Category Archives: Zach Laing

Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, Jack Gruninger, Rob Cooke, Sunday Night Pint, Zach Laing

BLH Sunday Night Pint #2

We’re back for another edition of the BLH Sunday Night Pint! Coincidentally this is the anniversary of the Chris Pronger trade! So Happy Pronger Day everyone!!

This week we have Zach “The Ladies Man” Laing (@loweded), Grapplin’ Jack Gruninger (@jackgruninger), and Rob “Don’t Call Me Cookie” Cooke (@cooke_rob) to tackle the hard-hitting Oilers topics of the week!

We’re going to start things off with an easy question:

1.Have the Oilers Done Enough to Make the Playoffs in 2015/16?

Jack – Not yet, no. They could be close, but unless some younger guys can have a surprise impact at the NHL level, the Oilers aren’t playoff bound yet. I think there are still question marks at forward. Lauri Korpikoski was brought in in the Boyd Gordon trade, how will he do? In the right situation he could excel, but there are likely better options. Will Yakupov finally turn his game around and start producing like a first overall pick? He hasn’t been trending upwards. Matt Hendricks is aging, how much longer can he have an impact? Also, not much needs to be said about the team’s defensive woes. Sekera and Klefbom are good defencemen, but what about the rest? Schultz can produce offense, but the defensive side of his game is clearly lacking. Fayne had a poor first season in Edmonton, they need more from him. Can Darnell Nurse take on a top 4 role like we desperately need him to? If Ference and Nikitin are both in the lineup at any point this season I might lose my mind. Finally, this team isn’t getting out of the bottom 5 unless they can get a save.

Rob – The answer to this is no. Not necessarily for the reason that most people might think though. The Western Conference is a killer to begin with and unfortunately for the Oilers most of the teams that made the playoffs last season improved this summer. The obvious exceptions being the Canucks and the Blackhawks. No clue what Jim Benning is planning for the fall but it does appear that the Canucks are headed for a rebuild in the near future. The Blackhawks are worse than last season but that has been due to cap issues that required some really good players to be moved for less than full value. So out of eight teams that made it last year six either improved or at least remained at the same level. Add to that Los Angeles and San Jose were outside the playoffs last season and definitely will challenge for the post-season again.

2.Who Will Lead the Oilers in Scoring This Season?

Zach – Taylor Hall! He’s going to have a monster year. I can’t feel it in my bones.

Jack – If Hall could stay healthy, he would lead the team in scoring easily, but since coming into the league, and not counting the lockout year, he has only averaged 64 games a season. A lot of people might say Nugent-Hopkins, but with Gordon no longer on the team, they will need him to start taking some tougher defensive assignments, so I’m not expecting a huge increase offensively. Jordan Eberle can always be relied upon to put up 60-70 points. We can’t forget about McDavid, of course. It will be really interesting to see what he puts up. It could be a tight scoring race, but I’m going to say that Hall leads the team in points.

Rob – Taylor Hall. He is the only bona fide point per game player on the team right now. McDavid will get there in short order I believe but until he has done it the only guarantee is Hall when healthy. Hall is going to have a bounce back season after losing 29 games to injury last season. He will not only lead the team in scoring this year but he will also be back in the league top ten in scoring.

3.Who Will McDavid Benefit Most From Playing With?

Zach – Whoever he’s on the ice with. Connor is one of those players that will presumably be playing a good amount of time even-strength and will likely see power play minutes as well. His skill will raise the level of play of the teammates around him, and I look forward to seeing him build chemistry with different guys. If I had to pick one specific player, I would say Nail Yakupov as I see him being a winger for McDavid.

Jack – There have been a lot of line combinations thrown around, and a lot of suggestions regarding who McDavid should be played with. Hall is the choice of many people, but some think that McDavid should be put with two veterans to start the season, such as Pouliot and Purcell. From an offensive standpoint, Hall would obviously help McDavid the most, but it’s the third player on that line that could be key. I think Teddy Purcell could be a good fit, and he could really help McDavid out in his adjustment to the pro ranks. After all, Purcell does have a resume of playing with a certain young phenom in Tampa Bay.

Rob – To me this question is backwards and it should be who is going to benefit from 82 games of awesomeness the most. But either way my answer is still going to be the same. The player that will benefit McDavid and get the most benefit from having him on their line is Taylor Hall. Hallsy is a solid point per game guy and an absolute terror flying down the port side. Imagine Hall and McDavid going full tilt towards the opposition nets on a nightly basis. Probably going to be more than a few goalies that need to change their shorts during the intermission. This is not a knock against Nuge or Ebs as they are both fantastic players and hopefully Oilers for many years to come but Hall has never had the opportunity to play with a guy of this caliber. Hall to McDavid back to Hall. He shoots! He scores!!!! Sounds beautiful already doesn’t it?

We asked some of our biggest fans and friends of the blog for their opinions on the topics on Facebook and Twitter and these are some of the responses:

Dave Gordon (@rustyknuckler):
1 – No
2 – McDavid if he stays healthy
3 – Good question, depends on who McLennan puts him with, there aren’t any real skilled vets to play with him. Maybe Pouliot, the better question might be who benefits most playing with McDavid.

Shawn Kelemen (@sharkyzeee):
1) No. But by only a few points. It will be a year we are actually in the hunt towards the end of the year. But we need a few tweaks to put us over the hump. Plus another year of experience under a computing coach will help a lot.
2) Nugent-Hopkins/Hall will both tie for the lead this year. Hall will win goals and Nuge will win assists. Eberle will be a close third to them and McDavid will finish fourth with a strong second half after he figures things out and wins our teams first rookie award.
3) I have to go with a few guys. For his two way development I’d say letestu is going to help him. A guy with skill who adapted his game to be a great bottom six guy with all the little things he does. Plus help McDavid with his face offs and positioning(if he needs it). Hendricks and his balls to the wall is going to show him sacrifice/hard work aspects. And Hall will be the perfect line mate for him. Both with blazing speed, will be able to push back defenders so less guys try and come across at McDavid, trying to hurt him. Plus defenders and slower venters will go bananas trying to check two speed demons. While Nuge/Ebs cycle the puck and attack with skill to wear down top defenders.

Rob Soria (@Oil_Drop):
1. Not a chance
2. McDavid
3. Probably Hall

The player who could possibly benefit most from No. 97’s presence may very well end up being Mr. Justin Schultz.

For a nice little change up I asked the guys who their Edmonton Oilers All-Time Starting 6 were but none of my guys are original and they more or less picked the same 6… Lol. Just kidding guys! I’ll flip the switch a bit with mine though…

Zach
G – Grant Fuhr, D – Coffey/Pronger, LW – Ryan Smyth, C – Wayne Gretzky, RW – Jari Kurri
Jack
G – Grant Fuhr, D – Coffey/Pronger, LW – Mark Messier, C – Wayne Gretzky, RW – Jari Kurri
Rob
G – Grant Fuhr, D – Coffey/Pronger, LW – Mark Messier, C – Wayne Gretzky, RW – Jari Kurri
BLH
G – Curtis Joseph, D – Coffey/Lowe, LW – Glenn Anderson, C – Wayne Gretzky, RW – Jari Kurri

Well that’s a wrap for another BLH Sunday Night Pint! Thanks for joining us and a HUGE thanks to all of those who participated online! Let us know your thoughts below in the comments section!

And don’t forget to head on over to the BLH T-Shirt shop! We’ve got a massive collection of 16-bit Superstars waiting for you to take them home and show them the kind of love only a NHL fan can give.

If you guys liked the post please hit the share button below! It’s a massive help for us and it lets us know we’re doing a good job!

Take Care!

– BLH

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Fancy Stats, NHL, Walter Foddis, Zach Laing

Is Ryan Nugent-Hopkins a top center in the NHL?

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Thanks to BLH writer Walter Foddis for helping contribute to this article. 

Entering his fifth full season in the NHL, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has yet to disappoint. Nugent-Hopkins has put in the necessary work to begin to turn into one of the top two-way centers in the NHL. Personally, I feel that he is often overlooked by people outside of Edmonton as the limelight can often fall on the other players like Taylor Hall or Jordan Eberle.

With Connor McDavid coming to town, the Oilers are finally on their way to having two top centers. That’s something the team hasn’t been able to boast since the 2005-2006 when a 26-year old Shawn Horcoff and a 23-year old Jarret Stoll were our potent one-two punch that helped lead us to the cup finals. When you look around the league, the teams that often most successful have not one, but two centers.

Pittsburgh has Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Anaheim has Ryan Getzlaf and Ryan Kesler. St. Louis has David Backes and Paul Stastny. The New York Islanders are on their way with John Tavares and Ryan Strome. Dallas has Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn.

Granted not all of these teams are the elites in the NHL, but all of these one-two punches create an absolute nightmare for opposing teams. Soon, the Oilers will have Nugent-Hopkins and Connor McDavid running show.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FOUqQt3Kg0]

In all situations last year, Nugent-Hopkins has some good comparables.

[table id=15 /]

stats c/o war on ice and hockeyanalysis.com

What do we see here? We see that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is in good company. Ryan O’Reilly has been widely considered to be the best, if not one of the best two-way centers in the NHL today and last season the Nuge beat him out in almost all of the categories listed.

David Johnson listed the statistics for GF60Rel combined with CA60Rel for a good chunk of NHL centers over the last five years. What this combined metric shows is a player’s implied (1) contribution to goal production and (2) ability to suppress shot attempts, relative to his team’s average on these metrics. It also is a good reader for a player’s ability in the two-way game. Sidney Crosby (1.34), Pavel Datsyuk (1.21) and Jonathan Toews (1.14) are the leaders in said category. Nugent-Hopkins’ closest comparables for that statistic were John Tavares (.55), Jason Spezza (.56), David Backes (.57) and Ryan Getzlaf (.64).

I am very impressed that how despite the fact he is tied for third among NHL centers in time-on-ice per game, he still drew 13 more penalties than he took. That is some discipline.

Ryan Stimpson’s passing project suggests that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is performing at the level of a 2nd line center (34th to 66th percentile) for most metrics.

  • CC% and CC/60 = Corsi Contribution (or Shot Attempt Contribution), which are individual shot attempts, primary passes leading to shot attempts, and secondary passes leading to shot attempts. These are given as a percentage (i.e., proportion of shot attempts a player is involved in when on the ice) and per sixty minutes. These metrics tell you how much offense goes through that player while on the ice and also how often they contribute.
  • Composite SAG and SG represent the total number of shot attempts and shots a player generated from both primary and secondary passes per sixty minutes. SAG/60 is solely for the player’s primary passing contributions.
  • Entry Assists represent the number of controlled entries a player assisted on. This is determined by the number of passes in transition (prior to entering the offensive zone) that was recorded for each player.
  • SC Contribution% and SCC/60 are identical CC% and CC/60, but represent only the scoring chances a player was involved in. Passing data for scoring chances was combined with War-on-Ice’s scoring chance (link to definition) data to arrive at a player’s total number of scoring chance contributions. SC SAG/60 represents the number of scoring chances set up from a player’s primary passes.

Throughout his career, Nugent-Hopkins has steadily improved in almost every facet of his game. Last season, he was given more defensive responsibilities than he had in previous season, including more time on the Oilers penalty kill than in previous seasons. He also tied a career high in points (56) and set a career high in goals with 24.

Overall, I think it is fair to say Nugent-Hopkins is well on his way to being a top-flight NHL center.

Thanks for reading. Drop a comment below and let me know if you think Nugent-Hopkins is as good as his statistics say.

Armchair GM, NHL, Zach Laing

Doing The Unthinkable: Trading for Seth Jones

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Crazy thought isn’t is? I have to tell you, this has been rattling around in my head since the day Jones was drafted by the Nashville Predators. His size, speed, skill and great statistics have quickly pushed him to be one of the top young defenders in the NHL; He’s only 20 years old to boot.

The truth is that I don’t believe the Oilers are done. I really don’t.

For those who don’t know, I am also a writer at the website Copper ‘n Blue. On July 1st, I pointed out in a Copper ‘n Blue article that the Oilers have nine defenceman who can play at the NHL level next year, and that isn’t including Brandon Davidson who just signed a one year deal this morning.

Name Age Years remaining Cap Hit
Andrej Sekera 29 6 $5.5 mil
Nikita Nikitin 29 1 $4.5 mil
Justin Schultz 24 RFA N/A
Mark Fayne 28 3 $3.625 mil
Andrew Ference 36 2 $3.25 mil
Eric Gryba 27 1 $1.25 mil
Oscar Klefbom 21 1 $894 166
Darnell Nurse 20 3 $863 333
Griffin Rienhart 21 2 $863 333

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking at the big picture, almost any of these guys could make the roster. However, I think the most logical lineup would be:

Sekera – Fayne
Schultz – Klefbom
Ference – Gryba/Nikitin/Nurse

Not bad. The defence is improved over last season, but that comes with adding a guy like Sekera, and providing more depth with Gryba.

Does this defence help push us to the playoffs? It’s questionable. That is why I still believe that the Oilers are not finished. With the 48-hour buyout window opening Saturday, the Oilers have a chance to use a buyout on a player like Nikitin.

This would allow for the opportunity to arise for a trade possibility with another team. Many have suggested Brent Seabrook as the likely target for a trade-and-sign, and I would be very okay with that. However, I would almost prefer to pay a similar value to acquire a player like Seth Jones.

