Follow @SMaloughney On November 16th the Oilers announced they had made a trade which sent Ryan Strome to New York in exchange for Ryan Spooner. The hope was that Spooner, a more offensive minded winger/centre would provide some much needed scoring to the Oilers top 6 while sacrificing some defensive play. The latter has certainly happened while we are still waiting for anything of the former.
Through his first 5 games with Edmonton he has 0 points and managed just a paltry 4 shots on goal total. He has been on the ice for 5 even strength goals, 1 goal on the Oilers power-play and has yet to even have a foot on the ice for an Oilers goal. None of these facts scream NHL player, let alone top 6 forward.
Next we have to examine how he has affected his linemates. All the numbers from the chart below were taken from NaturalStatTrick and are based off 5on5 numbers
Spooner has spent most of his time so far playing with Ryan Nugent Hopkins and Alex Chiasson on the second line. The three players together have failed to produce any points. Worse than that they have been a detriment, getting caved in scoring chances against, failing to produce any quality chances.
A sidebar that while Chiasson has been pleasant surprise, notching another 2 goals last night he too has been a detriment to Nugent Hopkins production, albeit not nearly as poor as Spooner. Aside from Draisaitl, McDavid, and Nuge this team still is void of any top 6 talent.
Last night Hitchcock decided to test Spooner with McDavid and Draisaitl and see how he would fair. At first glance the possession numbers suggest this could be a trio that could work...except it really doesn’t.
The trio failed to produce anything together, and it was only after Spooner was off the ice that McDavid got on the scoresheet. As far as possession goes the trio did spend a large portion of the game hemming the LA defence in their own end and during all that time Spooner did not register a single shot on net.
Meanwhile in New York….
Once again Chiarelli has misread this roster, moving out a player that was not an issue and in turn he created a worse hole while still failing to address the original issue. The Oilers are a wreck aside from the production of Draisaitl, RNH, McDavid, and Chiasson. I would not be surprised if Spooner was a buyout candidate after this season.
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HEXTALL FIRED I posted this little gem right after the Flyers announced they had fired GM Ron Hextall
Hextall's Flyers have a record of 10-11-2, 22 points and are 4-4-2 in their last 10.
— Sean Maloughney (@SMaloughney) November 26, 2018
Chiarelli's Oilersalso have a record of 10-11-2, 22 points and are 2-7-1 in their last 10.
One of these teams has Connor McDavid.
Fire Chiarelli. https://t.co/EgmYy39F1M
Last night Edmonton made the last place LA Kings look like a legitimate team. No Hitchcock, Quenneville, Babcock, or MacTavish is going to fix what ails this franchise. Katz and Co need to get the new GM in place immediately before the current one does something else insane to try and save his own skin.