AT RANDOM: MAROON TIME

8 years ago

I’m a sucker for underdogs and longshots. That’s why I’ve always liked Patrick Maroon. That, and the fact Maroon is big, bottom-six tough and has shown he has top-six hands when he keeps his gloves on and just plays the game.

Players like Maroon can be a real find, especially when you get them for cheap, like Edmonton Oilers’ GM Pete Chiarelli did at the trade deadline in sending spare part Martin Gernat and a draft pick to Anaheim to acquire the hulking winger. The Ducks even sweetened the pot by retaining $500,000 of Maroon’s $2-million salary.

Simply put, the six-foot-three, 230-pound Maroon, like reclamation project Zack Kassian, brings dimensions the Oilers need – he’s a combination of size, nastiness and skill the Oilers have been lacking for years among their top-nine forwards. If all your crashers and bangers are stuck on the fourth line because they aren’t capable of playing higher, you’re doing it wrong. Until now, the Oilers have been doing it wrong.

Maroon, playing right wing on a line with Taylor Hall and Leon Draisaitl, scored his second goal in three games with the Oilers in a 2-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets Sunday and has two assists. He scored his first goal as an Oiler and was a physical force in a 4-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers Thursday. That’s a helluva first impression.

THE LONG RUN

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With 207 NHL games in the books since being selected in the sixth round, 161st overall, by Philadelphia in 2007, the 27-year-old Maroon has already beaten the odds to get this far. Seventeen of the 30 players taken in the sixth round of the 2007 draft haven’t played a single NHL game. Maroon ranks third in games played behind only Carl Hagelin (330 games) and Nick Bonino (310 games).

Given the make-up of the forward group here, Edmonton provides Maroon with a terrific opportunity to shine to finish out a season that was so-so with the Ducks, to re-establish himself. Maroon, who had a career high 34 points with Anaheim last season, had 4-9-13 in 56 games when traded. There was talk out of Anaheim his conditioning was lacking this season and, as is the case with many players, questions about his consistency.

I’m don’t know if Maroon will play as high up in the line-up as he has to this point over the long term, factoring in the returns of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Benoit Pouliot, but he’s got the inside track now and has 14 more games to convince Todd McLellan he’s fine right where he is.

At the very least, Maroon is a top-nine guy. That not only provides McLellan with dimensions this team needs, more of what we’ve seen so far might provide Chiarelli with options he didn’t have before in terms of players he’s willing to move to address bolstering the blue line.

TALBOT LOCKED IN

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I don’t remember an Oiler goaltender putting in a better stretch than Cam Talbot has over these last six games in years. With 39 saves on 40 shots against the Jets, Talbot has stopped 207 of the 214 shots he’s faced (.967) over his last half-dozen games. He was named NHL first star of the week today.

The downside of those numbers is heaping that kind of workload in your stopper is ridiculous. The Oilers have allowed an average of 35.6 shots a game during that stretch, including 75 over the last two stops of the road trip. It goes without saying no goaltender can shine in that kind of shooting gallery over a protracted period.

The Oilers sit 27th in the NHL in shots against per game at 31.5. They were 20th at 30.0 last season.

THE TOP 100

I’m 27 names into the Top 100 Oilers list – profiles on Andrei Kovalenko, Steve Staios, Stan Weir and Mark Napier are up next – and a couple of the names I’ve left out are nagging me. There’s no Al Hamilton, first captain of the Oilers, and no Sergei Samsonov.

Based on their overall careers, they’d be in the Top 100 of those who have played in Edmonton, but the guidelines I set at the start of the series limits consideration to their NHL days as Oilers. Hamilton played seven seasons here in the WHA but just one (31 games) in the NHL. Samsonov played 19 regular season games and 24 in the playoffs and was a fairly significant part of the 2006 Cup playoff run.

Of course, I would have come out ahead putting either one of them in the No. 94 spot I gave to Justin Schultz on a flyer, but what’s done is done. Anyway, if there’s anybody you expected to see already in this first group of 27 but haven’t, feel free to mention them. I might have them listed higher up, but what I don’t want to do is overlook any player worthy of making it.

So far: 73. Andrei Kovalenko, 74. Steve Staios, 75. Stan Weir, 76. Mark Napier, 77. Brett Callighen, 78. Jimmy Carson, 79. Raffi Torres, 80. Mike York, 81. Andrew Cogliano, 82. Mariusz Czerkawski, 83. Eric Brewer, 84. Tom Poti, 85. Radek Dvorak, 86. Igor Kravchuk, 87. Lubomir Visnovsky, 88. Luke Richardson, 89. Willy Lindstrom, 90. Bryan Marchment, 91. Miroslav Satan, 92. David Perron, 93. Igor Ulanov, 94. Justin Schultz, 95. Scott Mellanby, 96. Norm McIver, 97. Mark Lamb, 98. Pat Price, 99. Dean McAmmond, 100. Marc-Andre Bergeron.

The original item on putting together the list is here.

WHILE I’M AT IT

We haven’t received an update from the Oilers on Brandon Davidson, who left last night’s game in the first period with an injury to his left knee after colliding with 260-pound Dustin Byfuglien, but the news isn’t going to be good. Once helped off the ice, Davidson used a wheelchair to get down the hall to the dressing room. You can see the play here. Fingers crossed that Davidson’s season isn’t over. From where I sit, he’s been the team’s best blueliner.

Like many people, McLellan’s special team’s record in San Jose had me expecting to see the Oilers move up – maybe into the top half of the league — in power play percentage this season. No cigar. As of today, the Oilers sit 26th at 17.0 per cent. They went 0-for-2 against the Jets and are on a 1-for-22 slide over their last 10 games. That’s a slight drop-off from last season (18th at 17.7 per cent).

Through his first 31 games, Connor McDavid is averaging 1.09 PPG (13-21-34). If McDavid, held off the scoresheet against Winnipeg, maintains that pace and plays all 14 remaining games, he’ll finish with 49 points.

Listen to Robin Brownlee Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the Jason Gregor Show on TSN 1260.

AT RANDOM: MAROON TIME

THE LONG RUN

TALBOT LOCKED IN

THE TOP 100

WHILE I’M AT IT

RECENTLY BY ROBIN BROWNLEE

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