One thing that scares me a bit about the Oilers going forward is that I’m worried they are going to overcompensate when attending to its roster’s deficiencies. How many times has the team gone in one direction whole-heartedly only to have to do a massive pivot a few years later?
Just in this decade of darkness, we’ve seen a small skilled team built in a heavy hockey era but we’ve also seen a heavy hockey team built in a small skilled era too. Before both of those, it was a fast team built in the trap era and prior to that it was a tough team built in a skilled era.
WTF Oilers?!
More recently, I’ve felt that the emphasis on small-skilled defenders might cause teams to go too far in that direction and partly as a result, we could see an increase in large, elite skating-power forwards being developed in an attempt to grind down the other team’s small puck-movers.
Of course, I imagine that will depend on if teams actually do overcorrect in that manner. All it takes is for one team to have success using that model and you’ll see it copied.
That brings us back to the Oilers and their upcoming attempt to correct and overcorrection.
Yesterday on Oilers Now, interim GM Keith Gretzky was interviewed and a portion of the conversation he and Bob Stauffer were having was based around the players Gretzky has brought in via the draft and the Oilers’ prospects who will be heading to their minor league affiliate in Bakersfield next season.
KG – For us to just go out and hand out a contract, even if we like the kid and think he’s going to be 3, 4, 5 years away, we have to be bang on. Maybe we look for a guy that’s a little quicker, that can get up here, that’s been playing in Europe or something like that. That’s what we’re looking at right now.
BS – With an emphasis on skill?
KG – Yeah AND speed. And quickness especially. I think that’s an element that we need and everybody knows that, I told them. Maybe drove it into their head too much but…
Now, you might be wondering why the Oilers passed on USports MVP Luke Philp and let him sign with the Flames then. Well, Gretzky went on to explain that.
KG – We looked at him and that was one of our reasons why we kinda backed off on him, We have so many young guys coming in right now and if we have an extra contract, we maybe want to save it for a guy who’s a little older and a little more experienced playing pro in Europe, IF that guy is there and we have a couple guys we’re looking at but you never count the chickens before they hatch.
So, I know the Oilers were over scouting in Sweden earlier this year and a light bulb went off in my head, so I contacted one of my Swedish sources and asked who the fastest and most skilled players in the SHL were that are rumored to be coming to the NHL…
Joakim Nygard – Farjestads BK
Height: 6’0″
Weight: 179lbs
Position: LW
Age: 26
Hand: L
A speedy and pretty high scoring player with nice hands. Creative player, who is still very raw, but with a nice upside. – Elite Prospects (2011)
That little snippet doesn’t do this player justice at all. Joakim Nygard is basically the Swedish version of Andreas Athanasiou but with more “compete” in his game. It’s been said that he’s the fastest player in the league with the puck and one of the most entertaining as well.
It’s hard to see the whole package just from YouTube highlights but for most of us, it’s all we have. So Let’s take a gander at a couple of clips.
First off, we’ve got him absolutely laying a guy out with the kind of elbow that would make Don Cherry and Brian Burke stand at attention…
Here’s a clip of Nygard on the receiving end of a massive bodycheck!
Watch this next play where his speed allows him to close down a defender and force a turnover that leads to Nygard setting up a teammate for a goal.
And finally, Nygard’s goalscoring highlight package. Here you’re going to see that speed on full display.
“He’s fast as hell and great around the net. Not a sniper, but a goal scorer. He can be pretty rough as well.”
That quote above came from my Swedish source and the clips above indicate that he’s pretty bang on with his assessment of Nygard.
Jim Matheson slyly slipped his name in an article not too long ago.
The Oilers may be looking to older free-agent Europeans because they could step in immediately. They have 48 players on their reserve list, two under the max allowed.
Two possibles: Joakim Nygard, 26, (LW, Farjestads, Sweden) and Oulu Palve, 27, (C TPS Finland). In the past, the Oilers have signed Iiro Pakarinen and Lennart Petrell, and they could play in the NHL, but they had no hands. They don’t want checkers.
The Hockey News had this to say about the Swedish speedster,
Nygard is under contract with Farjestad BK for the next three years, but an agreement between the NHL and SHL means Nygard could head to North America if he does accept a deal. Nygard is one of the fastest skaters in the SHL and has been a recurring member of Farjestad’s special teams unit. Scouts like Nygard’s defensive instincts and his speed allows him to get back to deal with trouble in his own zone while creating opportunities at the other end of the ice.
I think at the very least they’d have a Carl Hagelin-type who could help add depth offense to their bottom-6. I’ll have to talk to more people about how his speed will translate to the smaller ice surface but this is a really exciting player the Oilers could be adding this summer and I’m glad they’re looking at these sorts of players.
The Oilers will have to up their game though because apparently there are up to 20 teams interested in him and Edmonton doesn’t have any players being represented by Nygard’s agent, Matt Keator according to PuckPedia.com. They did for a short time when Pontus Aberg was on the team mind you.
What do you think? Leave your comments below!
