Throughout the 2018/2019 season, the biggest issue for the Edmonton Oilers was a lack of depth scoring. Holland set out that summer to acquire a number of players that could score at least 10 goals in a secondary role. Josh Archibald was one of those players.

JOSH ARCHIBALD

62GP: 12-9-21

Before even playing a single game, I felt like Archibald would be a player that would endear himself to the Oilers fanbase. Archibald is certainly not a flashy player but works hard every shift, finishes his checks, kills penalties, and goes to the tough places; essentially the prototypical blue collar player that Edmontonians appreciate.

Unfortunately the beginning of the season did not go well for Archie and it is the reason why I won't give him an A (spoilers). Archibald dealt with the flu over the first couple weeks of the season and then suffered a fractured bone in his foot on October 24th against the Capitals and would be out another couple of weeks.

From the beginning of October to the end of November, Archibald played in 19 games, registering 19 shots and not a single point. Finally on December 1st Archibald would score his first goal and point as an Edmonton Oiler but would go one another 8 game pointless drought immediately after.

By the end of December, Archibald finally began to get his feet moving and he and Riley Sheahan turned into a decent pairing in a 3rd/4th line role. Compare Archibald's first 28 games with the Oilers versus his next 34.

28GP: 1-0-1 - 0.04PPG
34GP: 11-9-20 - 0.59PPG

Averaging just over 13 minutes a game, Archibald brought some offense to the Oilers bottom 6. He may have been riding a bit of a shooting percentage high (18.8%) but considering how poor the first half of his season was I feel this balanced out a bit.

Archibald also became one of the Oilers best penalty killing forwards and a big part in taking a PK that was second worst in the league in 18/19 to the second best one in 19/20. Archibald also scored 2 of the 3 shorthanded goals the Oilers had this season.

During times of injury for the Oilers, Archibald was able to step up on a few different occasions and produce in the top 6. Archibald received time next to McDavid, most notably when Kassian was out with his second suspension. During that time, Archibald was able to step in and play the same style of game that made Kassian a good compliment to McDavid.

Riley Sheahan and Archibald were two parts of the Oilers second line when Connor McDavid was out with his quad injury. While it certainly wasn't always pretty, Archibald was able to hold his head above water with more minutes against tougher competition and still produce some points.

Holland signed Archibald to a one year one million dollar deal and has extended him another two years at 1.5 million. The 27 year old gets some job security over the next two seasons and Edmonton in turn gets a solid bottom six winger who kills penalties and can slot up higher in the lineup from time to time as needed. It took a bit of time but Archibald has done everything that was asked of him and deserves some credit for that fact.

FINAL GRADE: B+

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