This week Mark Spector (Sportsnet) and Bob Stauffer (630CHED) had a great little conversation regarding a myriad of things Edmonton Oilers related. Among them were,
- The future of Edmonton’s blueline (Read about that here).
- A new breed of defenseman emerging in the NHL.
- Making a trade nobody is going to like.
Below I’ve transcribed some of the more pertinent quotes from their conversation and commented on them with my own thoughts.
BS: Bob Stauffer
MS: Mark Spector
A New Breed of Defenseman
BS: Mark, we’re also seeing a different type of defenseman evolve. We’re seeing the rangy sort of guys, and this is why, I would’ve never said this in training camp because I thought this guy looked awful, but I’ve watched a fair amount of Bakersfield play, and as you know, play in the AHL can be pretty sporadic for defensemen.
They might have something in Markus Niemelainen. He’s 6’5″, he’s meaner than William Lagesson, he’s a little bit bigger, and I think he’s got more of a quicker twitch.
Lagesson is a guy who Seattle might pick up. Some might say, what about Caleb Jones or WIlliam Lagesson? One of those two theoretically (could be picked by the Kraken)…
It’s funny, we’re not talking about Caleb Jones as a stone cold mortal lock as a keeper right now. I mean, he’s struggling to stay in the lineup, right now he’s out of it. But, they’ve got another guy in Niemelainen coming, they just signed Kesselring, they’ve got some depth at defense, but they’re a little light on forward prospects. But they have a lot of defense prospects and we haven’t even mentioned Broberg (or Samorukov who got derailed by a shoulder injury).
I’ve talked to guys that’ve been on the ice and they have point-blank said that Niemelainen is further along right now than Samorukov was last year.
The Oilers have some bigger defensemen coming that can move and skate and you know the old saying, Mark, “A small competitive guy beats a big lazy guy, but a big competitive guy often wins out over the smaller competitive player.”
They’ve got some juice from a team-building perspective on defense.
BLH’s Thoughts: I think I’m equally as surprised to see how far along Niemelainen has come. I was ready to right him off as the next Marty Gernat before the reports started coming in from Bakersfield. It’s good, I mean, how long until we start hearing the comparisons to Justin Holl or Colton Parayko though…
One important thing to note here is that the club’s draft record has done a 360 thanks in part to Peter Chiarelli and his scouts. Another is that they’ve targeted hockey players who are very competitive and are of high character.
I think there are some folks out there that are worried about who Seattle might take at the expansion draft this year, I’m not one of those people. Edmonton has a glut of emerging d-men coming and if they can find a way to move one or two before the deadline this year maybe for a rental, then why not give the team a better chance to win in the post-season?
Making a Tough Trade
BS: We’ve thrown some numbers around on Barrie, we’ve sort of capped it at $5M, but if you know you’ve got Klefbom coming back, I’m not sure… That could be a difficult decision to make.
Mark, do you think there’s much of a market- we know they’re not going to trade Tyson Barrie right now. Would there be a market in the off-season- like Ethan Bear’s played pretty well here over the last three games.
MS: Oh, sure. Bobby, you’ve got to bust the eggs to make an omelette, right? You can’t just fall in love with every player you have and I include all of these guys in this. I include Tyson Barrie in this, I include Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in this conversation, I include Ethan Bear in this conversation. You can’t just come back with the same guys and think that it’s all going to be happy endings.
This team might be at the stage where they have enough defenseman that it’s time to one or two or one and a draft pick or maybe just one into the right forward. You’ve got to get a 3rd line center around here to be a successful hockey team. Full stop. And you’ve got to improve on the left-wing spot next to Draisaitl if you want to be a good team that can win a Stanley Cup. Full Stop.
You can’t just sit around and draft 18yr olds and wait for them to catch up. At some point here, you’ve got to reach into your lineup and make a trade that your fans are going to hate until you start winning games and then they’re going to like it.
BLH’s Thoughts: I agree here. I don’t know if Caleb Jones will be more than a 3rd pairing defenseman going forward. Before this season he was trending very well and I even compared him to Andrej Sekera, but at this point, and things could change (as they often do), holding on to #5/6/7 dmen who are young is a bit of a waste. Bear’s another story because he’s shown he can move up the lineup if needed, right? So if there’s a deal to be made that will improve the club and that means using Jones and a pick or Jones and another prospect or player to get that missing piece, by all means, it should be done.
For example, if Detroit’s ask for Glendening was Caleb Jones, I’d make that trade. In fact, I’d see what their feeling was on including Joakim Nygard and Sam Gagner in the trade too.
FWIW, and I haven’t heard anything on this, but Nygard can’t get into any games this year and I wonder if he’s someone that the Oilers will find a new home for at the deadline. Maybe as part of a deal to bring in that 3C or perhaps just to get a draft pick for.
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