The Oilers have picked up Adam Clendening on waivers this morning.
Clendening is a Right Shot mobile defender with offensive instincts but questionable defensive abilities. He’s a 23 year old, 6 foot, 190 pound rearguard who has bounced around 4 other NHL franchises before making his way to Edmonton. He was drafted 36th Overall in 2011 by the Blackhawks, 5 picks after the Oilers took David Musil.
Clendening spent 2 years at Boston University where Peter Chiarelli would have had the chance to see him as a developing player. After the Hawks took him he joined the Rockford IceHogs where he eventually produced at an elite level for a defenseman. His best year was 2013-2014 where he played 74GP, 12-47-59 with 64 PIMs.
Since then he was traded to Vancouver for Gustav Forsling (?). Vancouver traded him to Pittsburgh in the Sutter trade. Then the Penguins traded him to the Ducks in the Perron/Hagelin deal. Most recently the Ducks started to get healthy players back and were forced to put Clendening on waivers.
His NHL numbers are nothing to write home about. He’s played in only 30 NHL games and produced only 1 goal and 4 assists.
However, there’s every chance that he plays significantly more minutes with the Oilers than he did in Pittsburgh. The Penguins only played Clendening more than 15 minutes one time in the 9 games he suited up for the them.
Not that the sample size is particularly large, but Clendening had the 2nd highest Corsi For percentage on the Penguins blueline at 53.5%. In the year before with Vancouver, Clendening had the 4th highest Corsi For percentage at 49.9%.
The very little information that we do have about his shot attempt numbers suggests that at the very least the puck moves in the right direction better with Clendening on the ice. The Oilers need that, but they also need him to produce offensively the way everyone hoped he would when he was crushing it with Chicago’s AHL club.
Clendening’s arrival raises lots of questions about Edmonton’s defense moving out. It’s no secret that the right-side of the defense is one of Edmonton’s biggest weaknesses. This move suggests that there might be something in the works. The arrival of Clendening has to be a wake-up call to Justin Schultz in particular.
The Oilers just went out and got an American College trained, puck moving, 6 foot, 190 pound, former 2nd round pick, defensively questionable defenseman they think can help offensively. If Jultz doesn’t see that the team is hoping to replace him cheaply then he’s blind.
Follow me on Twitter @Archaeologuy