BLUE MUSIL
By Lowetide
7 years agoDavid Musil was a terrific junior player. Smart positional defender, he could handle himself and he drove the play to the outside all day. The nature of being an Oilers fan is to assume the worst from second rounders, but in the case of Musil one of the reasons he may not be an Oiler this fall is out of his hands. The Leftorium is a monster, filled with an almost endless list of those blasted portsiders. Can Musil find his way to the Oilers opening night roster?
- What does he have going for him? His coach last season—Gerry Fleming—really liked his play.
- What did he say? Gerry Fleming, Condors Coach: “He’s been our number-one shutdown guy and been great on the penalty kill. We use him in all situations,
we use him late in the game when we’re up a goal, and he’s responded
well. The biggest thing is when you don’t notice Dave during a game, you
know he’s had a good game. He reads the play offensively as well. A lot
of people underestimate his value in that area but he jumps in at the
right times. He activates at the offensive blue line at the right times,
he’s been getting pucks down to the net a lot better, and creating
offensive chances for himself. But his specialty, obviously, is as a shutdown guy
and he’s done a good job at that. We’d like to see him get an
opportunity but that’s out of his control. All he can control is the way
he plays down here. At times it’s been a little frustrating for him.
We’ve had a few talks and he’d like to get an opportunity but you can’t
worry about whether or not you’re going to get an opportunity. You have
to worry about the things you can control in your game.” Source - Why isn’t he in the NHL? Speed is an issue, and most of his value is tied up in defense—he is not going to be even average as an offensive contributor.
- How much offense? Not a lot, his NHL equivalency from last season is 82gp, 2-6-8. A reasonable offensive (and style) comp is Mark Fayne, who went 69gp, 2-5-7 in 2015-16.
- That is low. Yes.
- What does average offense look like from an Oilers defender? Edmonton was very poor compared to the rest of the league last season: Per 82 games, the average Oilers blue scored 4-13-17. Brandon Davidson would represent average defense for an Edmonton D one year ago.
- Can Musil make it as a pure defensive defenseman? That particular player type is going the way of the calligrapher—not many of them left.
- How many were there last year? Here are the NHL defensemen who played 60 or more games and scored fewer than 10 points in 2016-17: Mark Borowiecki, Mark Stuart, Fedor Tyutin, Barrett Jackman, Jonas Brodin, Mark Fayne, Martin Marincin, Zbynek Michalek, Klas Dahlbeck, Adam McQuaid, Dalton Prout, Carl Gunnarsson, Matt Carle, Erik Gudbranson and Joel Edmundson.
- How many is that? 15.
- How many were there in 2000-01? There were 21 that season who played 60 or more games and scored less than 10 points. Oilers’ blue Sean Brown was one of them.
- Love Sean Brown! Me too, there was a game rooster.
- What about this Leftorium business? Well, my theory is that Musil—who is waiver eligible, mind—might be better off in another organization.
- Too many lefties? At this camp currently (if my numbers are correct) there are 14 lefties and seven righties—and even that is deceiving, since Frankie Simonelli and Kayle Doetzer are two of the righties.
- It will get better. Yes it will, Peter Chiarelli has added Adam Larsson, Matt Benning and Eric Gryba this summer (although Gryba was part of the team this year).
- That doesn’t help Musil. No, it does not. He is in a spot of bother.
- Is it time for him to go? We will see. Edmonton may carry 8D as they did one year ago in order to protect Brandon Davidson from the waiver wire.
- Is he as touted as Davidson? Well, Davidson wasn’t Davidson a year ago, so there may be a sense among Oilers management folks to exercise caution with this player.
- Keep him around to see how he performs in the NHL over a 20-game period? Something like that.
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