The Edmonton Oilers have placed Uncle Jesse Joensuu on waivers today and sent Martin Marincin to the OKC Barons.
The interesting thing about these moves is that neither HAD to happen. The Oilers didn't have too many players up because someone came back from injury and needed to get back down. The moves today are for one of two reasons, either they simply don't like the mix they have right now or they need to make room because something is about to happen via the trade market.
UNCLE JESSE
Here is the rundown on Uncle Jesse.
20GP, 2-2-4, 18s, 10:37 TOI/G
46.3% CF (Last on Team) 48.0% FF (14th on Team, tied with Hall and Fayne) 9.4% OZ Starts (6th lowest in the NHL) 65.6% DZ Starts (5th highest in the NHL) 88.3 PDO (Lowest among Oilers regular skaters)
If there's such a thing as placing a guy in a position to fail then the Oilers have done that with Joensuu. He was a mainstay on the "4th Line" for most of this season and when he was healthy in the last. That line takes on the heaviest and harshest assignments in the NHL on a regular basis and his reward is a demotion to the AHL because Pinizzotto fights more often.
Joensuu isn't the linchpin to this team or even that line, but I think it's very curious that given his role and usage the Oilers decided to keep a player like Gazdic (who had a good game but who has known limitations) over someone who the coach has trusted to soak up important minutes all year.
You show me a player on waivers who you might not expect there and I'll wager money that his PDO (combined on-ice sh% and save %) has bottomed out. There isn't an Oiler regular with a worse PDO.
MARTIN MARINCIN
Marincin's demotion at least doesn't require Waivers. If the Oilers are unwilling to play him then they can get him big minutes in the AHL. I am not a fan of this move because I like the way Marincin plays and the things he does well. It seems, though, that Edmonton's brass doesn't see things the same way.
There's no question that the Oil have tried to slot Klefbom ahead of MM all year and while it backfired early, Klefbom showed that he was NHL material while he was with the Barons. If he isn't going to get playing time here then Marincin will at least be playing 25 minutes a night in Oklahoma.
Here is the big Slovak's rundown.
12GP, 0-1-1, 10s, 17:31 TOI/G
51.1% CF (3rd highest among Oiler Defensemen with >= 100 mins) 47.9% FF (2nd lowest among Oiler Defensemen with >= 100 mins) 31.7% OZ Starts (4th highest among Oiler Defensemen) 33.9% DZ Starts (4th highest among Oiler Defensemen) 95.8 PDO (13 among Oiler skaters)
Marincin spent the majority of his time paired with Fayne and the results were disastrous for reasons I haven't yet determined. They ran at 41.3% CF, which is insanely bad. When paired with Petry that jumped to 57.6% and with Jultz it jumped again to 64.8%. They are small sample sizes but it's clear that when paired with the right guy he isn't a mess out there.
WHY?
I'm still left with the question of why the Oil would make these moves? They didn't have to unless they wanted others from OKC or unless there's a trade coming soon. The most promising forwards in OKC are Pakarinen (who impressed in limited duty at the NHL level), Lander, and Yakimov. Big Yak only just started coming on offensively so my guess is Pakarinen if someone else is recalled.
With all the trade talk recently, it's easy to believe that there might be something coming down the pipe right away. These are the kinds of movements that signify a second move is about to occur.
UPDATE
The Oilers recalled Tyler Pitlick. I'm as stunned as you are.
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