Tag Archives: Griffin Reinhart

Edmonton Oilers, Michael Sifeldeen, NHL

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

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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.

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

Return of the… Oil King

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Yesterday Lowetide put out an article about Mark Pysyk called, “A Few Things About Mark Pysyk“. It got me thinking because I’ve been receiving a lot of messages regarding Nail Yakupov from my sources and what they’re telling me is that he’s gone but the destination is unclear. Which isn’t really news at all. As Oilers fans, we all pretty much know he’s never going to play another game for the Oilers. I’m sure we’ve all read Detroit, Montreal, Philadelphia, or Buffalo as possibilities but it’s still hearsay and we’re all going to have to wait until next weekend and see where he really goes.

AN OFFER

But for today, I wanted to talk about a potential swap that I worked out in my own twisted headbone. Which is the following (click their names to check out their contract status’):

To Buffalo – Nail Yakupov
To Edmonton – Mark Pysyk

The way I see it is that both of these players could use a change of scenery. The Sherwood Park native can’t seem to spend an entire season with the Sabres NHL club and Yak… Well he can’t seem to earn the trust of his GMs or coaches, past or present.

I think that Yakupov’s value is sitting somewhere in the 2nd-3rd round draft pick range. Not good. So getting a player back that was a first rounder himself (23rd overall in 2010) and has been marinating in the minors whilst getting cherry minutes and zone starts in Buffalo when he has turned out for the Sabres, could turn out to be a good deal for the Oilers.

On Twitter I put out a poll asking “How would you feel if Nail Yakupov were traded for Mark Pysyk?” and this is where it stands right now (6/19/2015 2:16pm Taipei Time):

  • 40% would be happy with the deal.
  • 7% would be devastated with it.
  • 23% don’t care.
  • 30% think OJ really did it.

It’s not as overwhelming as when Oilers fans were asked who they should draft in Yak’s draft year… Ask Stauffer about the numbers on that one or just wait until Yak is traded and he’ll bring it up on his show.

The bottom line is this. The Sabres would like to add a scoring RWer. In my opinion, it looks like they are going to try to relieve themselves of Zemgus Girgensons and move Sam Reinhart to the centre position next season and they need a sniper who could potentially fill a top 6 role.

Losing former Edmonton Oil King Captain Mark Pysyk would be a painless sacrifice as the Sabres have Zach Bogosian and Casey Nelson to fill in behind Rasmus Ristolainen with Chad Ruhwedel coming up through the pipeline on the right side.

In this scenario Pysyk would replace Mark Fayne. I’ve heard Fayne could get bought out but we won’t know for sure until something happens, right? So if we compare the two defensemen using Domenic Galamini’s HERO charts, they look like this:

@mimicohero www.ownthepuck.blogspot.ca

Fayne didn’t bring a lot to the table last year. As if you didn’t notice. But Pysyk is a definite upgrade in a third pairing and penalty killing role. A solid two-way defender who is cheap.

If you’d like to know more about Pysyk, click the link to Lowetide’s post at the top of the page. It’s really in-depth and well, Lowetide wrote it; so you can be assured that it’s thorough and his point is made very clearly. I’ll include Pysyk’s career stats below.

What do you think? Would you do the deal 1 for 1 line that or would you try to send Griffin Reinhart over and ask that Zemgus Girgensons be included? Maybe you’d prefer some swap of 1st rounders this year. Let me know in the comments below!

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

Exit Stage Left: Thinning Out the Herd

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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.

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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!

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Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

Is Griffin Reinhart Chiarelli’s First Mistake?

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Photo by Aaron Bell/CHL Images

As we now know, Griffin Reinhart has been reassigned to the Edmonton Oilers’ minor league affiliate in Bakersfield to make room for the return of Justin Schultz. My question is why was that decision made so easy? Apart from Reinhart still being on his entry level deal, why didn’t he make it harder for Chiarelli to send him down over Darnell Nurse or for Chiarelli to make a trade to accommodate the former 4th overall pick? Surely there was enough time for GR to make a meaningful impact. Is Reinhart all that his junior career and draft status has him cracked up to be? Or is he the next Jared Cowan?

Reinhart is very disappointing.  His results are last and pretty bad with the two main centers right now in RNH and The Deutschland Dangler.  His only CA/60 improvement comes with Lander who is the most marginal center on the team.  Given the price to acquire him, his draft number and the fact that this is his draft +4 year you cannot be happy with these results at all.   To my eye he is a decent Dman when he is “in the play”.  The problem is that he isn’t “in the play” enough due to poor skating and edge work.  His gaps are too big and he backs off the blue line too quickly to make up for his speed.  Down low his meh edge work makes him fairly easy to beat with quick movements.  This young man needs to spend all his free time on his skating and leg strength if he wants to have a NHL career.  He would have been fine in the 90’s.   Not so much in today’s ridiculously fast NHL.  Today he is not a NHL defenseman.

That came from Woodguy’s blog which you can read here. Pretty damning if you ask me.

Chiarelli gave up the no.16 and no.33 picks overall in last year’s draft to acquire Reinhart after seemingly being unable to come to a deal with his former team for Dougie Hamilton. We could probably also assume that a deal for Travis Hamonic also fell through at that same draft.

So those two picks turned out to become Matt Barzal and Charlie Stephens. Two centers for which the Oilers didn’t really need per say after drafting McDavid and Draisaitl but there were other players on the board at those spots that maybe the Oilers could’ve used like offensive defenseman Jeremy Roy or Thomas Chabot (who nearly made the Senators out of camp), goalies Mackenzie Blackwood or Ilya Samsonov, or what about skilled yet character filled forwards like Travis Konecny, Anthony Beauvillier, or Nick Merkley? That being said, one can never have enough elite centers.

