Kassian is…the best?

We are three games into this season and the never ending tryout on the right side of the forward lines is still happening. Time to panic? Debatable. Time to evaluate the life choices that brought us here? Definitely.

Alright, here’s the story. Last summer, the Oilers traded their only natural right shooting winger who has consistently played in the top six. They received a third line centre in return — and I’m not mad about it because what’s the point anymore? — but Strome might try being a winger again anyway. The top right winger from last season got a fat contract to centre, except the team is so godawful on the right side that he’s been forced to play winger up to this point.

It’s fine. Everything is totally fine.

The Oilers continue to play musical chairs at right wing and centre because the void left by Jordan Eberle has not been adequately filled. That’s the risk that Peter Chiarelli took. That’s the roster this team has to work with. I was at least mildly more hopeful that things were sorted after Kailer Yamamoto blew the socks off of in training camp. The thought there being that even though he’s a rookie, there’s skill in a skill position and he had earned his shot.

Three games into the season, Yamamoto has played 18:26 — total. Absolutely none of his very few minutes have played on the power play. He was nervous in one game. Mostly invisible the other. And the club had him in the pressbox against the Canucks on Saturday. He has seven games to reverse this trend, at most, otherwise he will be getting a plane ticket back to Spokane.

It’s fine. Everything is totally fine.

Of the players remaining on this roster who aren’t named Draisaitl or Yamamoto, we need to start thinking about which ones might actually be able to hold down a job on the top two lines over the majority of this season. What I’m leaning towards, and I’m not overly enthused about this, is that the best person on the roster to be the 2RW is actually Zack Kassian.

First, we should probably acknowledge that Zack Kassian was supposed to be the fourth line right winger of the Oilers. This was so much the case that Kassian spent almost no time at all featured on any other lines during the pre-season. He didn’t get a test drive until the regular season, which is probably a week too late for it to have been planned. Frankly, Kassian is a really good fourth liner and in a perfect world that would be his place.

He found a role on the Oilers as a fourth liner and re-established himself as a person and a player along the way. We could wax poetic about it, but I don’t need the style points. He plays well in that spot and both he and management saw fit to sign an extension. No complaints at all.

However, now that the RW position looks like a desolate wasteland compared to a year ago, the survivor that crawls out of the rubble might actually be the fourth line winger. Kassian has a few attributes that work to his advantage. He’s gritty and big. He’s a 6’3” 210 pounder who was second among forwards in hits. Stylistically, he’s a Peter Chiarelli-type player along the same lines as Milan Lucic (who was first among forwards in hits). But even more important than that, Kassian can skate.

Zack Kassian is deceptively fast. The Nation’s Jason Gregor asked Pat Maroon a few days ago who can keep up with that McDavidian speed and he didn’t hesitate to put Kassian’s speed as second on the team. Sure, he cannot handle the puck like McDavid, but who can? If skating is the great equalizer in the NHL, then Kass has an advantage with his speed. When Draisaitl and/or McDavid gear up, he is among the very few on the team that can stay close.

Sure, but he’s a fourth liner, right? I mean, he’s never cracked 30 points in the NHL before. True story. He’s never had more than 29 points and he’s never scored more than 14 goals. Last season was his fourth-highest point total ever (24) as a professional. That’s not a lot to get excited about.

However, we might be able to put a better spin on this. Zack Kassian has been relegated to the bottom six for the majority of his NHL career. As such, he’s averaged somewhere in the 12 minute a night range for ice time. In fact, he’s only had one season where he averaged more than 13 during his six-year career. So we have to view his offence with the knowledge of his limited ice time in mind.

On a per 60 minute basis, Zack Kassian has been a consistently above average offensive producer for most of his career. Last season he was sixth among Oiler forwards in Points per 60 minutes during 5v5 play. He averaged 1.67 P/60 in 2016-2017. He was in the top five (among forwards on his team) during his final two seasons with the Canucks as well. So there’s a history here that suggests Kassian can actually create offence.

As for his competition, Ryan Strome had one great year producing offence via totals and per 60 minutes. He was a monster in 2014-2015 with the Islanders, but has fallen back to Earth in a big way. If practice lines mean anything, he’ll get another chance with McDavid again soon. I want to reserve judgment on Strome until after he’s played more than three games with the Oilers, but early showings haven’t been strong.

Drake Caggiula is a player that the Oilers have given a big push, for…reasons. He had seven goals and 18 points last year to go along with a brutal 1.13 P/60. He’s also a left-handed shot, which isn’t an automatic failure in the RW test but without the offence, you have to wonder if RW is the spot for him.

Jesse Puljujarvi might get a spot in the top six eventually, but he really needs to start producing in the AHL before he earns a job in the NHL. I have hope, but there’s no need to hurry him along.

Anton Slepyshev is an interesting player because he appears so bloody talented, but he’s another guy who needs to actually accomplish something. There is no history of scoring in North America to make him the go-to guy. I don’t know what he is.

Iiro Pakarinen needs to actually play hockey before we can safely slot him into the top six. He played 20 games total last year, including the playoffs and that’s combining the AHL and NHL.

That ends the players who are pushing to play on the right wing for Edmonton. We may yet see Jussi Jokinen moved to the right side, but that hasn’t been the preferred route up to this point. The reality is that at this point, Kassian probably has the best resume of the group. If Yamamoto is heading the direction he is heading, and Draisaitl is playing down the middle to spread out the offence, then the biggest, fastest, most consistently productive right winger remaining is Zack Kassian.

It’s fine. Everything is totally fine.