Oilers 2012-2013

[Mr. Analog]

For me Horcoff was a hole at centre anyway, I don't see the difference

SICK BURRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNN

[Thorin]

Horcoff got thrown out on the ice in his own end, then called back to the bench once the puck went into the other team's end.  It's hard to score when the coach constantly pulls you off just as the offence starts.  He did hella good in his own end, when compared to other players on the team.  Stayed with his check, kept track of the puck, stayed defensive-side of his check almost all the time, and took the demotion from top six to bottom six without complaining (at least publicly, dunno what was said in the dressing room or coaches office).

Defensively, he was better than Gagner, who frequently lost his check in an attempt to help the wingers who were out of position.  Offensively, even though he got worse linemates and worse starting positions, he was better than Nugent-Hopkins (Nuge got 2 goals 8 assists for 10 points in 588 minutes for 1.02 points / 60 minutes, Horcoff got 4 goals 4 assists for 8 points in 347 minutes for 1.38 points / 60 minutes).

When Horcoff broke his knuckle, the team suddenly went into a tailspin of losses.  Why?  I surmise they lost the one guy on the bench who kept jabbering on about "come back and help the @%&#ing goalie, for @%&#'s sake!"  Most of the other players this year were more interested in scoring, since that's what seems to pay the big bucks.  How many damn times was Justin Schultz past the other team's goal line instead of letting the forwards deal with that portion of the ice as is their job and him covering the god-damn breakout at the blue line?  How many times did you see Hall, Yakupov, Gagner, Hemsky, Jones, or Smyth leave the zone early for a breakaway pass that didn't come because the Oilers didn't have control of the puck yet?

Anyway, we have three NHL-quality centers now, Nugent-Hopkins, Gagner, Gordon.  Then we start picking from the AHL players: Mark Arcobello, Anton Lander, Chris Vandevelde, Josh Green, Ryan Martindale, then part-time AHLers, Tanner House and CJ Stretch, and lastly WHLer Travis Ewanyk.  Arcobello tore up the AHL points-wise but is tiny and I'm sure all the Oil fans will complain about Smurfs.  Lander and Vandevelde did poorly in their call-ups last season, they're just not ready yet, and Josh Green has spent years and years in the minor system and probably just doesn't have enough speed and skill to keep up to the NHL (otherwise he'd be playing there by now, he's only three years younger than Horcoff).

MacT played defensive-center, MacT coached defense-first, MacT as GM is now building a defense-first team (just look at how many defensemen he's added to the system).

[Mr. Analog]

We picked up Andrew Ference (defence), Jason Labarbera (goal) and Boyd Gordon (centre) today.

We have a lot of young talent that could develop offensively and I can't say I'm surprised or upset that we're moving back to a more defensive setup even though a few years ago I was happy to see the Oil move away from it.

I personally did not care for Horcoff, while I don't consider him a terrible player he wasn't an especially good player either and the Oilers have had some of their worst years ever during his tenure as captain (2010-2013). Not to mention the enormous chunk he took out of the cap.

I wish him well but he can take his 14 points in 54 games with him to Dallas.

[Thorin]

Yup, yet another middling defence (not star level like Pronger was, or Suter, Weber, or Chara are) in Ference.  I mentioned him in a previous post.  Ference is 34 and signed for four years; this is similar to where in their careers Khabibulin and Belanger were signed.  So for defence we've got Petry, Smid, J Schultz, Ference, N Schultz, Belov as NHL starters, then Larsen, Potter, Fedun for call-ups.

For center we've got Nugent-Hopkins, Gagner, Gordon, then a bunch of good-to-bad AHLers.  For the record, Gordon had 4 goals 11 assists in 551 minutes for 1.20 points / 60 minutes.  That's worse than Horcoff's outgoing 1.38 points / 60 minutes.  They were both over 50% in faceoffs.  They both play a defensive-first game.  The difference is Gordon's contract is $3mil/year cap hit vs Horcoff's $5.5mil/year cap hit.  In other words, a similar player with lower point output and lower cap hit.

LaBarbera was a good signing, he's very similar to Dubnyk in style so the players don't have to adjust to a different style of goalie behind them when he's in net.  If you don't like how Dubnyk plays net this is terrible - I like how Dubie plays, so I don't mind.  The best comment I read today about the LaBarbera signing: "So the Oilers' G position is now covered by two similar goalies, collectively Javon Dubarbanyk. I'm good with that."

We've now signed Jesse Joensuu.  I expect him to play wing on the third and fourth line, moving back and forth as Eakins tries to figure out where he fits.

