Tag Archives: Dennis Wideman

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors, Trades

McKenzie Says Oilers to Add Veteran Dman

1 Comment

Now Cody Franson is off to Chicago on a professional tryout offer but who does that leave for the Oilers to pick up that would come in under say $2M? I’ve got a couple of ideas, some realistic and some not.

Dennis Wideman

What has Chiarelli been known to do with the Oilers and something Glen Sather used to do quite a bit? Pick up reclamation projects, build ’em back up, and then sell then on the high.

Dennis Wideman is a player Chiarelli has traded for and traded away before. He’s familiar with him, Wideman is a righty, he’d be an okay add for the PP due to his shot if that’s something you’re concerned about, and he’s a vet.

He seems to tick off the boxes plus my man on the inside has said they spoke earlier this summer.

PLUS

If the refs decide to screw the Oilers over, Wideman’s there to take care of that… Just kidding!

Cody Franson

If the Oilers were one of the last two teams in on Franson before he decided on Chicago, there’s the very real possibility that Edmonton could pull out the “Versteeg” card and watch how he does during Blackhawks training camp and if Franson impresses, sign him before he signs with Chicago.

Mark Stuart

I can’t see him being any better than Eric Gryba but the PK could use him.

A Trade

The verbiage on McKenzie’s tweet said “add” an experienced defenseman. So, we shouldn’t rule out a trade either. “Experienced” tells me that the candidate would probably be a player in the last year of his deal and closer to 30-35 years old than a younger RFA given the kids coming up.

Bob Stauffer has mentioned Mike Green on numerous occasions. He’ll be a UFA this summer, he’s a right shot, and he’s probably more of a PP specialist these days than 30 minutes a night defender but he’s got a hefty contract to be adding him for the entire season.

Toby Enstrom and Jason Garrison are also upcoming UFAs who could work the man-advantage. Although Enstrom is a lefty.

A long shot might be 40 year old Zdeno Chara. I’ve mentioned him before and of course I realize the relationship between Chiarelli and Sweeney is frosty at best but if Boston is out of it and/or Chara wants out to try and win another cup, the Oilers could afford his salary with ease. He’s not a like-for-like replacement for Sekera but the two played together at the World Cup last summer very well. Chara is a helluva mentor to the young dmen too.

What do you think? Should the Oilers even sign/trade for someone with the plethora of younger depth they have coming up through the minors? Not only that but there’s the new signings from earlier this summer like Auvitu or Stanton.

We’ve got a new video up over at our Beer League Heroes Youtube channel! Please head over and subscribe to our channel if you dig sweet hockey videos with kick-ass tunes!

*VERY POPULAR* Grab the new Kassian tribute t-shirt now! Click the image above!
Pick up the NEW “Beat His Ass” shirt right now!!
Click the image and head over to our Teepublic shop to grab some sweet BLH merch.

 

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

Is It Time To Move Another Big Name Oiler?

The powerplay just doesn’t seem to be clicking and that’s not a new story for Oilers fans. We’ve run assistant coaches out of town for less but what usually starts the ball rolling is horrid special teams. I mean I’m all for asking Ralph Krueger or Todd Nelson to come back and sort this sh*t out but I’m fairly certain those bridges have been burned with the people responsible for putting fuel on those bridge burnings still working for the team.

Edmonton is 18th in the league for PP% with 16%. Which isn’t horrendous by any means, at least we’re not Calgary, they’re sitting dead last in the league with a 10% PP… Now that is atrocious! We’re closer than ever to being a playoff team, yet, the Oilers are on the verge of another 5-game losing streak that is partly due to their inability to capitalize with the man advantage.

My thinking is that maybe that PP really needs a shot in the arm and what is more expensive to acquire, a right-handed defenseman to QB the PP or a right-handed centre that could play the McDavid role with Oscar Klefbom on the point?

I suppose that depends on the player, right?

I mean, why are the Oilers continually running the PP through McDavid like they are? His choices are:

  • cross-ice pass to Ebs
  • to the point to Klefbom or Sekera
  • stickhandle through the slot and try himself
  • shoot through two penalty killers

Why (and they might be doing this with Ebs and Klefbom put on the 2nd PP unit yesterday) don’t they run the PP through Ebs and Klefbom? And if that brings success, find a 2nd pairing righty for the McDavid unit or alter the positioning of 97’s unit in order to make room for Puljujarvi’s 1-timer?