Again, I am totally spitballing here but would Leon Draisaitl and next years first get the deal done? Maybe even throw in a prospect like Pakarinen, Platzer or Musil to sweeten the deal?

Jones would be able to step into Edmonton and have an immediate impact. I spoke with Preds blogger Mark Harris who had this to say about Jones:

He’s going to be a superstar no question. Gotta realize he’s also yet to have played with a steady partner his whole NHL career… He played next to Ellis/Ekholm rookie year, Volchenkov/Bartley last year and now he’ll be with Jackman. 

At 20 years old, Jones does some very special things for a young defenceman. Last season, he put up a 53 CF%, playing 20+ minutes a night, scoring at a 1.1 P/60 rate. He would come into Edmonton and would likely slide right into the top pairing besides Sekera, or on the second pairing to provide a little balance to the defensive corps. Like Mark said, there is no denying the fact Jones will be a superstar in this league for years to come.

At the end of next season, Jones is an RFA and will be due for a big payday. I would imagine he would be able to be had for a deal similar to the one signed for Dougie Hamilton (6-year, $5.75 AAV). It goes back to what happened this past off-season with the threat of the offer sheet from opposing teams. Hamilton was the hottest commodity on the market and Boston felt threatened enough from teams like Edmonton to move him prior to a offer sheets coming in.

Boston eventually traded Hamilton to Calgary for a first and two seconds. It was rumoured that Edmonton was in the middle of the race to acquire Hamilton, but it was said that Nurse needed to be apart of the deal and that was enough for Edmonton to back out of the deal. Could next season be another one like we saw this year when big name RFA’s like Brandon Saad, Dougie Hamilton and Martin Jones get moved due to the threat? At the same time, Nashville isn’t up against the cap like Chicago or Boston so they could potentially be in a position to match an offer sheet next season.

None the less, I still believe the Oilers have more work to be done.

Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Zach Laing

It’s time to get excited about the Oilers

Hello, I’m Zach Laing and I’m the newest writer to come aboard the Beer League Heroes and I am here to tell you to get damn excited about Connor McDavid.

First off, Connor McDavid is better than sliced bread. Seriously. This kid is absolutely phenomenal and put on a show for Oilers fans in the Billy Moores Cup. Mind you, it was against a fairly good group of young prospects. Keyword is young.

His five goals were all worthy of the highlite reel, like many others he has scored in his career. His talent is off the charts. He sees the game at a different speed and it seems like he is playing a video game on easy mode. None the less, it’s hard not to get excited about the kid donning the Copper and Blue.

Chiarelli has said it himself. The expectations on McDavid need to be tempered. We can’t expect him to come into the league and score 100 points, or can we? As an 18-year old Sidney Crosby scored 39 goals and 63 assists for 102 points almost single handedly. To be honest with you, I would be happy if McDavid scored 50, or 60 points this year and anything more than that would be icing on the cake.

But again who knows, maybe by the time the season rolls around he could be ready to take off the training wheels sooner rather than later and step into a bigger role. McDavid is a special player who has stepped into larger roles than asked of him before. It will be fun to watch him blow around NHL defenders.

Robin Brownlee had a fantastic article last week where he spoke about how McDavid is more than just a phenom on the ice.

McDavid signed a hat, then motioned to a young fan behind the glass, his intended target, before tossing it over. When a loutish older fan who should know better reached in to snatch the lid, McDavid torched her with a world-class stink eye Mark Messier would be proud of and pointed at the child again. Message and hat delivered.  – Brownlee

McDavid was adamant in saying after the game that he is going to be getting right back into the gym, and will be “going to try to get as big and strong as possible, then I’ll come back for training camp and do it all over again.”

The excitement doesn’t just stop there. For the first time in a long time, the Oilers actually are going into camp with some sort of competition at the NHL level. As I noted in an article I did recently for the Copper n’ Blue, the Oilers have nine defencemen going into next season that could potentially play at the NHL level.

Throw in the trade for Cam Talbot as well as the trade & signing of Anders Nilsson, the Oilers suddenly have some sort of depth in the net where Ben Scrivens could easily lose his job come fall. The forwards Chiarelli have brought in aren’t going to be superstars, but we don’t need them to be. Letestu and Korpral Korpikoski can be effective bottom-six players for the Oilers in the near future and good complimentary pieces to the top-six the Oilers are currently rolling with.

As the summer drags on, I feel like a giddy schoolgirl. I can’t wait to watch and see what this team does next season.