Edmonton Oilers player review and 2021-22 preview: Derek Ryan

Truth be told, there were lots of chances for the Edmonton Oilers to land Derek Ryan earlier than they did.

The former University of Alberta Golden Bears name has been loosely linked to the club for a while, but nothing ever materialized — even with Ryan being waived twice in 2020-21 and clearing both times with the Calgary Flames. But now, the Oilers inked him to a two-year deal this past offseason.

It’s a curious predicament for many teams when players hit waivers, but Ryan is one that maybe should’ve never gotten through. He scored two goals and 13 points in 43 games and while that’s a down year of production considering what he’s done in the past, it’s still decent offence from a bottom-six player.

Where he makes his money now, however, is being an incredibly sound two-way producer. According to hockeyviz.com, his even-strength production was off the charts last year. Offensively, he provided at a 12 percent rate higher than league average and defensively, a 10 percent rate above league average.

At 5×5 with him on the ice, the Flames were rock solid. They controlled 59.71 percent of the shot attempts, 62.07 percent of the goals and 61.05 percent of the expected goals. His PDO was a bit inflated at 101.4 so some regression could be expected, but even at that number his metrics should stay strong.

His most common linemates weren’t tremendous by any stretch of the term either in Josh Leivo, Joakim Nordstrom and Milan Lucic. Those are really, really strong numbers, even though the majority of his playing time was against middling competition.

In the preseason his underlying numbers are nothing to write home about, but truth be told it’s not realistic to put much merit in preseason stats. Small sample size and a rotating cast of linemates and situation play can skew numbers.

Nonetheless, Ryan is going to be a huge addition to an Oilers bottom-six that has bled goals and chances for years. Even if Ryan is able to provide league-average value, it should be a massive addition to helping staple shut the wounds.