Oil and haven’t stepped foot into an NHL game since.  Yikes!

Here are some other highlights (read lowlights) from that game:

  • Ben Scrivens was our anointed #1 goalie (Ben’s a great guy, champion of human rights and likely has more brains in his pinky finger than I do, but likely not a sufficient #1 goalie on an NHL team).  I get playing out the string but that night he had an .821 save percentage.  As the cool kids say, WOOF!
  • Luke Gazdic hung out there for 7:16 TOI.  He cracked New Jersey’s roster for a whopping 11 games this year, and I see no evidence that he was on the injury shelf.  New Jersey ended the season with 70 points and in 27th place overall, not exactly a huge improvement over Edmonton’s 70 points and 29th place overall the season prior, so not cracking that lineup more frequently somewhat begs the question as to why he was able to crack the Oilers roster the season before for 40 games.
  • I love Matt Hendricks, he’s been a helluva soldier for the Oilers, but 12:59 TOI?  Even though he was at that time still a spring chicken (well, 33 years old) it’s simply too much to ask of a hard-nosed grinder like him.
  • Remember Rob Klinkhammer?  8:42 TOI.  Here’s how bad things were for the Oilers shortly thereafter and often during the 10 full seasons without a post-season berth: a lot of discussion surrounded whether or not to bring him back that off-season.  Aren’t you indeed glad the Oilers became an NHL team shortly thereafter?
  • Anton Lander played 17:10 that night.  He suited up for the Oilers 22 times this last season, had 4 points in total in an average of 9:46 TOI per game.

Can anyone honestly look at that roster, claim Connor McDavid would join it and expect two years later they would make it to the seventh game of the second round?  If you can, without breaking out in hysterical laughter, remind me to NEVER play poker with you.

Effective Player Attrition

If you take the roster of that last game in April of 2015 and compare it to the roster on March 28, 2017 (the playoff clinching game against the Los Angeles Kings) there are literally 3 players in common: Jordan Eberle, Oscar Klefbom, and Benoit Pouliot.  To be fair, the shell of a team stripped of any ambition in game 82 two years ago might be a little unfair to compare to the one that punched the playoff ticket for the first time in 11 years almost two months ago.

Instead, let’s compare the opening night roster at the beginning of the 2015-16 season to that same game 76 of this year instead.  A whopping 8 players (7 skaters and a Netminder) played for the Oilers in both games: Oscar Klefbom, Mark Letestu, Connor McDavid, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Benoit Pouliot, Andrej Sekera, Anton Slepyshev, and Cam Talbot.  They lost that game to the St. Louis Blues 3-1.  They didn’t lose a game to them this past season, not once, ever.

Possibly unfair still, I mean it was Connor’s first game (that counts) in the NHL.  The full season would show better I’m sure.  Let’s take a look.

Connor McDavid only played 45 games in 2015-16 (thanks again Brandon Manning!) and amassed 48 points (1.07 points per game).  So, if he was around all year they’d have been much better right?  Well, if you compare the team’s success with him to their success without him points wise, you might be surprised.  They actually went 17-25-3 in the 45 games he played for a total of 37 points, which would line up to 67 points over an 82 game season.  Without him, they went 14-18-5, good for 33 points over 37 games or 73 points over an 82 game season.

OK, for those diehard fans that would say “it’s because Klefbom was gone as well” I will say this: Klefbom wasn’t injured until after the first 30 games of last season and for the 13 games they played together at the beginning of the year the Edmonton Oilers went…wait for it…5-11 for 10 points over 21 games or 39 points over an 82 game season.  Of those 13 games Cam Talbot started 10, they went 3-7, 6 points in 10 games or 49 in 82.  Really, no matter how you want to slice it, the team wasn’t good last year no matter what combination of players you want to focus on.

I stand firm that a General Manager’s first year on the job is more about tactical observation and decisive planning to build and shape a team.  The group Peter Chiarelli inherited was dysfunctional at best and a massive improvement in the standings in that season would’ve handcuffed the team for years.  Instead, he did some tinkering including shaving off some players who weren’t going to be part of the long-term plan and bringing in a couple of bigger guys who can agitate and create space, and most importantly play.

There wasn’t a massive sell-off of talent at the trade deadline of 2016 as had been the tradition for the Oilers for years, in fact almost the opposite took place.  They managed to make two significant, “actual” hockey trades by bringing in Patrick Maroon for scraps and Zack Kassian for Ben Scrivens.  They were slightly better after these “gambles” but still not a .500 club.  This was a significant sign to the fan base however, that the days of flushing out talent might be in the past.

His most significant move was mere months down the road…

If you missed part one of Andrew Taylor’s five-part series, you can check that out here. Tomorrow in part three, Andrew will be discussing “The Larsson/Hall Trade” and what a balanced roster meant to the Oilers this season.

You can follow Andrew Taylor on Twitter @drewtaylor1978!!

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