I’m only a quarter of the way through the marking and I’m already sick of it. If you ever wondered why your teachers took forever getting your assignments back to you, it’s because with every mark they give, a little piece of their soul dies. Too much marking too fast will drain a person of everything that makes them who they are. This isn’t spiritual mumbo jumbo, it’s science. That’s why Universities employ others to do the marking for their brightest minds. They simply cant afford to lose them to marking.
We’ve made it past the fringe forwards and now we’re getting to the regulars, or at least those who the Oilers seemed to believe were NHL regulars. So taking a look at what we did with the non-regulars we can assume higher marks all around right? Yes and no. These guys are (for the most part) NHL players, but many of them failed to get their jobs done well enough to leave the basement of the league.
As I mentioned in the last post, the marking will be done in 4 Phases: Forwards (Fringe), Forwards (Regular), Defensemen, and Goaltenders. I’ve got my marking pants on and my trusty red pen is at the ready. I’m just kidding. I don’t wear pants when I do my marking.
THE REGULARS
F+ Ryan Jones. 52GP, 2-4-6. It pains me to give Jonesy this mark but I’m left with little to no choice but to fail him. He IS the only regular Oiler forward with the distinction of having an Even +/- rating, but since I happen to think +/- is a garbage stat that doesn’t play much with me. At just under 10 minutes a game the Oilers needed more than 6 points from Ryan Jones on the year. At his best he provided the Oilers with 18 and 17 goal seasons. Post eye injury he’s given them back to back 2 goal seasons and is shooting well below his previous levels. Since the injury he has just a 4.1 sh% and I’m afraid he wont be able to get back up to his career average. He has already admitted that if he plays next year it will not be with Edmonton, I wish him the best of luck.
D- Jesse Joensuu. 42GP, 3-3-5. At 6’4… and 210lbs it looked like Joensuu was exactly what the Oilers wanted for their team. Uncle Jesse was afforded every opportunity to establish his NHL career here in Edmonton. He looked very impressive in the pre-season but as soon as regular games started, so did his disappearing act. Whether it be due to nagging back injuries or some other gypsy curse, he did not do enough to prove he belongs in the NHL. Big guy, big disappointment.
C- Sam Gagner. The man with the broken face came back way too early in an effort to help save the Oilers’ failing season. What he did was return before he was ready to be the player he’s capable of being. Gagner is the Oilers’ 2C and points are his main measure of effectiveness. By that measure he failed to live up to his contract and expectations. However, in his first couple months he went .448 points per game and from January on he went .632 points per game. I still think he can bounce back and be productive but at this point he’s the player most likely to be traded in a package for an elite Defenseman. It was a poor year marred by injury and spotty production. Ultimately the fact that he played injured both cost him on his season’s grade and saved it from being worse than it could have been.
C- Nail Yakupov. 63GP, 11-13-24. Count me out from the group that wants to tar and feather Nail Yakupov. He had a brutal year and didn’t produce nearly enough for a player with his talent. It wasn’t a failing grade because this was his first full season in the NHL and his sophomore season. As I’ve said before, the Sophomore class of 2013-2014 had a terrible time producing. That’s Yak, Huberdeau, Galchenyuk, and others all having garbage seasons. This mark is based on those circumstances. If Nail puts up similar numbers next year then this becomes a failing grade. I don’t buy that every goal against when he was on the ice was his fault, especially not early on when Dubnyk was letting beach balls get by him. A bad year from a developing player.
C Ryan Smyth. 72GP, 10-13-23. That grade isn’t flattering for anyone but the fact is that Ryan Smyth didn’t embarrass himself in his final NHL season, and that is something to be happy about. Smyth tied a club record and retired with style. His final game was hair-raising as the crowd sent off one of their heroes with a barrage of tears and cheers. That said, as far as seasons go, it was the lowest point total he ever had in a full year of play. I am glad that he was able to find that missing half-step which had gone missing a year ago, but it just wasn’t enough to ward off Father Time. At least this wasn’t the only C he was given in April.
C+ Boyd Gordon. 74GP, 8-13-21. Nobody on the team even came close to starting as many shifts in the Defensive Zone (59.6%). He was essentially thrown to the wolves every single game and then he had to kill penalties on top of that. But that’s the price you pay for being an elite Faceoff man in the NHL. He lead the Oil in FO% with 56.5% and wasn’t afforded many easy nights in the dots either. As disappointing as it seems that he only scored 8 goals, that is actually a match for his career high. The Oilers got one of the best Boyd Gordon seasons ever, it just wasn’t enough.
C+ Matt Hendricks. 33GP, 3-0-3. Now I have a lot more time for Matt Hendricks than a few others on the blogosphere because I still believe there’s a place for nasty play and I don’t mock the use of the word “Culture… in hockey. Hendricks came in part of the way through the season and added a consistent physical edge to whatever line he played on. He also fought a considerable amount, but more importantly he seemed to inspire the rest of the team to stand up for themselves when things got heated. It took Hendricks no time at all to find a friend in the Coach who saw fit to give him an A on his chest despite being the new guy. Obviously what’s holding him back is the fact that he provided negligible offense from the bottom 6. His possession stats are also poor as he finished with a 41.6% Corsi rating. I like this player, a lot, and I think he was good for the team.
