Tag Archives: Brandon Davidson

Edmonton Oilers, Michael Sifeldeen, NHL

The Oilers’ 2016-17 Bottom Pairing: The Last Line of Defence

2 Comments

I know what you’re thinking: the Oilers blogosphere definitely needs another article about our defensive situation. But mostly, those articles have been focused on the addition of our new Swedish stud (yes, I’m calling him a stud already) Adam Larsson, and how the “upper echelons” of the d-core will look going forward. I don’t think there’s too much debate left about what our top-2 looks like next season. Oscar Klefbom and Adam Larsson should have no problem anchoring our back-end for many years to come. (Provided they both stay healthy, of course. #PrayForKlefbomsFoot.)

Perhaps even the top-4 isn’t too hard to predict, either. Andrej Sekera’s numbers proved last season that he’s a perfectly serviceable top-4 d-man who, through necessity, was pushed into a top-2 role. He also had a penchant for scoring cool O-ver-TIIIIIIME winners. His individual production wasn’t anything to write home about in general, really, but his shot generation and productive possession was fantastic (RelCF/60: 3.95, and RelCD/60: 3.36 respectively). So that’s the left side shored up. As far as the right side muddle pair goes, there are about 3.625 million reasons why one would reasonably expect Mark Fayne to live there. According to the numbers, though, I firmly expect Brandon Davidson to be the guy.

Can you see any category in which Mark Fayne is more clearly a top-4 defenceman than Brandon Davidson? I’m squinting real hard and I just can’t do it. In fact, the harder I look, the more I see Davidson hitting top-pairing status sooner rather than later if his trajectory even kind of holds course.

So who does that leave us with for the bottom pair? Fayne, obviously, unfortunately. I don’t really like the guy, and I think he’s unforgivingly overpaid, but he’s not useless, and I’m sure I’ll end up eating my words once he starts only taking up bottom-pairing minutes. He’ll probably pull a Jultz and end up playing half-decently. (This just in: defencemen look better with limited minutes and when playing within their skill role, not being force-fed minutes because of injuries and wishful thinking. More at 12.) Fayne won’t be putting up big numbers; he’s a shutdown guy through and through. But his shot suppression is workable at a RelCA/60 of -0.73, and he has the years of experience to know basically where he should be most of the time.

And for the left side? I’m throwing my lot in with Jordan Oesterle. There’s a common school of thought in creating defensive pairings that the limitations of particular defenders should compliment each other. In this case, Oesterle’s offence shows incredible promise (with admittedly a smallish sample size) in individual production (his PP/60 is 0.68) and productive possession (RelCD/60 of 4.61). He sits a full 2 points higher in CF% (47), and has a relative WOWY spread of only -2% rather than -5%, when compared with Darnell Nurse and Griffin Reinhart. We saw at the end of last season how composed Oesterle looked in his first passes and zone exits, and at least to my eyes, he never really looked out of his element in whatever situation in which TMac placed him.

Where does this leave Darnell Nurse and Griffin Reinhart? Nursey I’d like to see have a full season or two unencumbered by NHL duties in the A, bulking up his tall frame, playing tough minutes, and refining the specifics of his game. He needs to decide just what kind of a defenceman he’s going to be. We saw him last season toy around with a quick, attacking defensive style, taking it upon himself to carry pucks deep and try to create offence. We saw him go the goon route and pretty convincingly beat the shit out of a few unfortunate opposition tough guys. Can he be all of it? Man, I hope so! He’s got all the tools and seemingly all the drive and desire in the world to do it. But he’s never going to be able to get there if he’s being used up with ridiculous minutes and being put in situations no reasonable first-or-second-year d-man really should be.

As for Griffin, I don’t even know, guys. He’s just… not very good… at the hockeys. Maybe he has big potential, maybe he doesn’t. But I’d rather see the Oilers organization focus their growth and development efforts into their young guns like Davidson, Oesterle, Nurse, and Bear who have at least shown flashes of brilliance in some category or another, rather than a guy who we only ever hear about having potential.

Pick up a 16-bit Larsson today!!

