I’m Concerned About Oscar and Wondering If the Oilers Are Too?

I’m becoming concerned with the future health of the Oilers stud dman, Oscar Klefbom. We’re four years into his career and he’s only had one year where he’s played all 82 games and that was last year. In not one of his other three years as an NHLer has he managed to play more than 60 games.

His injury history actually doesn’t look too too terrible but to me, it feels like the guy can’t get a break health-wise. Every year it’s something.

His latest injury seems to be one to the shoulder and when you hear Bob Stauffer, Jason Gregor, and Jason Strudwick all saying pretty much the same thing yesterday, you can bet that it’s just that. And it makes sense if you watched him closely. His shots have been off all year and he’s been real careful to protect himself when the other team was being physical.

Oscar said yesterday that he had an injection performed and now he feels great. He also said it was something that was bugging him since last year’s playoffs, which was medicated at that time as well.

I’m thinking that he’s now had 2 injections of the cortisone persuasion on that shoulder and he’s pushing it as far as he can take it before he goes under the knife to get it all sorted out. IF he does decide that this summer (or earlier) is the right time and that it’s a rotator cuff or labrum injury, depending on the extensiveness, he could be out for as long as 6 months or possibly longer.

Then again, he may not require surgery and like Jason Strudwick said on Gregor’s show yesterday, he may just have to rehab it for the rest of his career but I’d say at this point and being only 24 years old, it may serve Oscar better to do it now so that he can potentially rest easy for the rest of his NHL tenure.

I love Oscar and we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg with regards to his potential. He’s got size, smarts, presence on the ice, great chemistry with his teammates, he’s a warrior, and god damn is he a good looking guy, but at what point do you look at the type of injuries that he’s sustaining and say perhaps it’s time to see what he could bring back on the trade market because you know it’s going to be 100x easier to deal him than Russell or Sekera and the return will be 100x better too.

The Oilers left-handed defensive depth is pretty deep with Klefbom, Sekera, Nurse, Russell, Davidson, Auvitu, and young Caleb Jones coming up through Bakersfield.

Yesterday Klef took over for Sekera on the 1st PP unit, so it looks like the Oilers are going to really put some stress on 77’s shoulder IF they Oilers can get some time on the man advantage tonight versus Chicago.

I’m really feeling good about the game tonight. I think the Blackhawks are going to be pissed and the beginning of the game they’ll be fired up but they’ll tail off and the Oilers will take advantage of their back-up. It’s either that or the complete opposite will happen because we think the Oilers are getting a break going up against the other team’s no.2 goalie…

Keep an eye on the Debrincat kid tonight. Kid’s a sniper!

What are your thoughts? Would you move Oscar Klefbom to pick up a Mike Hoffman or perhaps in a deal to bring in a high-end right-handed defenseman like Justin Faulk?

Personally, I’m not 100% sure I would. There’s some depth in the organization now that the Oilers could very well cope with a long-term injury to a left-handed dman. Klefbom’s contract is simply too sweet too and we’ve seen some teams have success without a true top-pairing defender before, right?

Let me know in the comments below what you think though!