Offseason Options: Could Wennberg be a fit for the Oilers?
For the final addition to this series of offseason acquisition options for the Oilers, I’ll be investigating the potential merits of pursuing 26-year old C Alexander Wennberg of the Florida Panthers.
What has he done recently?
Wennberg has a successful 2020-21 season with the Florida Panthers where he potted 10 goals and 8 assists in 12:49 mins/game at 5-on-5 (1.5 pts/60; would’ve ranked 6t122222h on the Oilers). His lines outscored 40-33 (54.8% GF) and outchanced 302-265 (53.3% SCF) their opposition while seeing 55.9% of their faceoffs in the offensive zone. These numbers point to a player who performed well in an offensive role.
Over the prior two seasons with Columbus, Wennberg had his fair share of struggles posting 22 points in 57 games (1.4 pts/60 @ 5-on-5) in 2019-20 and only 25 points in 75 games (1.0 pts/60 @5-on-5) in 2018-19. There are not the kinds of totals you hope for from a player you rely on to be a consistent producer in your lineup, but it’s not as if this occurred in a vacuum.
Wennberg saw his role with the Blue Jackets fade from centering an offensively-focused top-6 line to playing a more balanced bottom-6 role. This can be interpreted as either an understandable consequence of having less talent to play within a tight defensive system or as an indictment that he wasn’t able to beat out lesser competition for scoring roles at C.
What can he bring to the Oilers?
Regarding the rest of his game, Wennberg has been a below-average faceoff man (48.9% over the past 3 years) and has seen regular time on both special teams. Notably, he saw his role on the PK jump substantially upon joining the Panthers where his ice time climbed from 1:34 mins/game last year to 2:32 mins/game this year. However, this likely has less to do with his ability and more to do with the Panthers having fewer options than the Blue Jackets.
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Wennberg has never been a physical player (1.8 hits/60; around Nuge) and has shown average defensive abilities with 1.6 takeaways/60 (around Ennis) and 2.28 blocks/60 (around Archibald). Wennberg is also a consistently disciplined player who not only takes very few penalties (8 penalties since 2018-19) but also draws more than he takes (8-19 penalty differential in the same timeframe).
One major shortcoming to his game is that he’s always been hard-pressed to shoot the puck- only having exceeded 100 shots in a season one time in his career.
Conclusion
Like Tierney, Wennberg is also a young veteran of almost 500 NHL games. He brings some potential for depth scoring while not giving up too much defensively and not getting dummied in the dot. He’s not an ideal defensive center and his shot is an area of concern. These things lead to some concern about his fit in an Oilers forward group that has plenty of playmakers and not enough finishers. Further, after shooting at above 20% on the season, Wennberg may be looking to cash in at a higher rate than the Oilers would like to pay.
What are your thoughts on Alex Wennberg? Let me know!
Up next, I’ll start to lay out my ideal offseason plans and begin constructing an Oilers roster I believe would make some noise!
(Stats per Natural Stat Trick)