Eric Friesen, NHL

Ranking the Oilers Top 10 Picks of the Past 10 Drafts

Everything considered it was a great draft weekend for the Edmonton Oilers. They didn’t get a top pairing defenceman and they weren’t able to trade Nail Yakupov (I expect both will get done in the week), but GM Peter Chiarelli got his man with the 4th overall pick. Even after losing all three lottery draws in April, the Oilers left Buffalo with Jesse Puljujarvi in their prospect pool. Hopefully Puljujarvi will be Edmonton’s last high pick for a long time as they continue to push toward becoming a playoff team.

The Oilers have done very well in the first round over the past 10 years. I mean, it’s hard to mess up when you are picking near the top of the order year after year, but it’s still not a sure thing as we’ve seen with Yakupov (1st overall, 2012) and Magnus Paajarvi (10th overall, 2009).

In today’s blog, I will rank the Oilers top 10 picks of the past 10 drafts.

10. Brandon Davidson (162nd overall, 2010) – Some might say I’m going out limb here, by putting a player who has only played 63 NHL games on this list, but he’s earned it. For a team that has had few hits beyond the first round over the past decade, Davidson was a pleasant surprise for the Oilers in 2015-16, emerging as a steady top four defenceman.

9. Darnell Nurse (7th overall, 2013) – After selecting a forward with their first pick in six consecutive drafts, the Oilers finally ended that streak by taking Nurse in the first round three years ago. Nurse was asked to handle way too much responsibility in his rookie year, and to no one’s surprise he struggled. I don’t think he’s ever going to be a big point producer in the NHL, but he’s still young, and has the size, tenacity and skating ability to develop into a top pairing defender.

8. Sam Gagner (6th overall, 2007) – Gagner got off to a great start to his NHL career, tallying 49 points as a rookie in 2007-08. He never bested that total in his next six years in Edmonton and would have been better served moving from centre to the wing. Gagner was still one of the Oilers offensive leaders for several years and the highlight of his career was when he tied Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey‘s team record for points in a single game (8 points) back in 2012.

7. Oscar Klefbom (19th overall, 2011) – Klefbom was most likely the Oilers best defenceman over the past two seasons and at only 22-years-old, his best years are ahead of him. I had no issue with GM Peter Chiarelli signing Klefbom to a seven-year extension last September, despite having played under 100 games in the NHL at that point.

6. Jesse Puljujarvi (4th overall, 2016) – I’m making a bold pick here considering Puljujarvi hasn’t even played a game in the NHL yet. But I feel confident ranking him this high on the list and think he would even higher if I were to re-do it in five years. Puljujarvi is perhaps the most complete player in this year’s draft and will likely be in the Oilers’ lineup on October 12th when they open Rogers Place.

5. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (1st overall, 2011) – When Nugent-Hopkins was first drafted, some fans and media members speculated that he might be the best of the Oilers young guns by the time he reached his prime. That won’t happen now, but RNH has developed into a reliable two-way centre. He came into the league as a No. 1 centre, but in the past year has dropped to third on the Oilers’ depth chart down the middle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uz6XGbGjWk

4. Leon Draisaitl (3rd overall, 2014) – After 15 years of chasing a big, skilled centre, Edmonton finally got one in the draft two years ago. Draisiatl took a big step forward in his development last season, and even though he faded down the stretch, I believe he’s going to be a big part of this team for the next 10 years.

3. Jordan Eberle (22nd overall, 2008) – Eberle was a steal for the Oilers late in the first round eight years ago. A natural goal scorer, Eberle is one of the best right-wingers in the NHL as well as the best pure finisher on the Oilers. He’s led the team in scoring in three of his six years with the team and deserves to be one of Edmonton’s top three picks of the past decade based on that alone.

2. Taylor Hall (1st overall, 2010) – An elite scoring winger, Hall is a two-time top 10 scorer in the NHL and recorded a career-high 80 points in 2013-14. Hall became the first Oiler to score at least 80 points in over a decade. Like Eberle, Hall has led the team in scoring in three of his six years with the Oilers and has learned to take his foot off the gas a bit, which resulted in him staying healthy from start to finish for the first time last season. I will never understand why 30% of the Oilers fan base wants to trade him. Because he turns over the puck too much? Because he has perceived attitude problems? Unless Chiarelli gets a No. 1 defenceman for him in a deal, they are a worse team without him.

