Is Kevin Shattenkirk Back on the Oilers’ Radar?
By Zach Laing
7 years agoAccording to TSN’s Insiders, Kevin Shattenkirk is a player who might be available for a trade come deadline time. Jordan Eberle’s name came in at number seven on their Trade Deadline Trade Bait list.
It started earlier in the day yesterday when TSN’s Frank Seravalli wrote:
The Oilers, who crave a right-shot defenceman like Shattenkirk to step onto their power play and consistently put up 45 or 50 points, are in buy mode for the first time in a long time. The Oilers are on track to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2006. They are one of the teams that could consider moving a conditional first-round pick to make a splash for a player like Shattenkirk.Moving Eberle now would create a bigger hole at right wing. Eberle, 26, has underwhelmed this season. He has just eight goals in 46 games and one tally in his last 18 games. He has also shouldered a lot of Edmonton’s toughest matchups and his stock seems bound to rebound.
Later yesterday, on TSN’s Insider Trading, James Duthie, Pierre LeBrun and Bob McKenzie further discussed Shattenkirk as well as the Oilers:
Duthie: (In reference to Kevin Shattenkirk being number eight on their trade bait list) Is there a trade possible there?LeBrun: Yeah there is and that’s change in it’s self. I think when this season started, all things being equal, the St. Louis Blues viewed their team as a team that could contend for the Stanley Cup and why not after going to the Western Conference final last year. Listen, they’re still potentially playoff bound – but I think internally the Blues don’t view themselves in quite the same level that they were a year ago.And remember that this is a team that let David Backes and Troy Brouwer walk away for nothing last July. They are going to listen on Kevin Shattenkirk, doesn’t mean they necessarily will trade him – it depends on the offer but I do think they will listen and potentially get something for him.McKenzie: And Shattenkirk is an interesting name because we know last summer that he and the Edmonton Oilers had permission to talk to each other at that time – but he basically did not look favourably on going to Edmonton and signing a long term deal there so that one was shelved at that time.But because the Blues aren’t as good and because he is in an expiring contract situation our Frank Seravelli is reporting the scent seems to be out there that Shattenkirk might look more favourably on a lot of different options, perhaps including the Edmonton one.
Kevin Shattenkirk, a 20 minute, right-shot powerplay quarterback who has the ability to put up points in the 40’s, is a player the Oilers clearly covet. After this season, his four year, $17 million contract expires making Shattenkirk a UFA.
Seravalli says that “he will be in range for a payday nearing $50 million over seven years,” which would give him around $7 million per season.
Over the past four years, he has over 4000 minutes at even strength putting up 0.79 points per hour, a 53.6 Corsi for percent, a PDO of 99.8 to go along with a 53.4 goals-for percent.
However, in the same four years, no defenceman in the NHL has scored at a higher points per hour rate on the power-play than Shattenkirk has, putting up a stunning 6.27 points per hour.
For comparison, Shea Weber is second in that category scoring a whole less point per hour on the power-play than Shattenkirk at 5.24 points per hour. Third is Kris Letang at 5.03 points per hour. As a fact, only one other player scored more than 5 points per hour on the powerplay and that’s Keith Yandle at 5.02 points per hour.
Andrej Sekera has played the most power-play time in the last four years with 605 minutes. He has scored 3.67 points per hour in that time frame, well off of the ability Shattenkirk has to produce on the power-play.
The Oilers have an interesting cap situation to make work in the future given that Leon Draisaitl will be due a new deal this offseason while Connor McDavid, Patrick Maroon, Brandon Davidson, Matthew Benning and Darnell Nurse will all be due new deals two offseasons from now.
Shattenkirk is well deserving of a new deal and if he were to sign a seven-year deal he would be 34 years old by the time the contract expires.
Would you deal for Kevin Shattenkirk if it meant that we could re-sign him this offseason?
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