C+ Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. 80GP, 19-37-56. The Nuge is absolutely one of my favourites and I think he will be incredible as his body matures, but 56 points isn’t enough from a centerman like RNH. He is capable of doing more than that and I think he’s guilty of focusing too much on his defense and not enough on creating offense. It is incredibly easy to forget this, but the 21 year old started this season coming off of shoulder surgery that was supposed to keep him out of the lineup for at least a month. He actually only missed 2 games at the beginning of the year. The odds on him doing better after a full summer of off-ice training and another year of maturity are good. I expect big things from this player but he didn’t deliver this season. Fantastic player, needs to assert himself more.
B- Luke Gazdic. 67GP, 2-2-4. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “B- for Gazdic???… And I hear you. Gazdic was not an effective player from a possession standpoint, in fact his 37.2 Corsi % was the worst on the team. The play was in his end a disproportionate amount, but let’s be honest about Gazdic. He plays less than 6 minutes a night and finished top 5 in the NHL for Major Penalties. Gazdic was employed as a fighter and shall be marked as a fighter. He was one of just 3 NHL players to play more than 50 games, record over 100 PIMs , and play less than 400 minutes total. His peers are Colton Orr and John Scott. Gazdic is a goon, and I mean that as nicely as possible. He established himself as a fierce fighter by besting very tough opponents and fought a significant amount. That warrants more than a passing grade for a pugilist. If his role and ice time were greater then his ability as a fighter would weigh much less than it currently does.
B- Ales Hemsky. 55GP, 9-17-26. Sometimes you end up put in situations where you are bound to perform poorly. Ales Hemsky is an elite puck carrier with vision and speed who was paired with Boyd Gordon on the 3rd line in a shutdown role. He didn’t complain and he wasn’t a distraction to the team, but he isn’t a shutdown player. When he left the Oilers he was immediately paired with players in offensive roles and he looked as if he was reborn from the ashes of his former self. He wasn’t. He was just put in a position to succeed. The Oilers needed more from Hemsky than he was able to provide from a production standpoint, but he was one of Edmonton’s best possession players at 47.4% (2nd only to Arcobello).
B Jordan Eberle. 80GP, 28-37-65. I don’t know what to make of #14’s season except to say that it went as one would expect. He scored at roughly the pace most expected of him and was relatively uninspiring while doing it. Here’s the good news, he finished the year with solid possession numbers and good traditional scoring numbers. He isn’t a mirage and on the verge of collapsing into oblivion. I do think that there were many times where he could have been better, though. Late in the season I sensed that a few players weren’t 100% committed anymore, tough in a year that was over by November, and he was one of them. That could be completely wrong, but it’s the way I saw things. This is the kind of season I expect Eberle to be able to provide until he’s in his 30’s. That’s why he gets a B. This is his average.
B+ David Perron. 78GP, 28-29-57. Until Hall really got into high gear, Perron was my candidate for best Oiler forward. He’s not above making a dirty play, he can spot in on the left or right side, and he co-lead the team in Goal Scoring. Pear-Z (Perrzy?) had himself a career season with the Oilers setting new high water marks in Goals and Points. He is exactly the right kind of player for Edmonton and is GM Craig MacTavish’s best acquisition to date (although Scrivens may take that title). There isn’t much to dislike about the season that he had except for maybe his penchant for taking penalties, but that’s the price you pay for employing someone who’s a bit of a jerk on the ice.
A+ Taylor Hall. 75GP, 27-53-80. Ovechkin, Pavelski, Sharp, Toews, Thornton; these are just a few of the players who finished behind Hall in league scoring. He is the highest scoring LW in the NHL and he did it on a team that finished 24th in Goals For. He is arguably the best player at his position, though nobody will admit that until he makes the playoffs and gets credit for dragging the Oilers there with him. He was billed as a goal-scorer but has proven to be a better playmaker and is the face of the Franchise. He will eventually wear the C in Edmonton and is currently the motor that drives the team. Kid is the real deal and always getting better.
THOUGHTS
Edmonton has a problem right now because only 5 regular forwards finished with a grade in the B range or higher and 1 is a 5 minute a night fighter 1 isnt even on the team anymore. I consider anything in the C range to be sub-par, the D range to be very bad, and an F is outright pitiful. That means 8 out of 13 forwards weren’t even average based on their expectations and roles. A 28th placed team shouldn’t expect many good grades, and they aren’t getting any from me save for the truly exceptional.
The good news moving forward is that the Oilers have forwards capable of doing better than they have this season. The bad news is that they cant wait around for these guys forever. People who will perform better in the future will be moved out for players who can provide something today.
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