Will the Edmonton Oilers Go for Jakub Kindl?

Yet another option on defense for the Edmonton Oilers on the waiver wire today, as the Detroit Red Wings placed Jakub Kindl on waivers this morning for the purpose of reassignment. Should the Oilers take a stab at him? Eh… well let’s talk about it. Joining me is co-author Kris Hansen, who added more in-depth analysis.

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Well, he sure is tempting. The Oilers lack quality defense, along with size. Kindl appears to be an answer to their woes, especially with Oscar Klefbom still on the shelf. He is 6-foot-3 and nearly 200 pounds, and he was a former first round draft pick. He has developed nicely with the Detroit Red Wings organization as well.

However, he has not played more than 66 games, and while he has two goals, three assists and a plus-1 rating this season, he hasn’t been able to prove to the Red Wings organization that he is worth it.

In Grand Rapids, Kindl would end up playing three seasons in the AHL before making the Red Wings for good in 2011. Kindl never really produced the same offence as he did in juniors and seemed to not get a fair shake under Babcock or Blashill. This is from John Curran of octopusthrower.com, the Red Wings website on Fansided:

"Kindl struggled to find his place in Detroit’s line-up over the last few seasons. Former head coach, Mike Babcock, always seemed to have Jakub in his doghouse for some reason or another, but Kindl always seemed to briefly play well after giving a chance to redeem himself.Many people thought Kindl would have a resurgence/second-chance under Jeff Blashill, but has been a healthy scratch in 16 of the Red Wings last 22 games. Playing in 23 regular season games this season, Kindl has two goals and three assists."

That’s a red flag right there. An established player should not be a healthy scratch for 16 of the past 22 games for Detroit.

This should scare the Oilers. Especially when it comes to player usage; Kindl is used even less than Griffin Reinhart this season. He has 15 blocked shots and 12 hits this season, and for every takeaway, he averages five takeaways (3 TA, 15 GA this season).

Now, is he a fit?

Kindl has the highest On Ice Corsi differential of the team per sixty minutes, where it takes account of the differential of shots, goals, missed shots, saves and blocks. He sits pretty at a 10.82. That’s pretty good right?
However, we dig just a little bit deeper. Out of the eight defencemen for Detroit, he’s ranked 7th for Time on Ice average per game at 14.95, which is slightly ahead of rookie Alexey Marchenko who tallies 14.47.
In terms of Quality of Competition, where it takes the Average Relative Corsi of opposing players, weighted for by ice time head to head, Kindl is last. Meaning, he doesn’t face high quality opponents.
Finally, the most popping statistic, was the whopping 60% offensive zone starts that Kindl takes (which is second to Mike Green‘s 64%). However, Green ends his mostly ends his shifts in the offensive zone at 54%. Kindl ends his shift in the offensive zone 49% of the time, which ranks him sixth in that respect.

What does this tell me? That Kindl plays some really sheltered minutes and is geared more for the offensive side. However, with his time on ice as an indicator, it seems that Kindl plays third pairing minutes.

So, will the Oilers take a hit? It’s not likely, and I wouldn’t go for it either. The reason that the Oilers probably won’t claim him is not just for the reasons that he has poor stats, but also for the reason that Peter Chiarelli is probably thinking deeper. Why would they claim Kindl, who has a $2.4 million cap hit, when they could trade for a defenseman, dumping unnecessary cap space and getting someone for cheap?

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