There is a phrase Oiler fans have grown rather familiar with over the past half decade or more, and that is "the need for a right shooting puck moving defenseman who can quarterback the powerplay."
Here is why that is garbage.
Make no mistake the Oilers are in need of a right shot defenseman but the focus should be on a player who posts strong numbers at even strength and is a confident player in moving the puck up to the forwards.
McLellan was used to having Brett Burns and everything moved up through him. He might not have a Burns anymore but he has a McDavid. With Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl down the middle the Oilers have two very good players who are responsible for moving the puck from the neutral zone and into the offensive zone.
The idea of the booming right shot that splits the penalty killers and flies into the net at 110mph is similar to the idea of needing big physical players to protect your stars; it is a dying idea that has no place in the modern NHL.
It is much more important to have a defenseman on the PP who is able to move about quickly and fire off a quick accurate shot and the Oilers have that player.
His name is Oscar Klefbom.
Admittedly the sample size is small for Klefbom. He was utilized mostly on the second PP unit in 2015/2016 and played only 56:13 all season on the PP. In 2016/2017 he took over mid December on the top unit and in turn rewarded the team with that decision. With 206:24 With on the powerplay Klefbom had 16 points and found himself higher than the likes of Dougie Hamilton, Kris Letang, and Justin Faulk aka "the PP quarterbacks that Edmonton needs."
Last season Klefbom played through most of the season missing a shoulder and the powerplay was so laughably bad in every regard it is difficult to pin it on one player. After the Oilers finally shut Klefbom down for the season he received the surgery he needed and should be 100% this fall.
The Swift Current Broncos had the best powerplay in the WHL at 29.4% They were led by new Assistant Coach for the Oilers Manny Viveiros. I watched through a number of their games to gain some insight on how Viveiros used his players. Here are a couple of highlights from some of their powerplays.
A couple points to note:
- First off I love how active every player is in the powerplay. The whole team is in constant motion as therefore the PK unit has to work. Too many times last year we watched the Oilers in fixed position and the PK let them outplay themselves.
- Very rarely did I see cross ice passes. Most of the movement was done from behind the net to the next closest forward or cycling the puck as forwards and defense changed position. This limits the opportunities for takeaways or an errant stick breaking up the play.
- Shots were taken from all positions and overall the PP was governed by the forwards and not by the shot from the point.
Colby Sissons was the Broncos highest producing defenseman with 71 points and he scored 5 goals on the season on the powerplay. This was tied for first for defensemen with teammate Artyom Minulin.
The Broncos had a high producing powerplay because of forwards like Glenn Gawdin, Tyler Steenbergen, and Giorgio Estephan. The backend certainly played a key role but the whole unit was not quarterbacked by them.
The Oilers need to add another top four player on the backend and that player should be a right shot defenseman who is more offensive minded. However if management is valuing powerplay production more than even strength production or possession they will be severely missing the bigger picture.
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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