Monday Mailbag – The Whipping Boy

You got another taste of retirement with the weekend rolling through, but now it’s time to head back to work. Luckily, the Mailbag is here to save you from being too productive and get you one day closer to retiring. As always, the mailbag depends on your questions.  If you have one, you can email it to me at baggedmilk@oilersnation.com or on Twitter at @jsbmbaggedmilk. Enjoy the distraction, my friends, you’ve earned it.

Being only OK defensively and decent on the dot isn’t nearly enough, even in the bottom six, when footspeed is a challenge and you’ve produced all of 35 points in 215 NHL games. Lander’s PPG is .16. Matt Hendricks, who brought more dimensions, is .19.

The league kept getting faster and he was just a quarter step behind. He also ended up behind 97, 29 and 93 offensively, and Letestu on PP, so he wasn’t going to get offensive looks like he did in AHL. He worked hard, was good defensively and in the faceoff dot. He was a smart player as well, but today speed seems to be the most important asset, which can eliminate some players who are more capable of making plays than some who are simply really good skaters.

That’s a question I’ve been pondering for a long time, and I still don’t know the answer. Initially, I think he was really hampered by being rushed to the NHL in his first season in North America during the “let the kids play” era of Oilers development which ended so very badly. He is an elite two-way player in the AHL, and in 2014-15 he went on a tear under Todd Nelson which suggests it wasn’t really a talent issue. On the other hand, he’s had plenty of opportunity over the years and outside of that run he’s never shown any ability to score.

I think he was a perfectly serviceable 4C at the NHL level. His play wasn’t really a problem by my eye this year. In fact, I think in a couple of his final games he was one of the best Oilers on the ice. It’s just that at the next level down he has star-quality offense. He can earn very good money in Europe and set himself up for life over the next 5-7 years if he manages his money well. He can play in the NHL though. I truly believe that.

Unfortunately, Anton’s play just didn’t cut it at the NHL level. If I’m him and have the option to go play in a professional league elsewhere (and closer to home), I would have taken a deal too.

It’s weird, right? I wrote about Anton Lander the other day and all I could think about was how frustrating it must have been for him to be able to produce at will in the AHL but next to nothing in the NHL. That sucks, man. Regardless, sports is a ruthless business and I understand why he was let go but it definitely sucks at a personal level. Either way, I wish him the best and hope his Russian cheques clear.

Can’t quibble with your list, although Nurse is right on the border, as of right now, for me.

That is a pretty good list, but I’d have Benning in there as well. I believe he is going to be very valuable for the Oilers in the future.

McDavid, obviously. The Hall trade committed them to Draisaitl as the team’s No. 2 offensive weapon, and added Larsson to Klefbom on the back end. Beyond those four, I don’t think we know, yet.

Edmonton’s core, from their perspective, is probably Draisaitl, McDavid, Larsson, Klefbom, Talbot. I think it’s a small group that they would not move unless this thing hits the ditch.

For me, the only players that are “untradeable” right now are 97, 29, 33. With that said, it’s pretty safe to say that 27, 19, 77, 06, also wouldn’t be traded anytime soon but I wouldn’t count anything out with Chia. The rest are expendable to fill the gaps in the lineup if you ask me, unfortunately.

I think my core would be Connor, Leon, Nuge (fight me), Klefbom, Larsson, Sekera, and Talbot. Now, I know I’m going to take some heat on those but that’s a group of players that are dedicated to their craft and I think the Oilers can win with them. That said, it’s equally as important to get some players contributing on value contracts like we saw with Matt Benning. Dollars matter in the McDavid era.

I want to see Bear play against men in the AHL before offering a timeline. He is unquestionably talented offensively, but that doesn’t always translate to pro. He’s a bit undersized and while that didn’t hurt him in the WHL, pro is a physical step up.

I expect he will be in AHL for two years, and then in his third NHL camp he could push for a job. The Oilers finally have the luxury of not having to rush D-men. And I could see him get a recall possibly in year two for a few games due to injuries, but it is still difficult to say with certainty if he will become a regular NHLer. How will he adapt to not playing as much in the AHL next year, as well as playing against men?

I wouldn’t move far off my generic approach to players picked later in the draft. As a first-year pro, the hope is to see the player survive the jump to the AHL and make progress as the year goes on. In his second season, I like to see progress to the point where he’s excelling in the minors. As a third-year pro, he should be a high-end AHL’er who is pushing for NHL employment from the get-go. By the end of year three, he needs to make the jump to the NHL or else be exposed to waivers, at which point he’s more suspect than prospect.

Not every player needs that much time (Jared Spurgeon is a good example for anyone looking at a best-case scenario), but many do, including plenty of good ones. David Savard was a defenceman drafted late in 2009 who has carved out a career as a top-four guy in the NHL, and while he had a cameo for a bad Columbus team as a second-year pro, he didn’t make the jump full-time until year four. If Bear turns into Savard, the Oilers will be absolutely thrilled, and there’s no need to rush – it’s more important to get the player right than to get him fast.

