Welcome to the 2020-21 season review and 2021-22 season preview player-by-player! In this, and other articles, I’ll be, well, reviewing the Edmonton Oilers 2020-21 season and previewing the 2021-22 season. You can read about the analytics behind my analysis here.

Devin Shore had a curious 2020-21 campaign. He joined the Oilers on a professsional tryout ahead of the year and earned a spot on the roster.

He appeared in a depth role for the club after bouncing around from team to team for the three years prior. In 38 games, he scored five goals and nine points. Decent production, even if a few tallies came on an empty net.

His underlying numbers, however, were awful. With him on the ice at 5×5, the Oilers controlled 38.35 percent of the shot attempts, 34.62 percent of the goals and 40.49 percent of the expected goal share with a PDO of 98.6.

He had a below average 7.32 on ice shooting percentage which can partially account for the lack of goal production with him on the ice, but the truth of the matter is even if it increased by 1.5 percent, that only accounts for roughly two goals — not enough by any stretch of the term to improve his on ice numbers.

According to hockeyviz.com, his isolated impacts were negligible, at best. At even-strength he provided offence at a three percent rate below league average and defence at a one percent rate above league average.

The Oilers offensive expected goal share fell 38 percent below league average with him on the ice, but defensively, the Oilers’ expected goal share was 11 percent better than league average suggesting there was some value there in him. Despite that, the Oilers were heavily outscored with him on the ice making those defensive numbers nearly a moot point.

For some reason, this all landed him a two-year contract. The cost is fairly inconsequential at $850k and the Oilers can bury him in the American League if need be.

The Oilers will deploy him much like they did last year: in a defensive role with a sprinkle on the penalty kill. He had a strong start in the preseason, so the team will hope that can carry into the regular season.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at [email protected]