This is the darkest hour in the marking process. After all that work we’re only halfway through the stack of grading that needs to be done. And worse, the best student’s stuff has already been graded. From a teacher’s perspective, this is as bad as it gets. The only thing that will get me through this portion of the work will be a strong work ethic and a mood altering amount of alcohol. Unfortunately if I had any kind of work ethic at all I probably wouldn’t have been so idle while the marking was piling up. That just means I’ll have to over-compensate with the mood altering booze.
So now I’ve put my rally cap on (inside out and backwards) to signify that this is serious work time, but I cant get over how much the students left really bothered me during the semester. What were they thinking? You know what? If I could hold them back a year I would. Hmmm, my mood has been altered, but I don’t think this went the way the Oilers would have preferred.
As you recall we’ve been doing the marking in 4 stages: Forwards (Fringes), Forwards (Regulars), Defensemen, and Goalies. The first 2 are done and the last 2 are mocking my procrastinatory ways.
The Oilers used 14 defensemen this year, which is probably the telltale sign of a club doing the “Oh God, why isn’t this working???… panic shuffle. If that number seems high, it’s because it is. Nobody used more Defensemen this season than the Oilers and the only other club to tie them was Washington. The Sharks used 7 Defensemen. 7! That’s a combination of great roster decisions and excellent luck (injuries happen to everyone). The Oil on the other hand were a combination of overestimation and roster flux.
THE DEFENSE
F Mark Fraser. 23GP, 1-0-1. Slow, cant turn, play is always in his own end, and lacks offensive instincts. I most definitely “Saw him bad… during his time with the Oilers but right near the end of the season things started to get a *little* better for him. Unfortunately that’s just not enough to overrule a failing grade. The Oilers cannot afford to go into next season with Fraser in their top 7. They don’t have the depth of quality players needed to overcome that. His lasting impression will be the shadow burnt into the wall of Rexall after MacKinnon went past him at the speed of light. Science!
F Denis Grebeshkov. 7GP, 0-1-1. Grebeshkov was a questionable signing from the moment it was announced. He had fallen out of favour in the KHL and was literally exiled to Siberia. In an effort to find value in a player that he had known, MacT gave Grebs a deal large enough that even if he played in the AHL it would count against Edmonton’s Cap. It was pretty clear when he hit the ice in Edmonton that something was amiss and after just 7 games he was sent away. The first sign that the GM had assembled not just a flawed group, but a group of flaws.
D- Brad Hunt. 3GP, 0-0-0. Hunt played 3 uneventful games as an Oiler in which he showed absolutely none of what made him the Barons’ Defensive Player of the Year. He’s a smallish offensive defenseman with an unlikely future in the NHL, but at just 25 years old there’s still hope for him yet. The problem for him is that if he doesn’t take advantage of the opportunities he gets then he’ll be passed by the kids on the fast-tracks to the NHL. Sometimes missed windows of opportunity never open again.
D- Corey Potter. 16GP, 0-5-5. This is above a failing grade only due to the fact that he spent a significant time injured. He’s a depth player who proved unable to be an NHL regular with one of the League’s worst teams. He finished below Nultz in Corsi% and that’s not a good place to be. That said, he’s now played more Playoff games than Taylor Hall and the baby Oilers. Like my wife’s pet fish after she filled the tank with too warm water, he’s in a better place now.
D- Nick Schultz. 60GP, 0-4-4. With such a pittance for offensive contributions all we’re left with are his defensive contributions and that leaves us with so very very little. No Oiler who played more than half the season bled possession like Nick Schultz. I think I might be giving more credit for veteran leadership than I should with this mark. Honestly, he’s probably deserving of an F, but I’m a nice guy.
D+ Philip Larsen. 30GP, 3-9-12. The plus comes from the fact that he’s the 4th highest scoring Oiler blueliner despite having only played 30 games. Larsen is a fast-skating small defender who doesn’t defend well. He would be labeled high-risk, high-reward with some doubt as to how high that reward would be. On a stacked defense there’s a place for a player like Larsen, but on the Oilers he’s just another small skilled guy without a clue about what to do in his own end. Jumping up in the play is only useful if you can get out of your own zone. He couldn’t.
C- Andrew Ference. 71GP, 3-15-18. He was named Captain before ever playing a regular season game for the Oilers but by all accounts he provided the leadership they were counting on. However, he spent a long time playing on the bottom pairing and switching between the left and right sides. He played more minutes per game with the Oil by about 1:30 without the benefit of playing behind Chara, Seidenberg, or Boychuk. He was exactly what Edmonton should have expected when they signed him but even that doesn’t change the fact that he ended the year out of the top 4.
C- Oscar Klefbom. 17GP, 1-2-3. Klefbom was a Rookie having a very Rookie-like debut to the season. I think he looked more comfortable by the end but he was thrown in over his head and it looked that way on a lot of nights. I’m not one who believes that he should be an automatic for a spot on the Oilers next season. Personally I think he needs more time in OKC. He didn’t fail during his time with Edmonton, but he wasn’t put in a position to succeed either. He was given a brutal amount of Defensive Zone Starts (40% for the highest ration on the team) and was played with Jultz quite a bit. That is the opposite of a soft landing. He’s a real prospect, but he isn’t Superman.
