1. L/RD Kris Russell
Kris Russell is also injured right now, but I have to believe that one way or another, this season is Russell’s last as an Oiler, maybe even as an NHL player period.
This past offseason Russell, whose $4 million a season contract had come off the books, mercifully re-signed with the organization for $1.25 million for this season.
Russell is best described at this point as a spare part for the Edmonton Oilers third pairing. There’s no shame in that, a lot of blueliners are in that stage of their careers at 34.
But, with younger prospect Markus Niemelainen – who plays a similar game – poised to play the same role on the team, Russell may be pushed out of the lineup even when healthy.
He recently became the NHL’s all-time leading shot blocker earlier this season, a great career milestone for him.
But even on the most loyal of teams, it’s inevitable that older players yield their roster spot to younger players. It happens all the time in the NHL.
Complicating things more for Russell is the fact that he now has a coach who won’t just blindly play veterans over younger players. That’s not to say that Woodcroft won’t have a place on his team for Russell, but there’s probably less of one, let’s put it that way.
Russell hasn’t scored a goal or finished above 10 points in three seasons, and predictably his games played has been falling all three years too – from 55 to 35 to 20 this season. Yes, there’s still time left in this season, but how many more games will Russell get as an Oiler? Probably not too many more. Even if he does come back healthy before the end of the season, I’d say there’s a very good chance that Holland sees Laggeson and Niemelainen able to share that left D spot on the third pairing.
If no other team signs him, he can do one or two seasons in Europe and then hang up his skates.
He’s a great lunch pail guy but all good things must come to an end. I doubt he’ll be traded but he won’t be back next season either.
2. RD Tyson Barrie
Barrie garnered Norris votes last season as the Edmonton Oilers took a flyer on him and he paid them back in spades, leading the NHL in scoring by blueliners. This season, after signing a contract extension for $4.5 million a season for three seasons in the offseason, Barrie is slated to finish the season with 11 less points than last year – 37 per his PPG total of .45 points per game – and at -6 has gone back to being more of an adventure defensively.
Between this and the rising stock of Evan Bouchard, Barrie has found himself shuttled between the first and third D pairings on any given night. In fact, at the time of this writing both Evan Bouchard and Darnell Nurse have more points than Barrie does – 27 and 21 respectively to Barrie’s 20. Oh, and Barrie is also -6 this season, 10 points off his +4 from last season and also off of both Nurse and Bouchard, who are +4 and 0 respectively, both with more points than Barrie too.
This will probably be more of a deal for the offseason, but at least Barrie’s cap hit isn’t terrible, and there’s always a chance he can perhaps rebound next season.
But, Holland is rumored to be looking for defensive help as a secondary objective. I’m guessing he might be working the phones to use Barrie as the centerpiece for another right shot guy.
By the way, in case you’re wondering, Barrie’s place on the roster hasn’t changed with the coaching change.
At least Barrie is still contributing to the roster in some fashion, even if it’s with reduced production from last season – which is why he isn’t in the previous list.