NEW DEALS
Word broke this morning from the Oilers that they have agreed to 1 year extensions with Rob Klinkhammer and Ryan Hamilton. Bob Stauffer reported that Klinkhammer’s deal is a bargain 725k and Hamilton’s is a 2 way deal. This news sounds fantastic, actually. Klinkhammer has been a very good addition for the Oilers. A throw in on the Perron deal, he has meshed well with Gordon and Hendricks and brings a lot of speed and physicality. At 6’3… and 215 pounds
While playing with Gordon, the duo have a Corsi For percentage of 39.4% but you have to also take into consideration the fact that they also only get 12.7% Offensive Zone faceoffs. His line is fed Defensive Zone draws at an alarming rate and they are still doing a stellar job of negating scoring chances against really tough competition. It’s a good deal for the Oilers and one that should keep its hardest working (and most successful in their role) line together.
Ryan Hamilton is obviously a Nelson guy and while he’s soaking up minutes on a line with Roy and Yak, he’s still just a placeholder. I don’t have a lot of strong feelings for the guy one way or the other. He’s older at 29 and will probably always be just an AHL vet who can spot in during an injury situation, but his deal reflects that.
I do wonder if the Oilers committing to Ryan Hamilton might be telegraphing a move to commit to Todd Nelson. No doubt the guy’s biggest supporter was the Oilers’ Interim Head Coach. Ryan Hamilton was initially thought of as an Eakins guy, but it’s been Nelson giving him the biggest push in the NHL. It could mean nothing at all, but the team will be making decisions on Pitlick, Curtis Hamilton, Fraser and a load of other AHL players but Ryan Hamilton being first might very well indicate something….or nothing at all. What do I know?
NEW TALKS
The other day Ryan Rishaug announced that the Oilers had just recently reached out to Jeff Petry’s camp to possibly talk about an extension. This was a new development as the Oilers had previously not talked to Petry about an extension as per what I had heard and as reported by Jim Matheson of the Journal. It’s better late than never and that’s at least something. So when MacTavish says something like this:
#Oilers GM Craig MacTavish on pending free agent @PetryJ: "I've had many conversations over the last four weeks with (his agent)."
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) February 20, 2015I’m not inclined to believe them at their word. Technically that might be true that they spoke with Petry’s agent, but Petry was told in those talks he was going to be traded. There was no talk of re-signing him until extremely recently. So it’s a bit of misdirection there from the Oilers GM.
By now though, Petry has been under the impression he would be traded and it might be difficult to convince him now not to hit the open market in July. MacT rightfully said today that Petry’s game is at a level it never has been before. That’s absolutely true. He hasn’t been this consistent until this year. He was though, still Edmonton’s best defender before he ramped his game up further.
In any case, I think the damage is done and it’s just too little too late from the Oilers to make any real in-roads with Petry at this time.
MacTavish said his plans include Gordon and Hendricks, which is fantastic because there had been some chatter about possibly sending one of those two out at the deadline. Instead MacTavish says he would be looking to potentially add people who can fill roles for the team. I’m not sure what exactly that means except to say that if he loses Petry he will probably try to add someone who can be a placeholder for him. To me there are enough role-players and they need difference makers.
MacT also finally gave Todd Nelson some credit for the Oilers’ recent turn-around, albeit also adding that improved personnel has helped too. That transitioned into giving Derek Roy credit for stabilizing things a bit too. The GM said the plan with Roy is to for the team to establish a relationship with him over the coming weeks and talk more in the post-season about the possibility of a contract.
When asked about moving Hall/RNH/Eberle his words were “You can’t trade your way out of this.… That to me is good news because I think the Oilers would likely lose any deal involving those two, but it also means the Blueline will develop at a snail’s pace barring UFA acquisitions that transform its high end.
LINEUP
Injuries continue to pile up for the Oilers as Anton Lander has been placed on the IR because of his shoulder. There’s still no word on the severity of the injury, but no promising Oiler is complete without mandatory shoulder surgery. The Oilers have also recalled Jordan Oesterle up from their AHL affiliate. The young puck mover has had a good rookie pro season with 21 points in 49 AHL games. It seems clear to me that Nelson is working his guys into the mix now and Keith Aulie has fallen out of the favour he never should have received in the first place. Jeff Petry was injured by a puck to the ribs in the last game but it sounds like it isn’t a significant injury and he should bounce back soon enough. He even took the morning skate so he might even play. I anticipate Hendricks will move to center for the time being.
UPDATE: Pouliot will play at Center tonight. My lines are getting messy.
Purcell RNH Eberle Hamilton Roy Yakupov Hendricks Gordon Klinkhammer Gazdic Pouliot Pakarinen
Ference Aulie Klefbom Schultz Marincin Fayne
Scrivens
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) The White Whale. Devan Dubnyk is the awesome natural force that we want to destroy so badly but will tragically be our undoing. Dubnyk sank the Oilers once before and this tale of unfulfilled revenge has seen the team go mad as they attempt to kill the beast. The former Oiler goaltender has won all 4 games he’s played against his old squad and allowed just 4 goals total that whole time. He has transformed the Wild into a dominant team going 11-2 with them so far. Unbelievable. Call me Ishmael.
2) Eberlasting Love. During the first 3 months of the season Eberle played 37 games and managed just 21 points. He looked disinterested or potentially injured because he just didn’t have any fire to his game. He wasn’t reaching top gear ever. Those 3 months were before Nelson took over the team save for 1 game in December. Between January and February Jordan Eberle has played 21 games and has 20 points. Nelson has this guy playing like an offensive star again. As big of a turnaround as we’ve seen in Yak, that’s what we’ve seen in Eberle too.
3) Scrivens Gets Consistent. Ben Scrivens has put together stretches of 3 games or more in a row of above .900 goaltending only 3 times this year and he is currently sitting on back to back games in the .920’s. For me you still have a chance to win if you’re at .900 but going below that is a death knell. Between January 11 and January 31 he played 5 games and 4 of them were below .880! His recent uptick is nice but he needs to re-establish a level of consistency.
Puck drops tonight at 7:08 PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet Oilers. Tank On!