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Coyotes and Oilers Make A Big Splash |
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The Coyotes and Oilers have made a massive trade.
Prospect Kale Kessy has been dealt for prospect Tobias Rieder.
Alright, it's not that massive, but size doesn't matter, or so I've been told frequently.
Kessy was the 111th overall pick in the 2011 draft, Rieder the 114th in the same one. This is the kind of trade the experts debate about for ages.
Let's go over this deal.
Kessy is a grinder first and foremost. He's a big and strong winger who never quits and hits everything that moves. He can fight and is the stereotypical Western Canadian kid. The major issues are his skill level and if his skating can improve enough from glacier to three-toed sloth. At 6'3 230 he brings the kind of size that the Oilers brass are looking for what with their glut of young talented smallish forwards. This season Kessy showed a large amount of improvement in the offensive production especially with the stacked WHL champion challengers the Kamloops Blazers. His play in the playoffs has been very good playing on a line with some of the highest scoring players in the WHL (Colorado's Colin Smith and draft eligible JC Lipon). It's expected that he stays another season in the WHL as an overager. He's likely a 4th line crash and banger at best, though his net drive is a nice touch.
Rieder was likely made available because he's another small skilled forward. At 5'10 he's a slight player, but really quick and slippery. He's played the role of an all purpose winger for the Kitchener Rangers seeing time in all situation. After a rough transition in his rookie year in the OHL, Rieder has led the Rangers in points the past two seasons including leading the OHL playoff scoring race last year. He's a hard working forward who competes hard and goes to the hard areas despite his size. The major worry is whether he is skilled enough to translate his offense to the pro level or if he's destined more to a 3rd line role, one in which he's not ideal. We'll see how he turns out.
Overall I like the deal for both teams. The Coyotes lack scoring forwards in the pipeline boasting Lucas Lessio and Henrik Samuelsson at the top of a very poor list. The Oilers get a grinder prospect to go along with many of the others they've assembled in the hopes that a few become the guy they need to control that bottom-six. Hell it's a much better deal than the reverse that happened before the season when they traded Oscar Lindberg for Ethan Werek.
Thanks for reading.
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