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Oilers Get Fraser From The Leafs For Harski And Abney |
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So there you have it, the Edmonton Oilers indeed have gone out and acquired Mark Fraser from the Maple Leafs for Cam Abney and Teemu Hartikainen. The Oilers finally get the top pairing defensemen they always wanted and the Leafs get bigger and grittier and more Finnish…JK the Oilers get a depth defenseman who was going to be placed on Waivers and the Leafs get a fistful of promises.
WHAT HAVE THE OILERS GIVEN UP?
Let’s start with Cam Abney. The Oilers selected Cam Abney in the 3rd Round (82) in the 2009 Entry Draft, wasting a selection that could have actually been used to select an actual hockey player. You see, Cam Abney is, at best, a stick optional player and might actually be MORE effective without one because he would probably just try to get out of people’s way in that situation. As a semi-regular at the ECHL level he has 5 points in 24 games.
The Leafs get a face puncher for their ECHL club who will NEVER play for the NHL club outside of potentially a single Pre-Season game.
Still on the board after the Oilers took Abney? Kevin Connauton and Cody Eakin. The Oilers wanted size and toughness and Cody Eakin was shorter and slight. Eakin has appeared in 132 NHL games. Cameron Abney has size and Toughness. *Sigh*
In Teemu Hartikainen the Oilers gave up a much more promising young player. Hartikainen was given every opportunity to seize a starting job in the NHL with the Oilers but just wasn’t ready to do it. He struggled with consistency, particularly with his physical game. He’s a stocky 214lb player in a 6’1” frame who CAN play like a wrecking ball, but not often enough in the eyes of most who watched him.
In his final AHL season he had 37 points in 47 games, so he does have some hands, albeit nothing spectacular. He has 27 points in 43 KHL games this year and will be finishing his season in the K. He is a good bet to win a 4th line job with the Leafs in the future, if they decide to use actual Hockey players, and he could potentially move up to the 3rd line.
The Oilers and Teemu Hartikainen were not going to come to an agreement so why not let him move on? I always liked Harski’s potential more than what he actually brought to the table and I think Edmonton wasn’t willing to bet on that potential any longer.
WHAT DID THE OILERS GET?
Mark Fraser is a 6’4” 220lb Defenseman who likely isn’t more than a 6/7 guy in the lineup. He has a single point and has appeared in just 19 games with the Leafs, but the Oilers didn’t go out and get him because of his puck moving ability. Should it surprise anyone that Edmonton picked up a huge physical defender after the big San Jose Sharks beat them up for 100 shot attempts?
Fraser, by all accounts, is a Fringe NHLer who could just as easily end up with the Barons by the end of the year as play on the bottom pairing for the Oilers. What does Fraser do well? If you are inclined to believe that these things are a positive then you can feel some comfort in the fact that he throws a lot of hits and blocks a lot of shots.
Even though he’s only appeared in 19 Leafs games he has 66 hits and 51 blocked shots! He’s 6th on the Leafs in Blocked Shots and everyone else has played 30 more games than him. That’s a big number. Of course you could also take that to mean that he doesn’t have the puck a lot and the play is consistently in his zone while he’s on the ice. Cheers!
Now Toronto is a Corsi nightmare as a team but Fraser doesn’t look good even compared to the rest of his teammates. The only Leaf Defenseman with a worse Corsi% is Gunnarsson as Fraser sits at a 41.6% (Nick Schultz has the same number). Breaking the Corsi% into For and Against there actually isn’t anyone worse on the Leafs D in terms of giving up shot attempts than Fraser. He bleeds shots against at a rate of 23 shots per 20 minutes played (Nick Schultz is 20.6 per 20 minutes).
SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
Eakins is familiar with this player from his time in the Marlies and he will get every chance to show what he has, I believe. Someone will need to either go on IR or be reassigned to the Barons to fit him in the lineup and I think that person will be Philip Larsen. Larsen has some skills out there but he looked like a teenager skating with men against the Sharks.
Looking into the Crystal Ball a bit here, Fraser is a Left Shooting D-man and when Ference gets back into the lineup it will be Nick Schultz on the left side who should be on the outside looking in. That said, I think Nick Schultz is a better player than Fraser. My best guess is that N. Schultz is a goner at either the Olympic Deadline or the Trade Deadline and Fraser is the depth needed to make it through the season.
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