On Easter Sunday a report surfaced from Russia that Nail Yakupov had requested a trade from the Edmonton Oilers. As per the report, he was able to speak to 8 teams to work out interest in a deal but something went wrong and no deal materialized.
Here's a longer excerpt from that Yakupov article translated into English, via @AlexSerenRosso: https://t.co/swbKk44ZNB
— Jonathan Willis (@JonathanWillis) March 28, 2016
This news is ultimately unsurprising given how things have turned out in Edmonton with the former 1st Overall pick. The marriage between the two parties was rocky from the beginning. While Nail Yakupov was the consensus number 1 player from the 2012 NHL Draft by no less than three major scouting services, there were very loud rumblings that the Oilers wanted to go after defenseman Ryan Murray.
It was speculated upon very heavily that the choice to draft Yakupov was eventually mandated by none other than Darryl Katz himself. This account of the 2012 Draft has remained the undenied, unofficial, official story here in Edmonton and hasn’t really changed over time. For those wondering if it’s true, at the very least it isn’t false enough to have ever been denied.
As a quick aside, that makes any retroactive pining for Jacob Trouba or Alex Galchenyuk a complete waste of time. The choice was always going to be either Yakupov or Murray.
Nail Yakupov did a lot in his first year with the Oilers to endear himself to the team and the fans. He moved to Edmonton with his family in tow, showed off his exuberant (almost puppy-like) personality, and lead the team in goal-scoring. In fact, he won the NHL rookie scoring race that year as well. He had a big shot, a big personality, and seemed (still does) like a genuinely good kid.
That’s when things start to go off the rails.
The Oilers fired Ralph Krueger by Skype while he was in Europe, hired Dallas Eakins to be his replacement, and one of the first players to be made an example of under the new regime was Nail Yakupov. Despite leading the team in goal-scoring the year before, Yak was relegated to the 3rd line. Completely ill-suited to the game played by a bad NHL team’s 3rd line, Nail Yakupov’s game became completely lost.
He wasn’t scoring goals. He wasn’t pulling his weight defensively. He wasn’t getting any job done. There was most definitely something lost in translation between what Krueger had been asking him to do as a rookie and what Eakins wanted him to do in his sophomore year. And that was the greatest knock on Yakupov. He gained a very lasting reputation as a poor defensive player. It’s one that still is quoted today, even though he has improved by leaps and bounds.
As a reminder, early into the Eakins tenure, there was an incident with agent Igor Larionov coming to Edmonton, presumably to ask if the plan was to move Nail or not. That situation was dealt with relatively efficiently considering it could have blown up then.
It wasn’t until Eakins was replaced by Todd Nelson that Yakupov started looking like an impact player again. He finished the year strongly with a coach that believed in him and a center in Derek Roy who wanted to make him the focus of his line.
This year Nail Yakupov got his chance to play with Connor McDavid early and was an easy fit with McDavid. On the same line Yak had enough speed to not lag too far behind and enough wherewithal to make sure he got the puck to McDavid in the neutral zone early and often. Unfortunately, the offense evaporated after McDavid went down to injury and Yak was once again relegated to the 3rd line. Then a linesman did his best UFC takedown on Yakupov which took him out of the lineup for 2 months.
Nail Yakupov’s underlying shot metrics are significantly improved this year over what they had been in previous years. By eye he’s also making a lot more plays in the defensive zone to break up possession for the opposition and move the puck in the right direction. His reputation remains poor in the DZ but it’s likely the next team that gets him will be surprised in a good way in that regard.
The biggest problem Yak has is that he looks very much like a complementary player. He cannot drive offense from the bottom 6. It’s too much of the chicken or the egg with him. He cant earn his way to the top 6 with his offense until he’s in the top 6. He produces at an acceptable level when he has a solid C to play with. Without one he’s very ineffective in the OZ.
That’s not easy for me to write because I am and always will be a Yakupov fan. I love his personality. I think he’s been given a bad reputation without the chance to earn a good one back. He’s always been one mistake away from heading back to the 3rd line. As far as 1st overall picks go, he’s as close to an underdog as we’re ever going to get.
It seems his future in Edmonton is done. Personally, I think he can be a very useful and inexpensive option to fill out one of the top 2 lines. He looks good with Hall and Draisaitl just as he looks good with McDavid. At 2.5M per season that’s beneficial.
That wont matter, I imagine. I wish him the best of luck for the rest of the year and I hope he lands somewhere like Carolina that could use a cheap winger with the ability to shoot it like he can. I doubt Edmonton will get very much for him. Maybe they can use him in a package to get something they need (defense, defense, defense), but at this point I really don’t care.
LINEUP
Hall Draisaitl Yakupov Maroon McDavid Eberle Korpikoski Letestu Pakarinen Hendricks Lander Kassian
Sekera Fayne Reinhart Oesterle Nurse Clendening
Talbot
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Marooned. Patrick Maroon is playing his old club tonight and that’s going to geek him up. The Ducks are, somehow, paying 25% of Maroon’s salary as a result of the trade that brought him here. He has been everything the Oilers wanted and more since coming over to Edmonton. He played 56 games with the Ducks going 4-9-13 with them this year and has since played 12 games with the Oilers going 5-6-11 riding shotgun to Connor McDavid. The Oilers wanted to get bigger, more physical, and nastier in their top 6. They are only paying Maroon 1.5M for the next two seasons. Even if he regresses back to being a 3rd or 4th liner he wont be overpayed. This deal is Chiarelli’s biggest win so far and I imagine Maroon wants to show the Ducks what kind of a mistake they made.
2) Professional Refereeing. I don’t take this space to vent about the state of NHL refereeing very often but I’ll take the opportunity right now. Whatever the heck that was against the Kings, wasn’t NHL refereeing. That was something out of the WWE. The officials in question were wholly incompetent at best and at worst they were involved in a criminal act. I have never in my life seen a more obvious case of goaltender interference than when Lucic slew-footed Laurent Brossoit. The fact that it wasn’t called immediately on the ice speaks to the level of ineptitude we are dealing with. However, the fact that the call wasn’t made after the benefit of the coach’s challenge was mind-boggling. On every other night against every other team, that goal is getting called back. The HNIC studio panel is right to speculate that if that is a valid call then goaltenders are going to be run on a nightly basis.
3) Yak City. Pressure is on starting tonight for Nail Yakupov. Everyone knows the trade request was made. Anyone who is willing to pay attention will be doing so now. The last 4 games arent enough to really sway anyone, I imagine. It’s still going to take a leap of faith by one of the other teams to make a deal for the Russian winger. Nevertheless all eyes will be on him. Just do something memorable, kid. He really has looked just fine alongside Hall and Draisaitl. He plays the role of the digger as the high-man in the DZ. He gets the puck to Hall or Draisaitl then goes to the front of the net. Along with his ability to carry the puck in the OZ he can often create havoc with defenders. I quite like it, as short lived as it will be.
Puck drops tonight at 7PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet West. Game On!
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