C- Justin Schultz. 11-22-33. That’s a pretty harsh mark for a sophomore NHLer in his 2nd ever Pro season who lead the defense in scoring. I’ll tell you why. Justin Schultz was a train-wreck in his own zone from the beginning of the season to the end. Now maybe that’s because he’s learning how to play in the NHL from a bunch of guys who treat the puck like it’s a live grenade, but he makes decisions with the puck that defy all logic and understanding. The Oilers threw minutes at him like he was Chris Pronger and they were justly rewarded with copious amounts of defensive zone time. The only hit I can even remember him throwing caught Halls square in the jaw and it took him 60+ games to figure out he could shoot a one-timer. He finished 38th in NHL scoring by Defensemen but 67th in Shots by a Defenseman. So our “Offensive Defenseman… has a long way to go in providing offense and defense. Management loves him and believes his potential is limitless. I’m less optimistic about his ceiling but it’s just his 2nd year. Too much, too fast.
C Anton Belov. 57GP, 1-6-7. I am tempted to be harsher on Belov because he essentially quit North American Hockey after 1 year to go play back in Russia, but ultimately I decided that wasn’t right. A lot of people will take his comments about not wanting to play for Eakins as a sign that the rookie Head Coach isn’t fit to be behind the bench, but Belov was a UFA. The choice he made wasn’t to be out of Edmonton, it was out of the NHL. I don’t blame him for taking security and higher pay in his home country, I just don’t buy that Eakins drove him away. As for his play, he was a bottom pairing guy who performed better when paired with better players. I liked him, but he didn’t use his shot enough and he just wasn’t what the Oilers needed. The GM plucked the best Defenseman in the KHL and dropped him onto this roster and he wasn’t a difference maker. Lesson learned…I hope.
C Ladislav Smid. 17GP, 1-1-2. He was having an all-around Smidish season when he was plucked out of the lineup and replaced with absolutely nobody. Smid wasn’t adding much offense but he was an NHL body taken out of a lineup that didn’t have many. He was somewhere right in the middle of the pack possession-wise and that isn’t good enough for a player with his billing and in the prime of his career. I always liked Smid, but he just wasn’t getting it done.
C+ Jeff Petry. 80GP, 7-10-17. I’m being nice to Jeff Petry who was relied upon too heavily to play tough opponents and in situations that he wasn’t qualified for. Jeff Petry would be an excellent 3rd pairing guy on any Playoff team. On the Oilers he was fed a steady diet of own zone starts and kept out of the offensive zone and finished 2nd among regular Defensemen in the possession battle. He isn’t overly physical but lead the team in hits by a large margin. He isn’t overly offensive but finished 2nd on the team in Goals by Defensemen. He just wasn’t particularly good at any one aspect but because he can do a little bit of everything he was counted on to be everything. What prevents him from being in the B range is his lack of offense. 17 points isn’t enough for a player in his role. Not even close actually.
B Taylor Fedun. 4GP, 2-0-2. I cant fault a guy because the team decided incorrectly to only play him 4 games. He scored twice in those 4 games and wasn’t a black hole for Corsi either. The play was appropriate for an Oiler defender. That’s a big deal for a man playing on space legs. Fedun is a legit Rocket Surgeon and a heck of a hockey player. He only played in 4 games but performed well. In a season that saw Fraser play 23 games, I think there was an opportunity for him to play more. I don’t see the same opportunities being there next season.
B+ Martin Marincin. 44GP, 0-6-6. I cant believe how effective Marincin was as a Rookie in the NHL with pre-teen arms and nobody around him to lean on as an elite player. He finished the season with the best Corsi rating on the Defense and for the most part played on what was the actual top pairing with Petry. He uses his positioning extremely well for someone with his experience and started to show more promise with his offensive game. This was an extremely good start for the big kid who also played in the Olympics, and one that should see him land a spot out of the gate with the Oilers next season. Defensemen come with huge amounts of growing pains, but he is an extremely promising player and an important one from a development standpoint. The team needs players like him who were drafted outside of the 1st round to turn into NHLers.
THOUGHTS
The Oilers on paper had one of the worst Defenses in the entire NHL. The best players were all put in positions to fail and they have nobody to learn from on how to be an elite player in the NHL. Looking back on the grades I think it’s the fact that they were forced to play over their heads that prevented more from getting even worse marks. I cant justify giving anyone an A and the B range marks are that high because they either performed well in extremely small sample sizes or because expectations were set much lower for them. That isn’t good. The best players were either in their 1st or 2nd years as NHLers, the vets that the GM brought in or inherited all failed to retain spots in the top 4, and Jeff Petry was thrown to wolves dressed in a bacon scented injured deer costume.
MacT has identified that the Oilers need a bonafide top pairing player and wants to add him to the roster. He has also stated that he wont be adding any middle range defenders. I think that speaks to seasons of players like Belov who were truly middling at best. The club cant succeed with more so-so defensemen thrown into the mix.
Follow me on Twitter @Archaeologuy