1. Connor McDavid (1st overall, 2015) – Was there even any question about this one? McDavid was dominant in his 45 games with the Oilers last season, registering the third-highest points per game average in the league (1.07) and only missed out on winning the Calder Trophy because of his broken clavicle. That’s alright, I have a feeling his NHL trophy case will be full 20 years from now he hangs up his skates. McDavid is the face of the franchise and will likely be named the youngest captain in NHL history this fall.

I hope you enjoyed my list. Let me know if you agree or disagree with my choices. It’s always good to talk to fellow Oilers fans. Thanks for reading!

Click the pic and buy the new Pulju 16-Bit Tee!
Click the pic and grab a 16-bit McDavid tee for the summer!
Armchair GM, Edmonton Oilers, Zach Laing

Oilers re-sign Davidson, Brossoit early during deadline day

This morning, the Oilers announced that both Brandon Davidson and Laurent Brossoit had re-signed for two more years.

For Davidson, the deal comes after a very strong rookie campaign in Edmonton that has seen him playing big minutes as of late, as many as 25 minutes a game. Davidson’s shot-attempt differential (i.e., Corsi) relative to the team average is +3.6%, or 8 shot attempts per 60 minutes, which is the most among the defensemen. His production at even-strength is 0.36 points/60 minutes, which is the 3rd best among the D. At beginning of the season, I would not have predicted that Davidson would step in as a rookie and have that kind of impact. He has shown that he is a very smart player and does not panic with the puck.

His no-backing-down mentality has been infectious in Edmonton and something the team has sorely lacked in years past. After beating cancer in his first year in the American Hockey League, Davidson has fought through adversity and has now earned a nice little two-year raise, tripling his current salary.

Moving forward, the sky is the limit for this kid.

The two-year extension for Brossoit is also an interesting one. The term and dollar-figure suggest to me that the Oilers feel he will, at the very least, compete for a backup position on the Oilers roster. Moving forward, I believe there is a strong chance that he does make the team as a full time backup. This season, in the American Hockey League, Brossoit has posted a .919 save percentage and earned 40 wins in his last 81 AHL games.

I have been a big fan of Brossoit the last few years. I would love to see him get some NHL games down the stretch between now and the season’s end. In his limited NHL time (2 games), Brossoit has performed well with a .954 save% and 1.45 goals-against average.

Kris Hansen

BLH Edmonton Oilers Weekly Recap Feb 21st-Feb 28th

Alright, lets just get this out of the way first: the Oilers continued to stink as they went 0-3-0. They had good efforts against the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings but were absolutely putrid in the game against Ottawa.

It’s tough to give stars of the week when the entire team sucked, but there are some glimmers of hope.

Edmonton Oilers Three Stars:

3. Jordan Eberle. Eberle had two goals in three games this week, considering how the Oilers are once again, finding it hard to score goals, it’s a nice change to see Eberle stepping up. Sure, he looked lazy on some defensive plays, but Eberle is the best pure goal scorer on the team. He looks good with Connor McDavid. While I think that he’s the most likely to be dealt, I’m see why people are so leery of trading away number 14.

2. Cam Talbot. After posting, and while concerning, sub .900 save percentages in three games straight, Talbot was strong in games against Anaheim and Los Angeles, giving the Oilers a chance to win in those games. Sometimes you need the goalie to stand on his head and Talbot was doing that despite the losses. In the last three games, he averaged .920 save percentage.

1.Brandon Davidson. Hey, Upper Deck. Why does Brandon Davidson not have a Young Gun Rookie Card? Besides Connor McDavid, Davidson has been the best Oiler rookie. He’s so damn calm in his own zone and had an impressive hit against Jake Muzzin of the Los Angeles Kings. He’s a shining example of a rightfully questionable development system: a 6th round pick in 2010 who’s fought cancer, you can’t help but cheer for the young man. There are rumblings that people want him to get a contract extension, but who knows about the price this point.

