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Lowetide
Sep 18, 2016, 18:01 EDTUpdated:
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Dennis Wideman is an acquired taste, like jazz, scotch, polo (with the horses, everyone loves water polo and Marco Polo) or tobogganing. He has done some things that made him famous—and one thing that made him infamous—but today’s question surrounds his ability to post one more productive NHL season .
On Friday, I spoke to Frank Seravalli of TSN about the Oilers and their blue. He mentioned Dennis Wideman as a possible player of interest for Peter Chiarelli—a player PC has traded for and traded way (in Boston). Opinions vary among Oilers fans (what do we agree on? Wanye has spiffy hair?)

THINGS WE KNOW ABOUT DENNIS WIDEMAN

  • He played in 51 games a year ago, losing time to suspension and a triceps injury.
  • If you google Dennis Wideman—You Tube, all you get is the hit on the referee.
  • Wideman had a major power outage year over year, including a reduction from 9 EV goals in 2014-15 to zero this past season.
  • He played 20:37 a night in 2015-16, continuing a long run of 20+ minutes per game that goes back to 2006-07, his second season in the NHL.
  • He shoots a lot—though shot attempts in 2014-15 (4.72 per game) fell drastically in 2015-16 (3.64). His number last year is a fairly close to Darnell Nurse (3.49).
  • Nurse also got his shot on net most often among Oilers regular blue, 49.8 percent of the time. Wideman found the range 40.3 percent of the time. I mention this because getting the shot through is a common criticism of Andrej Sekera. Sekera got his shot on net 45.2 percent of the time.

THE GOOD THINGS ABOUT HIM:

  • Dennis Wideman is a veteran. The more actual NHL players you have, the better.
  • He fills a specific need—righty hammer for the power play—and is one year removed from a 50-point season.
  • He is 33, which means he might have some left.
  • The cost to get him should be minimal, in fact Calgary is likely willing to keep some of that final year’s contract ($5.25 cap hit, $6 million silver dollars in salary).
  • Although his Calgary possession numbers are not strong, he was running wild with Derek Engelland and Kris Russell a year ago—he was fine with actual NHL defenders.
  • Source

THE BAD THINGS ABOUT HIM:

  • Dennis Wideman is a not a certain plan. There is danger here, and wasting money is unwise.
  • Helping the Calgary Flames is something the Edmonton Oilers should not do.
  • This is not a long-term solution. So what if he scores 15 goals, then what? A five-year plan would be better, if at all possible.
  • He is not so good that an organization should invest in him while compromising cap. Trading a troubled contract—Lauri Korpikoski—made more sense than dealing a possibly useful asset for Wideman.

CORSI FOR REL TEAM

When I want to know about a blue, I just grab Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com and run their Corsi 5×5 numbers. Corsi for %RelTeam is a really good quick look-see and gives you an idea about how well a player has been doing compared to his own mates.
A poor number for sure, and we see his partner Engelland also hanging out at the dark end of the street. A poor possession team like the Oilers should be pursuing stronger options methinks, while we also make note of his poor partners for much of the year (57 percent of his 5×5 time came with Engelland and Russell). While I am at it, what about this Nakladal fellow? He is a free agent, available for only money. What does our friend Vollman say?

THE VOLLMAN SLEDGEHAMMER

Rob Vollman’s graph suggests Wideman plays in the quadrant where there is a low degree of difficulty—sheltered minutes. Nakladal? Even more sheltered according to these numbers, although the performance of Nakladal in those minutes is encouraging.
Calgary has three substantial NHL defenders, and they aren’t trading any of those guys. Wideman is a veteran who meets the current needs of the organization in at least a superficial way.
  • Brad Treliving on Nakladal when the Flames signed him: “He’s a good-sized, right shot defender. He
    can move a puck, he’s got a big shot, but his game is a defending type
    of game with the ability to make simple plays, simple outlet plays. I
    don’t want to confuse him with a guy who’s going to take the puck from
    one end to the other, but he’s a solid, stable defender.”     Source
I think Nakladal is a better bet for this coming year and long term, but he is not an ideal pick for the roster need that presents itself. Wideman is a better fit, but at this point in his career a more risky and expensive option. I think Nakladal is the player to grab here, but he is a free agent so one would assume if the deal was there it would be done by now. Could it be PC has something up with Anaheim?
We wait.
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