The Edmonton Oilers Should Move Anton Lander

When the Edmonton Oilers chose to lock up Anton Lander to a two-year deal last season, I’d be lying if said I wasn’t a little bit excited about it. However, since the 2015/2016 campaign began, all that has been proven with Lander is a reflection of yet another Craig Mactavish misfire during his reign as GM.

Lander is a former second round pick of the 2009 NHL Draft. Since then he struggled mightily to establish himself within the Oilers organization. His was given chance after chance and often found himself on a flight to OKC after a handful of low-event, un impactful games played with the big club. For the most part, Lander was a complete ghost. He just could not find any way to stand out or rack up points. He was a non-factor.

Like I said before, I was genuinely happy and optimistic when Mac-T extended Lander for a few more years. To be fair, Lander deserved that kind of reward as a result of his very surprising, stellar play last season. There was more than enough positive indicators to signal that the right call was made to lock him up. His stock rose considerably.

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Lander finally found a way to bring the offensive touch he had in the AHL and brought to the big stage by tallying 20 points in 38 games in 2014/2015. His two-way ability was a treat to watch as he showed reliable defensive play in his own zone and even had a Ryan Smyth-like nose for the net in the power play. Lander jammed home garbage goals and finished plays very efficiently.

I even liked how he would show some fight at times. When an opposing player hacked at our goalie, Lander was right there to confront the guy about his mistake. Astonishingly I actually saw him give guys a few hacks and glove shots during plays. That’s the kind of player I like. To sum up the Lander of last season, he was a very versatile player that could play in any situation from 5 on 5 to special teams. We all know he’s decent in the face off circle as well.

I believe in late bloomers and that no team should ever give up on a player too early in their careers because it could come back to haunt you in the future. The Oilers did right by sticking with Lander for this long but ultimately, it just hasn’t really worked out.

This season has been an entirely different, but at the same time very similar story for Lander. What I’ve seen is the 24 year old Swede is reverting back to his old ways of being a transparent ghost. A piece of see-through plexiglass. A total, utter non factor.

Not being able to score a single goal in 45 games this season is beyond unacceptable. Especially for a guy who has proven in the past that he can put the puck in the net. The only thing, and I literally mean the ONE and ONLY thing keeping Lander in the lineup right now is his decent, team leading face off percentage.

I know Lander is on a one-way contract and it would be much more useful to have him with the big club as opposed to the AHL, but why couldn’t Bogdan Yakimov get a sniff at the third line centre job before he bolted to Russia? He’s big, strong and skilled. Yes he is quite young, but personally I think we could have got more use out of him than Lander. He brings more to the table. But it’s too late for that now.

The reality is its time to move on from Anton Lander. The Oilers have too many passengers as it is. It’s time to create a team that can utilize all 12 players to the fullest advantage. They need every player to make an impact in some way but right now the Oilers have a lot of non factors or players that make too many mistakes.

With Connor McDavid drawing back into the lineup, the Oilers have depth down the middle and no longer need Lander.

That being said, Peter Chiarelli has a few intriguing ideas to consider leading up to the trade deadline. But the main place to start rebuilding is on the backend.

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