Edmonton Oilers pass on Kyle Chipchura
9 years ago
It seemed so obvious. Right there, available for nothing on the waiver wire, was a useful fourth line centre with zero acquisition cost. Instead, Kyle Chipchura will remain in Arizona after going unclaimed by the NHL’s other 29 teams.
That Damien Brunner cleared is not all that surprising; after all, he comes with a $2.5 million cap hit and that’s a lot of space for an NHL team. But Chipchura is a pretty reasonable fourth line centre priced at just $875,000; it’s a bit perplexing to see him zip through waivers without any team putting a claim in.
Missed Opportunity
It’s hard not to see this as a missed opportunity for the Edmonton Oilers.
This is the same team that as recently as training camp felt so strongly about having a spare centre that it kept a mediocre Will Acton on the roster while waiving camp standouts Tyler Pitlick and Steve Pinizzotto (both of whom have subsequently made their way back to the majors). Acton was ultimately demoted and then traded, never having been replaced on the roster as the Oilers’ No. 5 centre.
And the funny thing about Chipchura is that on merit he very well may have deserved one of the top-four centre slots on the club. The team’s current depth chart is as follows, with select numbers highlighted:
| Player | Avg. TOI | EVPTS/60 | RelCorsi | ZoneStart | Faceoffs |
| Ryan Nugent-Hopkins | 21:30 | 2.15 | 6.1 | 59.0% | 49.5% |
| Mark Arcobello | 15:48 | 1.03 | -1.2 | 70.9% | 49.1% |
| Boyd Gordon | 13:30 | 1.15 | -7.0 | 14.7% | 56.4% |
| Leon Draisaitl | 12:44 | 0.88 | 3.0 | 79.8% | 43.0% |
At the start of camp, Dallas Eakins talked about having only two NHL centres, and that’s basically what the chart above suggests. Nugent-Hopkins is delivering wonderfully in his role, as is Gordon. Arcobello and Draisaitl on the other hand are struggling to score and struggling to break even on the shot clock despite getting a continual offensive zone push.
For the sake of contrast, the following are Chipchura’s numbers this year:
- 10:23 TOI, 1.10 PTS/60, 4.9 RelCorsi, 35.6% zonestart, 54.7% faceoffs
Chipchura this season has scored more frequently than Arcobello and Draisaitl, he’s won more faceoffs, and he’s posted a better on-ice Corsi number despite frequently starting shifts at his own end of the rink. He’s also bigger than everyone in the above group other than Draisaitl, and he hits and fights and has history killing penalties.
At worst, he’s a nice fit as the club’s No. 5 centre. At best, he could have taken Gordon’s role, freeing up that veteran centreman, or displaced one of Arcobello and Draisaitl.
In some ways, this is a lesser sin than letting Mike Ribeiro wander off to Nashville in the summer was; after all, Chipchura isn’t a top-six player like Riberio (22 points in 25 games) is and wouldn’t have had the same impact on the ice. In other ways, it’s worse, because the Oilers know now exactly how bad they are down the middle and have turned their nose up at an effective 28-year-old with 350-plus NHL games under his belt.
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