Edmonton Oilers Trade Rumors and News.

It’s that time of the season, one of my favorites: TRADE DEADLINE SEASON!

First we had Anders Nilsson go to St Louis for a 2016 5th round pick and goaltending prospect Niklas Lundstrom 

Then we had Teddy Purcell go to Florida for a 2016 3rd round draft pick. 

Finally, yesterday we had the end of the Justin Schultz era as he was dealt to Pittsburgh for a 3rd round draft pick (Oilers retained 50% of the contract cost)

Also, yesterday Peter Chiarelli had a Press Conference yesterday regarding the trades. I did a post at our friendly neighbors, theoilersrig, recaping the conference. 

Rumor wise: The Oilers are interested in Florida Panthers Left Winger, Brandon Pirri.

Also, there was a great article about Wayne Gretzky commenting on Connor McDavid being ready to be the next Edmonton Oilers Captain.

Around the NHL:

Hold on to your butts, because there were plenty of trades these last couple days. 

One of the biggest trade chips, Andrew Ladd was moved to Chicago for Marko Dano, a 2016 first rounder and a conditional 3rd rounder. Also included to Chicago was Matt Fraser and Jay Harrison. 

Chicago wasn’t finished. They flipped Rob Scuderi to Los Angeles for Christian Ehrhoff. and then traded Phillip Danault and a 2018 2nd round pick to Montreal for Dale Weise and Tomas Fleischmann.

San Jose made a spalsh by acquiring James Reimer and Jeremy Morin from the Toronto Maple Leafs for Alex Stalock, Ben Smith and a conditional 4th round pick in 2018. This was the second trade in the week between the two teams as Toronto moved Roman Polak and Nick Spalling to San Jose for two second round picks (in 2017 and 2018) and Raffi Torres.  

The Panthers made three moves as well: First they acquired Jiri Hudler for a 2016 2nd round pick and a 2018 4th round pick, picked up Teddy Purcell for a 2016 third round pick and Jakub Kindl for a 6th round pick in 2017.

The Penguins as mentioned above, acquired Justin Schultz from the Edmonton Oilers for a third round pick in 2016.

The Sabres and Senators had a blockbuster minor league deal as Ottawa acquired Jason akeson, Phil Varone and Jerome Leduc for Alex Guptill, Eric O’Dell, Cole Schneider and Michael Sdao.

Highlights

Blake Wheeler was interviewed about the trade of their captain, Andrew Ladd

 

Here were the top NHL moments from last night

Rakell scored a beauty against the Oilers on Friday night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrCHGjeDdto

 

The Week Ahead:

The Oilers have three games, including one tonight at 7:30 against the New York Islanders.

Next they have a three game road trip including the first McDavid vs Eichel showdown in Buffalo on Tuesday, A visit to Philadelphia on Thursday and finally facing the Blue Jackets on Friday.

And of course, tomorrow is the NHL tradedeadline. I know I’ll be glued for updates.

That’s the week that was, follow me on Twitter for some really stunning insight (okay, maybe some insight, not truly stunning). Have a great week guys!

 

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

Exit Stage Left: Thinning Out the Herd

3 Comments
Seks all. night. long. baby!

Take a look at this list of defensemen in the Edmonton Oilers system and let me know if you see a problem. And just as a preface for the rest of this post, it’s a tad jumpy. So bear with me and I think you’ll get the point at the end.

LEFT HANDED SHOOTERS RIGHT HANDED SHOOTERS
Andrej Sekera Justin Schultz (RFA)
Oscar Klefbom Mark Fayne
Darnell Nurse Eric Gryba (UFA)
Brandon Davidson (RFA) Adam Clendenning (RFA)
Andrew Ference (IR) Ethan Bear (Junior)
Griffin Reinhart John Marino (NCAA)
Nikita Nikitin (UFA)
David Musil (RFA)
Jordan Oesterle (RFA)
Brad Hunt
Joey LaLeggia
Dillon Simpson
Ben Betker
Martin Gernat (RFA)
William Lagesson (unsigned)
Caleb Jones (unsigned)
Ziyat Paigin (unsigned)

Feel free to let me know if I’ve missed someone in that list but it looks like Peter Chiarelli definitely has his hands full here. He needs to thin this pack out, upgrade it and try to create some balance.

