LOVE MINUS ZERO, NO LIMIT

For most of this century, the Edmonton Oilers have had a terrible time in the procurement department. Early on, the club was drafting players the coach didn’t seem to value (Jani Rita, Rob Schremp) and still later the drafting department stopped producing players who could dominate in the AHL. Add that to management’s tendency to flush men like Jason Chimera and Kyle Brodziak just as they were ready to establish themselves, and it made for a vexing situation. Are there signs things could be getting better? (Photo of Anton Slepyshev by Mark Williams, all rights reserved). 

At the turn of the century, Edmonton’s coach was Craig MacTavish. His teams were normally terrific 5×5 teams who had adventurous goaltending and hilarious power plays. In hindsight, drafting Rob Schremp for MacT to deploy was unwise (these things still happen, witness the Blues trading for Nail Yakupov in order for Ken Hitchcock to not play him) for the team. On the other hand, Jarret Stoll was made for MacT’s teams, and Shawn Horcoff too. 

My favorite MacT story in this area is Jani Rita. Edmonton picked him in the first round and then promptly replaced the GM, head coach and scouting director the next summer. Rita became an orphan, but he had some ability (he smoked one past a goalie at the WJs that remains embedded in my brain) and the job of a pro sports organization is to develop and deploy talent.

After what must have been a long period of pressure from management, MacT finally inserted Jani Rita into the lineup (after calling him up). MacTavish, who is in fact probably the smartest man in most rooms he enters, poisoned the experiment by placing defenseman Scott Ferguson on LW for Rita’s one-game audition. The line failed to generate much (shocking!) and Rita was sent back to the hinterlands.

Since were are in season two of the Chiarelli—McLellan era, I thought it might be interesting to see if the club is giving a full chance to the AHL kids. I am looking for players who have spent significant time in the minors, and get at least 25 NHL games in the following season:

Now, the Oilers also gave Connor McDavid and Darnell Nurse—high picks turning pro—opportunities, but in the three men above we have 25 NHL game auditions, complete with real minutes, and a full chance to find their way in the NHL. 

This year, the Oilers have four new inserts of note, one of whom (Jesse Puljujarvi) would land under the McDavid—Nurse description—although procurement came through the draft, there was little or no development involved. Matt Benning arrived via college, so has no AHL background. Here are the other two youngsters:

Both men (plus JP and Benning) appear to be on the way to full auditions in the NHL—and that is a good thing. Does that mean Chiarelli—McLellan will avoid the errors made by Lowe—MacTavish?

Too soon to know. I think the Oilers under Lowe and MacTavish brought players to the NHL in an orderly fashion (Rita aside), but the club sent away real value (Jason Chimera, Kyle Brodziak, even Jarret Stoll and Matt Greene to a certain extent) without the benefit of their best seasons. In the cap era, inexpensive and effective NHL players who don’t cost a lot toward the cap are vital, and the early years of any player who arrives via the minors are likely to be value contracts.

The key for Edmonton is evaluating these talents properly. Chances are someone in this group is Jason Chimera and another in this group is Rob Schremp. Correctly identifying this talent proved to be a challenge for the Lowe—MacTavish Oilers, we await the outcome of the Davidson—Pitlick—Slepyshev experiments.

The first real test may well be the expansion draft.