The Oilers announced today that they have signed Ryan Strome to a two year deal with a cap hit of 3.1AAV.
As is the tradition with most Oilers trades, Strome will forever be linked in the minds of Oilers fans with his counterpart who was traded from Edmonton. In this case; Jordan Eberle. Eberle was traded in the summer after the 2016/2017 season after a poor production season AND worse playoff performance. Last year Eberle bounced back with the Islanders with a 25 goal season. In Chiarelli's defense there was no possible way of knowing that one poor season was an aberration...
There was confusion in Oil Country when Strome signed centered around where he would play. Many assumed he was acquired to be a cheaper yet productive right winger for Connor McDavid. Fantasy websites had Strome pegged for a 70 point season... it's true.
In reality, Strome was given a couple games in the pre-season to find chemistry with McDavid and was almost immediately pulled off that line. In the 82 game regular season Strome and McDavid only played 56 minutes with each other at 5 on 5. If the team did want to use Strome as a value Eberle the coaching staff certainly did not give the two ample time to play.
Strome is not a top line right winger but in actuality is a fairly average 3rd line centre. He is a positive possession player at a CF% of 50.8. He has never been a strong face-off performer and finished last season below 45% on the dot. His 34 points are acceptable but considering his 55% offensive zone starts one would have hoped for him to take more advantage of the soft minutes he was gifted.
We are now a year removed from the Eberle for Strome, one for one trade and the Oilers have an average third line centre and are still struggling to ice NHL players on their right side.
In case it hasn't been made clear yet I am not a fan of this deal. The trade for Strome represented a poor evaluation of where the rest of the roster stood. The infamous "cap space" the Oilers acquired from that deal was used to lock up Russell to a long term deal with a NMC and has left the team looking for garage sale options to replace top 6 skill.
In my opinion, I would have been alright with giving Strome this type of money on a one year deal but if the player wanted a two year or longer term I would have worked to keep the amount just shy of the 3 million mark. The team now has just under 5 million dollars to sign Darnell Nurse as well as potentially the acquisition of a 13th/14th forward.
Now some optimism.
Strome is now locked up for the next two years and we can look and see who his linemates should be to start the year. The first name that jumps out as me would be Milan Lucic.
Possession had a postive bump when Lucic and Strome played together.
Strome without Lucic 50.18 CF%
Lucic without Strome 50.91 CF%
Strome with Lucic 51.97 CF%
If Lucic is here to start the season I would have him with Strome and have a player like Puljujarvi or Rieder on the right side. The one player to keep away from Strome? Drake Caggiula. Taking a quick glance at GF/60 at 5 on 5 it's clear that both players perform better when away from the other.
Strome without Caggiula - 2.07
Caggiula without Strome - 2.32
Strome with Caggiula - 1.45
Another way to put it is Strome scored 50% of his goals away from Drake Caggiula. As stated with basically every other player on this roster, if you want them to succeed offensively.... do not play them with Caggiula.
The last big signing will be Darnell Nurse. We could expect something to happen in the next couple of weeks or it could end up in arbitration. With every passing day this looks more and more like the locked roster for the Edmonton Oilers.
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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