Olli Maatta is an obvious candidate to be mentioned when talking about potential trades the Penguins can make. I’ve discussed many times that he plays to the ability of his playing partner for better or worse.
Maatta had a great start to his career playing bottom pairing minutes with Matt Niskanen. Then the injuries and cancer hit. The valid hypothesis at the time was that those issues were slowing down his development. I still think those issues didn’t help, but as time has gone on I think that the favorable deployment with an underrated Niskanen was guilty of creating unattainable and lofty expectations for player growth.
Fast forward to the now and it seems like Maatta is just going to be another player for the Penguins instead of somebody they can rely on to consistently play well. He’s not fast and the great offensive numbers he had to start his career have dried up. His micro stats aren’t nearly good enough to justify making him part of the team’s core.
The Edmonton Oilers just fired their coach today to hire Ken Hitchcock. They are a team in disarray led by their inept general manager, Peter Chiarelli. How many coaches is he going to be allowed to fire? He knows the ax will be coming for him soon if he doesn’t make changes. This is a great time (when isn’t it?) to catch Chiarelli in a manic phase where he might be looking to deal. I think Olli Maatta and his two shiny Stanley Cup rings is something that the Oilers would prioritize over the data about the player. They are an organization worried about culture and are always looking to add “winners”. A bonus with Olli Maatta is that he passes out drunk in the rain after parade celebrations. Don’t worry Albertans, no museums for this guy!
I’ve heard Jesse Puljujarvi’s name brought up in trade rumors, but I don’t want to think small. This is Chiarelli after all. I want to talk about Oscar Klefbom. I don’t think the Oilers value him the way that other organizations might. I’m not so sure they know what they have in him. This is a team that would trade a player like that away just to “change the room” or some other nonsense like that. Klefbom is a clear upgrade over Olli Maatta and is the player that the Penguins were hoping for with Maatta. Here are some comparisons
Raw possession is trending favorably for Klefbom
Expected goals is trending favorably for Klefbom once again. Olli Maatta has seen a steady decline.
Offensively Olli Maatta has held his own against Klefbom the past two years.
Here are the micro stats
I think this is where Klefbom would help the Penguins in the area they need it. Transitional passing has been lacking this year and Klefbom could be that solution. This was supposed to be Jack Johnson’s role and he hasn’t been up to the task. Klefbom is an upgrade over Maatta in this regard. Klefbom is also better defensively.
Contract wise they are incredibly similar. Oscar Klefbom has another four years left at 4.167M per year. Olli Maatta has three more years at 4.083M.
Why would the Oilers do this? I don’t know. Why do they do anything they do? If the Penguins want to throw Daniel Sprong into the mix to appeal to the Oilers needing a scoring winger I say why not? If the Penguins want to upgrade their defense while using Olli Maatta in the same trade then I think the combination of Peter Chiarelli and Oscar Klefbom is definitely worth exploring.
Thanks for reading!
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