The Edmonton Oilers signed defensive prospect Matt Benning yesterday afternoon, completing a very busy spring and summer in college procurement. Although Edmonton has several draft picks playing at the college level—William Lagesson, Zach Nagelvoort, Tyler Vesel, others—all four men (Drake Caggiula,Nick Ellis, Patrick Russell, Benning) were classified as free agents at the time of their signing. Who among this group will make the NHL first? Based on depth chart, the smart money might be on Benning.
That is a smart contract. Why? Benning’s deal allows him a full chance to play in the NHL right away (should he make the grade). We have discussed this before, but one of the reasons Griffin Reinhart may have a difficult time making the Oilers out of camp is his giant bonus structure. Young Benning’s agent got him a bonus, but in an Oilers-friendly year (Edmonton has McDavid, Draisaitl, Puljujarvi and Reinhart on massive bonus packages this year. They may not make all of them, but those bonuses have to be accounted for opening night).
Early returns have some fans of the team wondering about the player. Kirk Luedeke is a frequent guest of the Lowdown and a scout for Red Line Report, and his words carry some iron. Kirk has written frequently on his blog about Benning and had this to say late yesterday:
- Luedeke: Matt Benning doesn’t have much in the way of size, but like Noel Acciari,
he hits hard and clean, separating opponents from the puck but not
taking himself out of plays or hurting his team with undisciplined,
selfish antics. Benning is a good puck distributor; not blessed with a
killer shot, it was nonetheless pretty heavy, and he showed progression
in his offensive game. Where Benning really established his value was
with his smart, effective positional play. Source
What I like about the description is Benning has a nice range of skills. Not an offensive nor a defensive one-trick pony, he would appear to be safely in the ‘two-way’ family of NHL defenders.
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
This was a good get for Peter Chiarelli and the Oilers. There seems to be a trend lately to assume all transactions by Edmonton are net negative, and 10 years out of the playoffs says fans have every right to bitch and moan.
I think that is unwise in this case. Management acquired a good NHL prospect—one who was being pursued by some of the marquee teams in the league—and as a bonus he addresses a serious organizational need. Further, there is no reason to believe this means the club cannot acquire an established NHL defenseman before opening night—the Oilers are at 48 names on the 50-man list with two obvious slide rules in Caleb Jones and Ethan Bear. So, we are talking 46 slots out of 50 at this time.
Suspect it is okay to go ahead and consider this a solid move by the Edmonton Oilers organization.
