Ceci and The Nuge

Let’s start things off by saying that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins isn’t getting traded for Cody Ceci. If you thought Hall for Larsson was criminal, a Nuge for Ceci deal would be the deal that lands you in Arkham Asylum cuddling up with some of Gotham’s worst…

Also, a lot of you will react to this post with a guffaw and wonder why you’re reading Eklund rumours. Well this is and isn’t an Eklund rumour. Yes, he posted about it this week but Ceci’s name was bandied about much earlier than this week. I’m not 100% certain but I’m sure I heard Lowetide talk about Ceci and also Bob Stauffer speak his name in the recent past.

I mean it makes sense that Ceci’s name is hopping into the rumour mill given the issues his camp and the Senators are having coming to an agreement on a new contract for the RFA. Will he get dealt? Who knows…

But is Cody Ceci a player you’d consider adding to the Oilers roster?

I asked Woodguy about him and what he told me this:

“He’s very “rookie” in his numbers.  Shots against go up when he’s on the ice, and shots for go down.  Now this is compared to Karlsson, so no one will look good, but his 5v5 play looks a lot like a Reinhart or Nurse right now.”

So if we took a HERO chart from @MimicoHero’s site here, we can see that he’s a better option than the left-handed Darnell Nurse. But are his “intangibles” those that match up with Nurse? I’d say no right now but that’s because I haven’t seen enough of Ceci for the Sens to make an accurate judgement but from what I’ve read and heard about him, he’s no shrinking violet.

I will say this though, I thought Ceci was much better than Matt Dumba at the World Championships this year. Maybe it was the bigger ice surface and more time on the puck.

Two things to consider when thinking about an addition to the Oilers back-end here:

• Will the candidate be better than Mark Fayne?
• How many young players can the Oilers afford to ice on the back-end?

To answer those questions:

• I think Ceci would bring a more offensive element to the roster than Fayne does but wouldn’t be able to equal Fayne defensively this year. Veterans are key in today’s NHL, especially ones with the experience that Fayne has.
• They would get eaten alive if they had 5 out of 6 defenders being under the age of 24… Makes you wonder if Dan Boyle could make an appearance either on the roster or in the coaching staff…

I think if you asked me whether I preferred Griffin Reinhart or Cody Ceci, I’d say Ceci because he’s a better technical player and I just reckon the Oilers have too many left-shot defenders in their system. But even then Ceci isn’t the PP guy that say Ryan Ellis is or Torey Krug is. The former Ottawa 67 has a big shot and it’s hard to get on the PP in Ottawa with Karlsson running the show but I just don’t see it.

It could very well be Brandon Davidson, Jordan Oesterle or Jesse Puljujarvi taking turns on the point with the man advantage this upcoming season. I’ll toss Adam Larsson’s name in there too because there’s some offense in his game. It’s not his fault that New Jersey hates scoring…

THE DEPTH CHART

If the Oilers had to sacrifice one or two of those lefties on the blue line, then so be it because the right side is embarrassingly thin and Paigin, Bear, and Berglund are years away from competing for a spot. The roster needs an effective right-handed PP specialist to man the no.4-6 spot.

Do you think the Oilers are done for the summer? The feeling I get is that Barrie isn’t moving and if he is, it’s not to the Oilers. Chiarelli has said he’s good to go regarding the current roster make-up and I believe him. Further to that Bob Stauffer put out this tweet earlier today:

FWIW I would be "stunned" If RNH was moved before the start of the season. Fully expect McDavid, Leon and RNH as center options for…

— Bob Stauffer (@Bob_Stauffer) July 9, 2016

I’ve been saying this all summer. Nuge isn’t going anywhere until AFTER the World Cup IF he’s going. Todd McLellan wants to see how he does on the wing and thus the World Cup will be an evaluation period for RNH. Not only that but two more things, 1) Nuge is the oldest of the top three centres on the team meaning the most experienced and 2) with the team finally having depth at arguably the most important position on the team after so many years without it, it would be silly to deal from that position. And that’s why Hall was the one traded. LW was where Chiarelli wanted it to be and had Lucic coming in. Bingo-Bango! Hallsy #PackYourShit.

What do you think? Would you like the Oilers to go after Cody Ceci? What would you pay to get him? Let me know in the comments below!