Surely Jultz will be gone by the end of next week and if someone is desperate enough, they just might make a deal for Gryba but I can’t see it. I see him getting re-signed. From what I’m hearing, Gryba is part of the glue of the room. The players look up to him and he looks out for them. Just as Matt Hendricks does for the forwards. I’m in favour of keeping these kinds of players and he’s had a brilliant season to date. Unlucky to have been injured this late in the season but if there’s a team out there that wants that reliable muscle for the playoff run, he’s a pretty good candidate and the Oilers could always re-visit him this summer and see what he’s looking for.

I’m skeptical that Clendenning gets another deal and is allowed to walk and if someone is willing to take a flyer on Nikitin next week. It’s been a blast Nikki. Not really. Mark Fayne could be a rightie that gets moved if there’s a team out there that has cap room and wants the insurance on the back-end.

So that would put the right side at Fayne or Gryba, Fayne and Gryba or neither of them, leaving Mr.Chiarelli a hole or holes to fill. Maybe.

As for the left side, I think that is locked down for the foreseeable future with Sekera, Klefbom, Nurse, Davidson, and Reinhart sitting pretty there. But therein lies another problem. Too many lefties. PC has to move some bodies here. Of course Sekera can move to the right side but then where do you have room to upgrade? You don’t unless you’re willing to move someone.

I wonder if PC will cut bait on Griffin Reinhart. He was supposed to be a full-time NHLer this year and hasn’t been able to hold down a place. That being said, he’s had as many good games as Justin Schultz this year. But would it be so bad if it took him a season more in the minors before he made the switch to pro? With all the lefties competing for a spot, one would have to think that there’s definitely room to have him marinate in Bakersfield for another year. Maybe send him to the gentleman that helped Leon Draisaitl’s skating last summer.

Click the pic and get your Better Call Hall shirt!!

Do you think Chiarelli would move Klefbom in a deal for Hamonic? Or in a deal where the odds are a million to one, could Nurse be sent to Montreal for Subban? What about St.Louis? Would the Blues want a defender back in a deal for Shattenkirk?

Brandon Davidson has been a revelation for the Oilers this season and is one of the only players on the team that was gifted the time in the minors to develop properly. Funny how things work out when you don’t take shortcuts, isn’t it? I’d like to keep him as he looks to be the kind of guy that calms things down for his partner. He’s still a young guy though, so I wouldn’t exactly start pairing him with Nurse or any other rookies just yet. So hopefully PC gets this guy locked up right quick!

I think ideally you could see the defense going into the 2016-17 season tlooking something like this:

Klefbom – New Guy
Nurse – Sekera
Davidson – Fayne
Gryba

But what if it looked like this?

Nurse – Hamonic/Shattenkirk
Sekera – Vatanen/Demers
Davidson – Gryba
Reinhart

So you’ve moved out Klefbom and Fayne and added Hamonic/Shattenkirk/Vatanen/Demers. Is this a defensive grouping that gets you closer to the playoffs? Closer than the previous group above? I’d have to say yes. Now, I’m not saying the Oilers would deal Fayne for Vatanen. That’s mad. Work out the deals yourself. I’m just throwing names out there that we’ve discussed previously.

Would the latter group be too heavy on the cap? S-kirk is definitely going to be looking for north of $6M per, Vatanen I would think might be looking for Klefbom numbers and Hamonic is already on a pretty sexy deal ($3.8M for the next five years). Demers is a tough call. He’s getting $3.4M now, so let’s say he seeks upwards of $5M per.

Would you be happy with a loading up of higher priced dmen at the sacrifice of skill up front? It’d probably cost an Eberle, Nuge, and/or Hall to get it done. Go the Nashville route?

What do you think the Oilers should do with their glut of lefties on the back-end? Let me know in the comments below! And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!

Click the pic! Get this kick-ass shirt!