If we manage to sign Mikhail Grabovski to a cheaper short-term contract, then we might have something to play with:

Hall - Hopkins - Eberle
Gagner - Grabovski - Yakupov
Paajarvi - Gordon - Joensuu
Smyth - ?? - Brown

Petry - Smid
J Schultz - Ference
Belov - N Schultz

Dubnyk
LaBarbera

However Grabovski might be an asshat in the dressing room, given public comments over the last few years.  And that would still leave a hole at 4th line center.  I guess we could put Arcobello there but he needs skill and Smyth/Brown aren't that.  Lander?  He gets discouraged too easy.  Vandevelde?  Oop, we let him walk.  Green?  Not skilled enough for the NHL, really.  Anyone else in the system beyond that is nowhere near ready.

The one thing I will say, there are a lot of decent D prospects bubbling under.  Darnell Nurse, Oscar Klefbom, Philip Larsen, Taylor Fedun, Corey Potter, Martin Marincin, David Musil.  Probably in that order.

[Mr. Analog]

Hah, I knew you were going to mention Gordon's stats as I had looked them up (hadn't heard of him before either), I'd still trade one Horcoff for 3x Gordons.

It's going to be another interesting year of hockey, hopefully one where we climb the ladder a bit.

As well I agree, I hope we can get Grabovski.

[Thorin]

So the Oilers still have the NHL rights to Linus Omark.  They could bring him back into their lineup and it could look like this:

Hall - Hopkins - Eberle
Paajarvi - Grabovski - Yakupov
Omark - Gagner - Joensuu
Smyth - Gordon - Brown

(same D and G as above)

Line 1 is frickin' dangerous!  no-see-em-tape-to-tape passes, shots that can squeeze the puck through holes that don't exist, and crazy speed.

Line 2 has a defensively responsible winger, a crazy fast center, and an amazing sniper on the other wing.

Line 3 has a guy playing for his spot, with skilled hands, then a guy at center with skilled hands, then the other winger who apparently is defensively responsible.

Line 4 is the shutdown line with crafty-but-slowing Smyth, super-defensive Gordon, and hit-em-all-day-every-day Brown.

Line 1 and 2 are definite scoring lines, Line 3 is meant to be a scoring line and can be matched up against other teams' third, usually non-scoring, lines.  Line 4 can be thrown out against other teams' first or second lines just to give our scorers a breather.

MacT has mentioned Omark at least once, possibly twice, during press conferences.  This might actually happen.  Of course, this all depends on getting Grabovski or a similar-skilled center.

[Mr. Analog]

Duuuuude that would kick ass, holy crap

[Thorin]

Hah, I knew you were going to mention Gordon's stats as I had looked them up (hadn't heard of him before either), I'd still trade one Horcoff for 3x Gordons.

I'd heard of Gordon, he singlehandedly shut down Hall when we played Phoenix.  I would also trade 1 Horcoff for 3 Gordons.  But we didn't we traded 1 Horcoff for 1 Gordon.  One thing I missed, Gordon is 5 years younger so we shouldn't see the age-related dropoff that most players get between 33 and 38 (Chris Chelios, Jaromir Jagr, and Jarome Iginla excepted).

[Thorin]

Duuuuude that would kick ass, holy crap

It'd only work for a couple of years and then Hopkins and Yakupov'll want their raises and we run out of cap space to do it.

I also think Ference's four-year deal is gonna become MacT's "Khabby" contract.  He's 34 already, it's $3.25mil/year for 4 years.

..

We were in the running for David Clarkson, he went for $5.25mil/year for 7 years.  I'm GLAD we didn't end up signing him for that, it would've been an albatross-round-the-neck contract.

..

Now we've signed two new AHLers - the new associate coach's son Will Acton (from the Toronto Marlies), and the former captain of the Marlies, Ryan Hamilton.  Seems like there's some inside knowledge that Dallas Eakins, our new coach, has.  Or these players really liked him as a coach and are following him into a new association.

..

It's sure been busy for MacT today, but I'm still waiting to see what we get for Hemsky (I predict 2nd round pick or high-price/low-quality center).

[Mr. Analog]

Yep, I'm interested to see what we get.

[Thorin]

I forgot about Andrew Miller, another center in our system who kicked butt in college.  He's smallish as well, so the size nazis won't like him.  Apparently very good hands and doesn't give up.

And it's getting a little confusing.  CapGeek.com, for instance, lists Antti Tyrvainen as a center and Mark Arcobello as a right wing.  Arco played center for OKC, and Tyrvainen played wing, as best I know.

Ahh, Tyrvainen: http://youtu.be/sECQ6uE3WDM.  A little bit crazy.