Edmonton Oilers general manager Stan Bowman knows a bit about second chances. He was GM and President of Hockey Operations with the Chicago Blackhawks during the mishandling of the allegations made by Kyle Beach in 2010. This led to his resignation in Chicago and a step back from the NHL before the Oilers decided to bring him in to procure them a Stanley Cup victory while Connor McDavid is in Oilers silks.
With that in mind, we can understand why he might want to give former Ottawa Senator and 2018 Canada World Juniors alumnus Alex Formenton an opportunity to work his way back into the league. But, a quick study of Formenton's NHL and Swiss National League statistics suggests the player didn't develop into a complete NHLer prior to leaving the league, and his Swiss stats hint that his game still has some warts.
NHL advanced stats and time in Europe
Formenton played one game late in the 2017-18 season, and managed nine further appearances the next year. In spite of only situational play (11 minutes on average per game), Formenton was absolutely caved on advanced statistics. Both his Corsi and Fenwick percentages sat in the high thirties, and it's clear why his minutes didn't increase over the course of that year.
In 2020-21, his games played doubled and he produced a measurable amount of points (4 goals and 1 assist for 5 points in 20 games), but the very low advanced statistics stayed the same. Formenton's high water mark was his final (until now) NHL season, where he was elevated up the Senators lineup, playing 15:27 a night, playing both on the powerplay, and becoming a significant penalty killer, scoring 5 of his 18 goals that year on the PK.
Given that plus/minus isn't counted during special teams play, Formenton's minus 13 may look slightly worse than it is, and if he hadn't left the league there's a believable chance that his positive development would have continued. But Formenton instead headed to Europe, racking up 88 games played over 3 seasons and 4 years in Switzerland. Formenton scored 33 goals over that period, but finished his final season with HC Ambrì-Piotta as a minus player. The team also faced relegation after a relatively low standings finish.
If Formenton was a veteran minor leaguer, playing for the Bakersfield Condors and looking to crack the pro lineup, you'd want to see impressive offensive statistics alongside a strong and complete defensive game. The signing of Formenton for $850,000 is affordable, but it isn't clear at this time that it was a wise decision.
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