HURRY, OCTOBER SKY
By Lowetide
7 years agoOne year ago, the Edmonton Oilers left the station with eight defensemen on their opening night roster. Good that they did, as the likely extra man—Brandon Davidson—turned out to be a long awaited minor league player who did develop properly. With the news today that Eric Gryba has accepted an invite from the Edmonton Oilers, could we see 8D again opening night this year?
Opening Night 2015
- L1: Pouliot—Nuge—Purcell
- L2: Hall—McDavid—Slepyshev
- L3: Korpikoski—Lander —Yakupov
- L4: Klinkhammer—Letestu—Hendricks
- D1: Sekera—Fayne
- D2: Klefbom—J. Schultz
- D3: Reinhart—Gryba
- G1: Talbot (Nilsson)
- Extras: Luke Gazdic, Andrew Ference, Brandon Davidson
- Injured: Jordan Eberle, Dillon Simpson
The Oilers began the year with eight men (plus Dillon Simpson on IR) and the carousel of defense went pretty much non-stop all year long. In fact, injuries had such a big impact the club didn’t see much of their top talent for much of the year:
OILERS GP 2015-16 BY DEFENSEMAN
- Andrej Sekera 81
- Darnell Nurse 69
- Mark Fayne 69
- Eric Gryba 53
- Brandon Davidson 51
- Justin Schultz 45
- Oscar Klefbom 30
- Griffin Reinhart 29
- Adam Clendening 20
- Jordan Oesterle 17
- Nikita Nikitin 11
- Adam Pardy 9
- Brad Hunt 7
- Andrew Ference 6
The opening night starting 6D totaled 307 games, or 62 percent of the total games played by Oilers defenders last season. That is probably historically low for opening night, and added to the difficulty is that two of the higher paid blue (Andrew Ference, Nikita Nikitin) played in only 17 games last season. Chances are we will not see that kind of ridiculous injury total this coming season.
Still, it is probably best to plan better than a year ago and find more substantial options than Nikita Nikitin and (the now injured and likely finished) Andrew Ference. As an aside, I don’t think people are going to thank Mr. Ference for his Oilers work, but I do thank him for his contributions to that Bruins Stanley in 2011. Music!
The Oilers have what I think we can agree is a far more substantial group entering this year’s camp:
- Oscar Klefbom
- Adam Larsson
- Andrej Sekera
- Brandon Davidson
- Mark Fayne
- Darnell Nurse
- Griffin Reinhart
- Eric Gryba
- Jordan Oesterle
- David Musil
- Matt Benning
- Dillon Simpson
- Mark Fraser
Peter Chiarelli has been fortunate in that Klefbom and Davidson are emerging talents, but he has also added Larsson (cue Hall outrage) and Sekera since arrival. The Mark Fayne signing—by Craig MacTavish—remains wildly unpopular among Oilers fans (but I like him fine, while also understanding strict defensive defensemen may be going the way of calligraphy).
ONE FINAL NOTE
I think the Oilers are probably willing to go to war with this group, although a RH defender who could help on the power play remains on the wish list. Perhaps we will see another Leddy—Boychuk October Saturday, and maybe this time the Oilers grab an actual NHL defenseman for less than 100 cents on the dollar.
It could happen just that way. Probably wise to build the depth anyway, just in case. The Gryba PTO signing is a good idea all around, don’t let anyone tell you different.
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