I think you’ll see Bear play two years in the AHL before he becomes a primary call up option for the NHL club. He’s an offensive defender but offence is the first thing that dies when you become a pro defender. So realistically I say it takes that long for his other skills to catch up to his offensive ability and he breaks into the NHL. Also, I probably said Benning would be an AHLer all year when he signed last summer so who knows? He’s a right-handed with a bomb from the point. Maybe he catches a break sooner than we ever imagine.

BRING HIM UP NOW!

I think we’ve got to get him into the AHL next year 100%. Hopefully, he plays two solid seasons in Bakersfield, wins some awards, wins a championship or two, then comes up to be Oscar Klefbom’s right-hand man.

I hope they don’t even think of bringing him up beyong a cup of coffee/training camp stuff for at least two years. Oilers fans need to get used to allowing prospects to develop properly and that includes guys like Ethan Bear. As we’ve seen many times, junior results don’t always mean that a successful NHL career is to follow.

Not a good hockey town, even if the rink is way out in Kanata. If the Oilers rink was in Leduc it would still be a sell-out every night.

I don’t like it when media, or anyone for that matter, rip on fans for not paying big money to go to a game. I have season tickets and I know how expensive they are, and if people choose not to pay big prices and instead sit at home that is their right. It was odd seeing those games not sold out. I believe there are many layers to the issue in Ottawa. I believe it is a combination of fans not loving the owner, the location of the rink, the economy in Ottawa (it is a government town and there was some issue recently with paychecks and some people haven’t been paid in six to eight weeks) and many people in Ottawa didn’t grow up there. They don’t have the same emotional attachment to the team as people in Edmonton, for example. Many Oilers fans grew up here and have cheered, and/or been frustrated with the team, since they were young.

It’s definitely a story, but it has been pretty well covered.

I think it gets the appropriate attention. It’s a major concern and people ought to question the future of the franchise if the Sens stay in Kanata. It’s embarrassing but everyone who has been there says that the arena is awful to travel to. It’s apparently so bad that it’s costing Melnyk dollars. That can’t last forever.

I feel like this has been driven into the ground enough… but seriously, if flights and tickets were a little bit cheaper, WE could go sell out one of their games for them. Very surprising.

I think it’s funny how we make fun of American teams for a lack of attendance but some people got pretty upset when the media took shots at Ottawa. Listen, I know there are some economic factors at play here, and I know the arena is in another postal code from Ottawa, but the management group need to figure that out. Maybe try giving the unsold tickets away to families in need? Donate them to a charity so some kids can go? At least that way they would have a chance at selling some merch/food or something? Maybe I’m crazy? Probably.

No draft lottery stories to write this off-season.

Not every article is negative. Eberle didn’t play well and has a big contract so he frustrates some fans. I do believe a bit of a mob mentality kicks in. A few start complaining, and keep repeating it and then they and others focus only on the negatives. It snowballs. I’d hope some would realize that the player is never as bad as they think. Jason Arnott is a prime example, and recently so is Justin Schultz. Eberle is not a superstar, but he has skill and if the Oilers trade him I wouldn’t be surprised to see him return to being a regular 25-goal scorer for a few seasons. He could do that in Edmonton also, but the salary cap will play a factor in how long he remains an Oilers forward.

That’s not an Edmonton thing, or even reall a sports thing. It’s human nature. Here’s the historian Tacitus, writing about the Great Fire of Rome in the year 64:

“But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the emperor, and the propitiations of the gods, did not banish the sinister belief that the conflagration was the result of an order. Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called “Chrestians” by the populace.”

When bad things happen, there’s always a desire to find out why, and a lot of times that translates into a desire to find someone to blame. In the story above, Nero was getting a lot of the blame and so decided to scapegoat Christians, who were an easy target because of their relatively small numbers and unpopularity in Rome.

Coming back to the present, Eberle is a more deserving target than the Roman Christians were because he’s actually at least somewhat to blame for Edmonton’s failure to advance beyond the second round. That can to some degree be laid at the feet of secondary scoring, and Eberle was the postseason poster boy for those problems. Having said that, he gets so much attention in part because he’s also an easy target. He’s been around for a long time, he gets paid a lot and there are some obvious weaknesses in his game. That combination of existing unpopularity and playoff sins means he gets a disproportionate amount of venom right now.

Do what you do best. If that’s to write inane drivel without any critical thinking or self-awareness, keep it up. It’s what got you here. Keep beating that practice drum. I like those articles and radio segments the best. I’m sure Joe Fan gives a rat’s ass about how hard anyone practices, but you would have thought Hemsky and Eberle were eating Cheetos in their underwear while everyone was doing bag skates the way they’ve been spoken about.

Listen, I don’t know what’s wrong with people. All I can tell you is that unless someone can speak about the practices in explicit detail then all their doing is making face noise and aren’t worth listening to.

If we have no one to blame things on or hate then what will we do with our time? I’m not a big fan of Ebs being the whipping boy right now… but the circle of blame has to stop somewhere. Soon it will be Ebs, then it will be Lucic or someone. Everyone takes their turn.

The whipping boy is a long and proud tradition in Edmonton, though, I’m not sure why. It’s like people, and I’m including myself in that bracket, need to blame someone for the lack of results and get tunnel vision in the process. I don’t think Eberle deserves as much venom as he’s getting but I don’t think that me saying that will affect anyone’s opinion either. Such is life in the fishbowl.