The Oilers announced yesterday that they have retained the services of AHL players Andrew Miller and Brad Hunt to 1 year deals.
Both players factored large into OKC’s success in the AHL and both moonlit for the Oilers at times in the past year. Miller was nearly a point per game in the AHL this past season and Hunt wasn’t far off the mark either as a Defenseman. The two players will be 27 years old when the 2015-2016 season begins.
One year deals for the both of them are fair for players their age. I think they have supporters in the organization like MacTavish who saw both of them and advocated on their behalf. Neither player strictly fits with the vision that Peter Chiarelli has been slowly confirming with each new interview he gives, which is a heavier Edmonton Oilers team that is more physically competitive.
HUNT
Brad Hunt, to me, is the more surprising of the two players retained. He is clearly an elite AHL defender, so it’s not as if the Bakersfield Condors couldn’t use him next year, but it’s more that we’ve seen him be completely overwhelmed in his own end at the NHL level. He has an NHL caliber shot and can move the puck up the ice a little, but he when he and Justin Schultz didn’t have the puck last year things quickly devolved.
The other thing working against Hunt is that the Oilers have other prospects they might (should) want to feed 1PP minutes to next year from their stable of young blueliners. Be it Oesterle, Laleggia, or Nurse (for however short amount of time he might be down there) the Oilers have prospects at the D positions. Considering the fact that the AHL season for the Pacific teams is going to be fewer than 70 games, you would think the focus would be on the development of younger players.
Then again, the Oilers will want to make the Condors as successful as possible in their debut as Edmonton’s AHL affiliate (previously a successful ECHL franchise) and Hunt is an AHL All-Star. He might never be a full time NHLer, but he is one hell of player at the AHL level and I would wager that he would excel in Europe.
MILLER
Miller is a different story for me. I think it’s a lot easier to deal with the problem of being a smaller player as a forward than as a defenseman. Miller is also below average NHL height and weight, but he was faster than I expected in his call-up and creative offensively.
Without question I think he would be a better option on the 3rd line than the likes of Matt Fraser, Tyler Pitlick, or any of the others we saw take a cup of coffee with the Oilers last season. He registered 6 points in 9 games with the Oilers (albeit playing with Hall 5v5) and 60 points in 63 games with the Barons. At 27 we are likely seeing this player in the Prime of his career.
Unlike Hunt, I think this player will at the very least compete for a spot in the fall. He might not make it because there are few openings at the forward positions, but he probably won’t embarrass himself.
Still though, both players are not likely to make the Oilers but they will at very least anchor the Condors and be given an opportunity to prove themselves to new management. That’s more than others are going to get as Chiarelli looks to make his stamp on the organization. Neither player belongs to that “Heavy… category of player that the new management covets so much in a traditional sense.
Asking either player at 27 to bulk up is a waste of time. If they want to play as Oilers I think they will just have to show an ability to be ultra competitive despite their small size. And that’s the way it should be. Fair or not no player in the NHL can be small and soft.
Clearly someone vouched for these two players. Now they need to return the favor by challenging for roster spots in September.
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