This afternoon the Oilers signed Zack Kassian to a 1 year, 1.5 million dollar deal, keeping the agitating winger with the club. It’s a deal that Kassian would later say he was thrilled to sign, even though a qualifying offer to the RFA would have been roughly 2 million dollars.
This past season for Kassian might best be described as “transitional”. The agitating winger with a nasty mean-streak started the year with the Montreal Canadiens but that ended before it even had time to begin. The car accident in the early hours of the morning that left him with a broken foot exposed his addiction issues in a way that made even the NHL’s lax intervention program jump to action.
As Kassian focused on changing his life, the Canadiens focused on changing their goaltending. They banked on the idea that Ben Scrivens’ struggles stemmed from playing behind the AHL blueline of the Oilers. They swapped their troubled winger for Edmonton’s shell-shocked netminder.
I’m inclined to say the Oilers won the deal, but it’s not as if Kassian lit the world on fire wearing blue and orange. He started off strong in terms of his speed and ability to get under the skin of the opposition, but his lack of game-conditioning caught up with him. He finished the season with a disappointing 3-5-8 in 36 games (18 point pace over 82 games) and that includes a frightful 1 point in his last 12 games.
If PIMs were worth points in your fantasy league, then Kassian helped you out. If you had to actually kill those penalties then…maybe not. Even though he played in just 36 games this year, Kassian picked up 32 more PIMs than the next closest Oiler player. He finished with 114 penalty minutes.
Kassian’s calling card is getting under the opposition’s skin, but he had a terrible penalty differential. It’s something he alluded to: he needs to be the one causing the frustration, not the one giving in to it. The rate at which he took penalties was unprecedented in his career. He picks up PIMs, but not like that. You have to think his lack of conditioning played a factor there as well.
For these reasons above, it makes sense for the Oilers to shave some money off of Kassian’s deal and not to commit long term. He had an objectively down year. What makes it a solid gamble for the Oilers is that Kassian has a history of providing more than what he did in 2015-2016.
Over the three years before this with the Canucks, Kassian has averaged 1.67 points per 60 minutes during 5v5 play. This season he averaged 1.13 points per 60 minutes. On a healthy Oiler team he ought to be playing on the 3rd line with either Pouliot or Maroon on his line and hopefully a better center than Letestu moving forward. There’s reason to believe he can bounce back.
Kassian’s life is still in transition and with total honesty I hope he stays healthy and clean more than I hope he regains his previous form on the ice. That said, having a 6’3”, 215 pound winger who isn’t afraid to get in people’s faces (or break them *spits*) who can play in the middle 6 but gets paid like a 4th liner won’t hurt the Oilers much next year.
Follow me on Twitter @Archaeologuy
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»