Are the Oilers going to lose Anton Slepyshev this summer?
According to an article published over at Championat.com, winger Anton Slepyshev is being courted by his old KHL team, Salavat Yulaev UFA, to return to the KHL next season.
Translated version below:
As it became known to the “Championship”, “Salavat Yulaev” is actively working on the return of striker Anton Slepyshev. Several sources confirmed this information at once.
The 23-year-old forward was chosen by the Edmonton Oilers in the NHL Draft of 2013 in the third round under the overall 88th number and performs in North America from the 2015/16 season. This season, he played 34 matches in the NHL and scored 10 (5 + 5) points with a score of “-3”. In the last games Slepyshev came out in the first link with Connor McDavid.
In total in the NHL on his account 21 (9 + 12) points in 86 games with a score of “-3”. In the AHL for three seasons Slepyshev played 59 games and scored 31 (16 + 15) points for performance.
Rights for Slepyshev in the KHL are assigned to “Salavat Yulaev”, for which he performed from 2013 to 2015. In the KHL, the striker played 159 games, scored 29 goals and made 20 assists with a “-4” utility score.
In addition, Anton twice participated in the junior world championships, and also played at two youth world championships. As part of the Russian national team, he won bronze YuCHM-2011 and two bronze MCHM (2013, 2014).
I haven’t found anything on Twitter about it yet to corroborate this but I’m willing to bet that later today some “news” will come out.
Anton Slepyshev played for Salavat Yulaev from 2012/13 to 2014/15 amassing 22 goals and 17 assists in 95 games.
Slepyshev is a restricted free agent this summer and the Oilers would be in the wrong to let him go back to the KHL if he can be signed for similar money. I’m not 100% sure how much he has to be qualified at but let’s be real here, Salavat could offer him much more than Edmonton could or is probably willing to right now.
I hate the idea of Slepy moving on, he’s just now recovered from injury and I definitely see a shooting winger with size and speed there. That said, I don’t think he’s got the trust of the coach but this is the kind of player the Oilers need to be adding.
Maybe the coach should start to break from the norm a bit and give more ice time to players like Slepyshev and Puljujarvi in the top 6. Just an idea because there’s no need to lose this player to the KHL if it can be prevented merely through TOI.
On the other hand, ten points in 34 games this year isn’t much to shake a stick at.
I’d still like to see one more full season of Anton on the wing of a good centre. Then if he doesn’t move the needle, give him his release to the KHL to play alongside some ex-Oilers who play for Salavat.
- Ben Scrivens
- Linus Omark
- Teemu Hartikainen
- Philip Larsen
- Vladdy Tkachev
A better idea yet, work out a deal for Slepyshev to go to Salavat and for Vladdy hockey to come back to Edmonton.
We’ll probably hear a lot of “lost through translation” comments by the media if this picks up steam. But I think we’re smarter than that. This is a play by Slepyshev’s agent to try and put pressure on the Oilers to sign his client.
Also, quotes like the one below from the Edmonton Sun (2/22/2018) tell me the relationship between player and team is fragile at best.
“My agent was trying to make some trades,” said Slepyshev, who wanted a change of scenery. “I didn’t play like for one month. We were losing and I was being scratched and, of course, I was disappointed. I thought it might be better to try someplace else.” (source)
His agent was trying to make some trades? Haven’t heard that one before.
What are your thoughts? Please comment below!