What we do know is that Eberle can’t shoot right now despite being the most active shooter on the team and in the top 5 of the NHL.

You know, Leon Draisaitl hit the post versus Toronto with a beauty of a 1-timer, why haven’t they tried working the puck over to him?…

Maybe the Oilers should start looking at that right-handed PP QB that Hall was supposed to bring in… Somebody like:

  • Sami Vatanen (ANH) – (2013-2016) 4.99 pts/60 on the PP.
  • Justin Faulk (CAR) – (2013-2016) 17.2 shots/60 on the PP + 2.07 goals/60 (2nd in NHL in both stats).
  • Matt Dumba (MIN) – (2016/17) 20.3 shots/60 on the PP (2nd in NHL).
  • *Inhales sharply and says with a hand over his mouth*…Dennis Wideman (CGY) – (2016/17) 6.17 pts/60 on the PP + 3rd in the NHL w/3.09 goals/60 on the PP.

I dunno guys, right now Nuge for Dumba is looking pretty tasty and that was a deal turned down (rightfully so at the time) at the draft. That cannon of his, his urgency to use it and his physical play could really fit in on a Todd McLellan/Peter Chiarelli team, no?

Now, I know that a majority of the game is played 5×5, so let’s check the four players corsi for % 5×5 (close) with 100 minutes TOI minimum and see where we land (league ranking in brackets)?

  • Vatanen (#70) 51.3%
  • Faulk (#48) 52.4%
  • Dumba (#97) 50%
  • Wideman (#170) 42.9%

Comparing that with the Oilers we’ve got:

1 – Adam Larsson (#22) – 54.7%
2- Oscar Klefbom (#25) – 54.4%
3 – Eric Gryba (#26) – 54.1%
4 – Darnell Nurse (#30) – 53.8%
5 – Matt Benning (#79) – 51.0%
6 – Andrej Sekera (#135) – 47.2%
7 – Kris Russell (#138) – 46.8%

Oilers on the PP this season (I had to reduce the minimum TOI to 1 minute to get more than 2 Oilers):

1 – Matt Benning (#40) – 14:35 TOI, 4.11 pts/60
2 – Andrej Sekera (#66) – 43:23 TOI, 2.77 pts/60
3 – Oscar Klefbom (#89) – 68.50 TOI, 1.74 pts/60
4 – Adam Larsson (#161) – 6:23 TOI, 0.00 pts/60
5 – Darnell Nurse (#166) – 1:22 TOI, 0.00 pts/60
6 – Kris Russell (#183) – 11:06 TOI, 0.00 pts/60

If we jack the minimum TOI up to 50, which I think is a decent variable at this point in the season, then Oscar Klefbom jumps to #41 in the NHL. And if we change the time frame from just this season to the previous four (including this one), Kris Russell is 48th in the NHL over that time with a points per 60 of 3.80 and Andrej Sekera (3.77) is right under him at 49th. But that’s it.

As for the four dmen I named above, what do you think their teams would be looking to acquire in exchange?

  • Matt Dumba – Last I heard the Wild were looking for scoring. Do the Oilers have anybody they could serve up without handcuffing themselves?
  • Justin Faulk – Some don’t like that his defense is going off the rails this season but Carolina would kill to get Nuge, wouldn’t they? But do they have someone to replace Faulk? We know that person isn’t Ryan Murphy. But hey, what about Ryan Murphy for Griffin Reinhart? Hehehe.
  • Sami Vatanen – The ducks are having an odd season so far. Their big guns aren’t firing on all cylinders, so I imagine scoring is something they’d be looking for as well given their ridiculously deep back-end. Last year Pouliot was rumored to be of interest but I can’t see that this year. And what would you deal to a division rival?
  • Dennis Wideman – I think he could be had for a Bobby Nick’s Burger.

I don’t really like the idea of moving a high-profile player just to “fix” the PP to be honest but what would you do? Would you sacrifice a Nuge, Eberle, Nurse, Klefbom or a Draisaitl to upgrade the Oilers PP?

Let me know in the comments below and thanks for reading!

Click the pic and grab a 16-bit McDavid tee!

 

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors

Shooting Wide-man

2 Comments

The name of Dennis Wideman is starting to creep up again as my little birdy told me the Oilers are in talks to acquire the 33-year-old defenseman from the Calgary Flames. I guess Chia Pete REALLY wants to have three pairs of righty/lefty dmen.

Initially, the Wideman chatter started when Elliotte Friedman mentioned it in his 30 Thoughts column here and that resulted in some compelling arguments from such writers as:

Jonathan Willis

Wideman had the worst on-ice Fenwick rating of any Calgary defenceman, though it should be noted that there’s a caveat here: He played in mutually destructive pairings with Deryk Engelland and Kris Russell in which both partners dramatically underperformed their results elsewhere. Wideman was good when with Mark Giordano (even by Giordano’s standards).

Unfortunately, this isn’t a new thing. Wideman’s Fenwick numbers have been bad for three years now and they weren’t great before that. He’s had ugly results with Engelland, with Russell and with Ladislav Smid (and, yes, the bottom end of Calgary’s defence hasn’t been great); if he wasn’t playing with Giordano the Flames were generally getting hammered on the shot clock. (source)

Kent Wilson

Yes, the Oilers recently paid a hefty price to add 24-year-old Adam Larsson. Nevertheless, their blueline is still lacking in RH defenders who can play on the PP. The rest of their backend includes:

  • Andrej Sekera (LD)
  • Adam Larsson (RD)
  • Oscar Klefbom (LD) 
  • Mark Fayne (RD)
  • Darnell Nurse (LD)
  • Brandon Davidson (LD) 
  • Griffin Reinhart (LD)

Of those guys, Sekera is the only player who hit 30 points last year. In fact, he’s the only Oilers defender who scored more than 20 points in 2015-16. Dennis Wideman’s near career worst 19 points in 51 games last season would have put him second on the Oil behind Sekera. Yuck. 

So as superfluous as Wideman seems on the Flames blueline, he might actually be of some use to the Oilers. The only problem is, Edmonton has a complicated cap situation thanks to Andrew Ference’s LTIR and the bonus money “owed” to guys like Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Jesse Puljujarvi. (Source)

Lyle Richardson (Spector)

…Chiarelli acquired and later traded Wideman during his tenure as Boston Bruins GM. While the two clubs rarely make deals, he points out the Flames acquired Ladislav Smid from the Oilers a couple of years ago.

Several factors, however, work against a Wideman-to-Edmonton trade scenario. Though he only has a year remaining on his contract, it’s a $5.25-million cap hit and $6 million in actual salary. He also carries a full no-movement clause and might not be keen to join the perennially rebuilding Oilers.

Wideman is also 33, has a lengthy injury history and is now at best a second-pairing defenseman. Chiarelli could have younger and more affordable options in mind. (Source)

Alex Thomas

Dennis Wideman is not a sexy name anymore. His poor 2015-16 season and run in with an official have people afraid to even bring his name up. If we assume that Wideman simply had a down year last year, then he might be an option worth considering for Edmonton.

As a pending UFA with little trade value, the Oilers could acquire this player on the cheap. It’s also very possible, if not likely, that Calgary would be willing to eat some of the money remaining on this contract. If that were to happen, the Oilers could be getting a player that could present some exceptional value.

Dennis Wideman has a history of being a steady puck moving defender who can man the point on the powerplay. Currently, the Edmonton Oilers do not have a defender who can fill that role. Acquiring the right-shot defender likely won’t be met with much fanfare, but it could be an addition that pays dividends for the Oilers in 2016-17. (Source)

My Opinion

These days it’s hard to take a solid stance on Dennis Wideman. Is he the same player he was two years ago when he put up 15-41-56 in 80 games? How is he mentally after destroying that referee’s career? He’d most likely line up on the 3rd pairing, right? So let’s say he’s paired with Darnell Nurse, Jordan Oesterle, or Brandon Davidson; Is he going to be a drag on the games of Nurse and Oesterle? I don’t mention Davidson here because I think he’d be the one pushing that pairing.

And a common concern is the cost of acquiring Wideman. Some fans seem to think that a 7th rounder will do it, I disagree. He has one year left and any team adding Wideman to their roster will insist that the Flames eat 50% of his salary for the year. This I am certain of.

Alex Thomas, who is based in the Boston area, spent a good amount of time watching Wideman during his days in Boston and I’ll leave you with one last quote from his article,

In Boston, Wideman was a huge part of a Bruins defense that took the club from bottom feeder to contender in four short seasons.

What do you think? Even today, do you think there’s a chance the Oilers add right-handed defenseman Dennis Wideman? What would you pay the Flames to get him? Let us know in the comments below!

Click the pic to get this sweet tribute to ’87 tee!
Our tribute to the Team Canada of ’87! Click the pic to get yours!