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Edmonton Oilers: New Defencemen and Goalies Quarter Pole Review

By Pelle |
EDMONTON, AB - NOVEMBER 1: Mikko Koskinen #19 of the Edmonton Oilers prepares to make a save during the game against the Chicago Blackhawks on November 1, 2018 at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Andy Devlin/NHLI via Getty Images)
EDMONTON, AB - NOVEMBER 1: Mikko Koskinen #19 of the Edmonton Oilers prepares to make a save during the game against the Chicago Blackhawks on November 1, 2018 at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Andy Devlin/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Edmonton Oilers have played just over 25% percent of their season and what better time to check in on how some of the new faces on defense and in the net have fared over that time frame.

The New Defenders

Stats courtesy of Natural Stat Trick (source)

Edmonton Oilers: I included Goals Against per 60 relatives because I wanted to show how well they were doing at preventing goals against. Making it the relative form of the stat gives us a better idea because it is the difference between the team’s stat with that player on the ice and the team’s stat with that player off the ice

The best GA/60 Relative on the Oilers belongs to Kris Russell (-1.34). So unless I’m mistaken, that means for every 60 minutes he’s on the ice, the other team scores -1.34 goals. The best in the league belongs to Montreal’s Victor Mete (-1.85).

I think it’s safe to say that the Oilers plans were to just shore up the bottom pairing in the offseason as each of the four players acquired to play defense for the Oilers are literally no.6/7 defenders in the NHL, that includes Evan Bouchard.

I also believe that Andrej Sekera going down with a torn Achilles tendon really threw a wrench into their offseason plans. And they didn’t have a chance to sort that out, so they invited Jason Garrison to camp on a PTO courtesy of an excellent report from former Oilers assistant coach Rocky Thompson who had Garrison on his Chicago Wolves team last season.

The best out of the group has been Kevin Gravel. His skating, positioning, and puck-moving have been average to good so far. He’s underpromised and over-delivered, and that’s what I like from an off-season signing. The former LA King has excelled playing on the bottom pairing for the Oilers, and I expect him to continue to do so. Grade: B

The second best defender is Evan Bouchard. Even though he was just a teenager, you could see his Dan Marino-like vision when he passed the puck. We witnessed his Al MacInnis like slapshot, and I’m not talking about MPH here, I’m saying look at how his body moves when he shoots and look at the way MacInnis moved when he shot. There are some comparisons to be made there. But the thing I liked most about Bouchard was his composure. It was like he had ice in his veins. Grade: B-

Third best belongs to Jason Garrison who still has a shot, and he can still play defense, but his problem is the wheels are gone, and that happens to every player in their career. Not that he was the fastest guy out there, but in today’s NHL when you’ve got players like Nathan MacKinnon or Taylor Hall or Dylan Larkin coming down on you, you’ve got to have fast feet. Grade: C

Lastly, Chris Wideman comes in last here because he’s only played one game, but in that game he got his jock handed to him by Anze Kopitar. T’wasn’t a good scene at all… But I do see a competitive player there who isn’t afraid to lay the body nor is he afraid to shoot the puck, and with his skating and passing abilities, I can foresee him having a higher grade come the half-way point in the season. Grade: N/A

The New Goalie

I’ll be the first to admit, I was very skeptical when the Oilers signed this massive mountain of a netminder for one year at $2.5M when they could’ve had a player like Pavel Francouz for a shade under 900k, but boy am I glad they did.

Cam Talbot hasn’t won a single hockey game since October. He’s winless in November, and that is one of the reasons why the Oilers are sitting in the NHL standings where they are, and conversely, if Koskinen hadn’t been playing so well, the Oilers would be even further down the standings.

I’ve LOVED Koskinen’s safe anti-rebound game, he’s been so good at gobbling up pucks and making big saves at timely manners. I think he overcommits when he goes to his posts a bit, and I’d like to see him work on his puckhandling a bit more but apart from that he’s been more than I could’ve expected. Grade: B+

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