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A combination of Matt Barzal, Colin White (who’s putting up Eichel-like numbers in BU this year), and Kyle Connor would’ve also gone a long way.

But if drafting players with those two picks was never in Chiarelli’s plans then why not a trade for a more experienced defenseman that could guide the team’s young blueliners. Not another young player that we’ll be waiting another season or two for? A first rounder and an early second is a very enticing offer at the draft for a GM that is looking to relieve the team of some salary.

Now we know that Griffin Reinhart looks to be a very promising middle to bottom pairing defender right now. We’ve been privy to flashes of his potential so far but my argument is that that timing of this deal and the target was misdirected. The Oilers didn’t need more youth. Did we know that GR would be so slow to adapt to the NHL game, not really. He didn’t exactly light it up last seson. But was it a consideration, of course. The last thing the Oilers need is another slow moving bottom pairing blueliner though. Of course David Musil is apparently having a helluva season in Bakersfield, so one has to wonder if foot speed isn’t THAT big of an issue and Reinhart takes a step back, will that open the door for a different defenseman to step on through.

What we hope is that this is a blip on the radar and like most good defenseman that have long and storied careers in the NHL, they rarely trend upwards in a straight line. Peaks and valleys my friends, peaks and valleys. Here’s to more peaks than valleys with young Griffin.

This was just something that was playing on my mind when I woke up. Let me know how you feel in the comments below!

Take Care!

BLH

Edmonton Oilers, Edmonton Oilers Post Game Report, NHL, Rob Cooke

BLH Post Gamer: G2 – Edmonton Oilers vs Nashville Predators

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The second game of the 2015/16 season is in the books and the boys are still in search of their first win. The game was another Western conference match-up The Edmonton Oilers vs Nashville Predators was the second of a three game road-trip to start the season. The game started roughly the same as Thursdays contest with our guys needing the first few minutes to get their legs moving. That is definitely a habit that Todd McLellan and his coaching staff will need to rectify in one heck of a hurry.

In the first period the Oilers were out shot eight to four and couldn’t get a lot going in the offensive zone. This is a trend that I don’t see continuing. Edmonton will eventually find their game and the offense will come. It just depends on how long it is going to take to happen. After the first the Oilers took control of the game for the final forty minutes. They out-shot the Predators 23 to 12 in the final two frames and had the lions share of scoring chances to my eye.

Unfortunately the scoring chances that are important are the two that Nashville managed to convert on. The game winning goal scored late in the second period was one that never should have happened. There is no way that Andrej Sekera should have chosen to use a half-assed hip check instead of playing the puck or taking the body. That goal against is on him entirely, if the team is going to continue to give the opposition free rein in our zone then they are going to make us pay for it.

The second goal was actually even worse than the first. I have two issues with said goal. First why the hell would Ference attempt the rebound off the boards like that instead of just hammering it around the boards to keep it out of the danger area? That is a pretty bad rookie mistake. Secondly what was Todd McLellan thinking when he dressed Ference in the first place? I get that they need to see what he really has left in the tank but what on God’s green earth would possess Todd to take out arguably the best defender we had in-game one in favour of the elder statesman? Can anyone answer me that one?

Cam Talbot has arrived as advertised and has kept both games a lot closer than most would have predicted they would be. On every goal he has allowed this season there has been some sort of additional factor that places the blame squarely on someone else’s shoulder. He looks legit and I am very stoked to have him here!

Last game Madison unveiled the Three Beer League Heroes of the game and as such I will continue the trend.

  1. Pekka Rinne – The guy had a 31 save shut-out. What else needs to be said. He is one of the five best goalies in the league and he showed it tonight folks.
  2. Taylor Hall –  I know a lot of people have deemed Hallsy as the goat this season but for me he was flying tonight. He had nine shots on the night and nearly set up the equalizer on the waived off RNH goal in the third. He led the team with 24:18 played and had a couple of seconds over six minutes on the power-play.
  3. Filip Forsberg – Scored the second Predators goal on an errant pass from Andrew Ference. At least I think it was supposed to be a pass, not exactly sure what Andy was doing there.

Along with the Three Heroes of the night we are also giving out the much-anticipated golden plunger. This revered porcelain powerhouse is given out to the one player that best exemplified someone going number two.

Tonight I fully want to give this award to Andrew Ference for his complete lapse in judgement that resulted in the second goal against but I am having a very hard time looking past the play of our supposed top defender, Andrej Sekera. We all know that Ference didn’t play well but who really expected him to? Sekera on the other hand was brought in because he was supposed to lead the defense until players like Nurse and Klefbom prove ready to take the reins. The first goal was entirely on him and had he done something other than try a lame attempt at a hip check then the outcome could have been vastly different.

Again the team is improving and it is going to take time but they are heading in the right direction. Cam Talbot is keeping them in the games and that is all that we can ask for from him. We have hung in well against teams that have traditionally beaten up on our team and even pushed back some. That is music to this Oilers fan. Obviously I would like to see a different end result but it will come soon enough people.

I wrote a post on my site yesterday urging fans to keep calm. It is only the second game people and there are some very nice indicators to be sure! If you need the reassurance then head over to www.justoil.net and check it out!

Thanks for reading folks, throw me a follow on twitter, @justoil78 and let me know what you think the future will hold for the Oilers!

 

McDavid be with you!

Rob