Last night the Oilers made it official. After they traded Nail Yakupov for a half-eaten PopTart, the Oilers used the cap space plus a little extra to sign left shooting defender Kris Russell to a $3.1 million dollar deal.
Once again, if you told me that this was the summer the Oilers parted ways with their advanced stats analyst, I’d say “Yeah. That makes sense.”
The Edmonton Oilers were a team so broken with regards to the Lefty-Right ratio on defense that they had to trade Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson. Signing Russell almost certainly means it’s Fayne on the outside when everyone is healthy. That brings the Oilers back to a point where they once again only have one right shot defender in their top six. One!
This morning he is paired with Sekera and playing the right side. We’ll circle around back to that later.
Kris Russell’s biggest claim to success in the NHL was highlighted by the Oilers themselves: he blocks shots. He blocks LOTS of shots. Last year he blocked the 2nd most number of shots in the NHL (210) and he only played 62 games. He had the highest number of blocked shots per game in the NHL for anyone who played more than 5 games last season. Over the last 4 seasons he is tops in the NHL for blocked shots with 751 (next closest 678). He has the highest rate of blocked shots at 3.1 per game (next closest NHL regular was 2.6 per game).
What I’m getting at is Kris Russell blocks a lot of shots. There is absolutely no denying that he is on the ice for a lot of shot attempts against and he happens to be hit by them very often. I mean, he is the Pele of letting the opposition shoot the puck on net. Nobody does it better and it isnt close.
Over the last four seasons Kris Russell has played 4345:28 5v5 in the NHL. During that time 184 defenders have played at least 2000 5v5 minutes. Here is where Russell Ranks for a variety of categories:
CF% - 177th 44.5% - Comparables are Nick Holden, Josh Gorges, Chris Butler, Dion Phaneuf
CF/60 – 156th 50.56/60 – Comparables are Clayton Stoner, Rob Scuderi, Nick Grossman, Andre Benoit
CA/60 – 181st 62.96/60 – Comparables are Nate Guenin, Morgan Rielly, Dennis Wideman, Rasmus Ristolainen
OZFO% - 45th 33.5% - Comparables are Kyle Quincey, Kevan Miller, Jared Spurgeon, Duncan Keith
P/60 – 138th 0.59 P/60 – Comparables are Roman Polak, Patrick Wierciosh, Nate Guenin, Barret Jackman
Over the last four seasons his top 4 D partners have been Wideman, Hamilton, Brodie, and Butler and in Dallas his most common partner was Goligoski. Here is what those partners looked like with Kris Russell and without him in terms of shot attempts.
With Russell Without Russell
Wideman 44.2% 45.7%
Hamilton 45.0% 54.7%
Brodie 43.2% 49.6%
Butler 39.6% 45.6%
Goligoski 45.7% 54.4%
There’s a disturbing trend with Kris Russell’s numbers. They show that his partners do significantly better without him than with him and over the long term he has shown to be one of the worst defenders in the NHL when it comes to moving the puck in the right direction. That he also further complicates the handedness ratio is only the icing on this poorly baked cake.
As much grief as Nail Yakupov took, he wasn’t actively hurting the Oilers on the 3rd line. Kris Russell on the 2nd pairing may actually hurt Edmonton.
LINEUP
Davidson and Gryba weren’t on the ice this morning. Caggiula and Versteeg are still banged up.
Lucic McDavid Eberle
Pouliot RNH Draisaitl
Maroon Lander Puljujarvi
Pitlick Letestu Kassian
Klefbom Larsson
Sekera Russell
Nurse Fayne
Talbot
Gustavsson
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Game Shape. Kris Russell has been skating with the Red Deer Rebels but he hasn’t played a meaningful game since he blew Dallas’ playoff hopes last Spring. This is the last preseason game for the Oilers and Russell has to use every shift to shake rust off and get used to playing the right side. It’s going to take some getting used to, seeing the puck move the wrong direction when number 4 is on the ice. He has a lot of people to prove wrong tonight and this season. He’s being paid about double what her should and only for 1 season. If he wants another contract he’s going to need to be better than he’s ever been before.
2) Drai To Wing. This game is going to feature Draisaitl at RW with Nugent-Hopkins as his center. That line has been underwhelming with Puljujarvi. It didn’t seem like a good fit to have an NHL rookie line up with RNH as they take on tougher assignments. Now this line has more maturity on it. Draisaitl has performed very well as a winger in the past. The team will get a glimpse into how much flexibility they have with the lines after tonight, though Leon has played down the middle in every game so far. Lander gets the 3C position now. I wont go so far as to say this is his last chance. He already failed his last chance. That spot is Caggiulas if the Oilers want Draisaitl on wing to start the season. This is *probably* Puljujarvi’s last chance to show chemistry with anyone and get a chance to play in October. He has not done anything to suggest he’s NHL ready.
3) Faster Than Light. Connor McDavid has transcendent talent. The Oilers are so insanely lucky to have won that lottery. In the last game he showed how lethal he can be on the Power Play and the Penalty Kill. He made an outside-in move with the puck to change the angle and score on the PP. On the PK he showed why NHL defenders are going to fear keeping the puck in at the point with 97 on the ice. He poked it free and his breakaway speed did the rest. On both goals he opted to shoot rather than try his deke move. He’s going to score 100+ points this year.
Puck drops tonight at 7PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet 360. Game On!
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