A year ago, Brandon Davidson (photo by Rob Ferguson) was winding down the regular season with the Oklahoma City Barons. He would go on to post a strong playoffs for the Barons and use that as a stepping stone to a full NHL season in 2015-16. How well did Davidson do as an Oilers defenseman? The answer is well. Very well.

(All numbers via War on Ice)

Davidson is not generally regarded as an offensive defenseman, but we did see some fine passing, carrying and shooting this year. He scored four goals and 11 points in 51 games, so we are not looking at a dynamic player here. Edmonton did not have a defenseman who performed at a high level in this category in 2015-16 (injuries, trades, plagues, God knows) but it would seem reasonable to suggest Davidson could deliver enough offense in a third-pairing role.

Extreme sample size alert here (Davidson had two points in 22 minutes) but the young man does have a terrific shot and could be used on the PP next season. By the way, Sekera (13 points) was the only defender to spend more than 60 minutes on the power play in 2015-16.

Davidson played a lot this year (51 games, almost 800 minutes) and delivered an outstanding number in this category. High-danger scoring chances occur from the slot and areas we would consider to be point-blank spots on the ice. It is interesting to see the top four defenders in this category—there is a chance they will form the heart of next year’s blue.

Once again, Davidson delivers a strong performance, and it is impressive to see him do this as an actual rookie. Those AHL games were an enormous help to his first NHL season, and that is a good lesson for Oilers management—one they tried to deliver when sending Darnell Nurse to the minors early in the season.

I still use CorsiRel when looking at defensemen, but it has fallen universally out of favor so I will refrain from posting it here. Davidson does well in the discipline—third on the team, behind Oscar Klefbom and Nikita Nikitin (neither of those players reached 50 games in 2015-16).

Davidson again ranks No. 1 in a discipline, this one being scoring chances against per 60 minutes. A graph via War on Ice and glossary link at the bottom of this piece may be helpful in sussing out both this ranking and the high-danger graph above. In both cases, Davidson was extremely effective.

This graph shows us who played the toughest minutes (Oscar Klefbom’s injury was absolutely devastating) and who played the easier ones. Davidson ranks behind Klefbom, Sekera, Fayne and in a group that includes Adam Pardy, Darnell Nurse, Justin Schultz and others. I think we can reasonably suggest Davidson was (mostly) a third-pairing option, and that is his probably usage next season.

Based on the evidence here, if healthy, we can be reasonably sure—as sure as one can be about any rookie—he can cover the bet. War on Ice also supplies us with a graph that describes HDSC:

Save Percentage Zones:
blue = high percentage shots (SvPctHigh)
red = medium percentage shots (SvPctMedium)
yellow = low-percentage shots (SvPctLow)

You may also enjoy their fantastic glossary: