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Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

Welcome to the Neno's Place!

Neno's Place Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality


Neno

I can be reached by phone or text 8am-7pm cst 972-768-9772 or, once joining the board I can be reached by a (PM) Private Message.

Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

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Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

Many Topics Including The Oldest Dinar Community. Copyright © 2006-2020


    Oilers vs Bruins

    jedi17
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    • Post n°1

    Oilers vs Bruins Empty Oilers vs Bruins

    Post by jedi17 Thu 05 Jan 2017, 8:41 pm

    G40 Oilers vs Bruins: Clock starts on Puljujarvi's UFA status
    January 5, 2017, 2:59 PM ET [149 Comments]
    Matt Henderson
    Oilers vs Bruins Edm Edmonton Oilers Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
    Tonight marks the night when the Oilers officially start the ticker on Jesse Puljujarvi’s UFA status. The 18 year old Oiler forward, tonight relegated to the 4th line, has obviously already played enough games to burn a year on his ELC, but starting the countdown to UFA status is different altogether.

    Playing 10 games in the league did the trick for Puljujarvi when it comes to that 1st year of his ELC. The countdown to reaching RFA status in 3 years began in November. It didn’t have to be that way. The Finnish rookie taken 4th overall in last year’s draft had a poor training camp and Edmonton, as weak as it is on the right side, still had a combination of Lander, Pitlick, and Slepyshev who could have played at the NHL level in his stead.

    Perhaps what makes this worse, and so much more maddening, is that with Puljujarvi the Oilers had options. They still have options, really, they just wont have as great an impact for the club as if they had been utilized in advance. With Jesse Puljujarvi, the Oilers could have played him in the AHL immediately as an 18 year-old because he was drafted out of Europe and not subject to the CHL/NHL transfer agreement. 

    This is something that Leafs fans will be familiar with because it was used as part of the development plan for William Nylander. What it means is simply that Puljujarvi could have been sent down and recalled from the AHL at the club’s will, whereas with Leon Draisaitl a few years ago the only options were to play the kid in the NHL or send him down to the CHL for the entire remainder of the year.

    Ultimately with Draisaitl the Oilers finally recognized that they were doing more harm than good keeping him up and struggling in the NHL. They sent him back to the WHL where he crushed it in the final months, was named the WHL Playoff MVP then subsequently the Memorial Cup MVP. He then took all of that confidence and translated it into a very good first full NHL season and is now Edmonton’s 2nd best player

    What they also did was prevent Draisaitl from beginning the countdown to UFA status. This is important as it means he is under club controlled RFA status for 1 more year. That’s an extra year where the team has the most bargaining power. For a club that will need to pay McDavid, Nurse, and Draisaitl in the coming years, that’s important to have. One would assume that having that same hold over Puljujarvi would be important for long term panning as well.

    Apparently not.

    The rules don’t state that after 40 games played that the clock counts down (Puljujarvi is only at 27). It’s that the player is merely on the roster for 40 games (that’s tonight). So unless there’s some last minute decision that places Puljujarvi in the AHL before the cutoff, he’s going to start the countdown to be a UFA at the age of 25 and the Oilers will have the least possible years of control over this players.

    So what’s the payoff for this? What have the Oilers gotten out of this Puljujarvi for having him on the roster in these 40 games?

    The answer is “Not a lot”. In total, he’s only played in 27 games so far. During that time he’s scored exactly 1 goal. It was on opening night. He has gone 85 days without a goal. For a player who was drafted 4th overall with the expectation of scoring, that’s an unreasonably long period of time. He’s added 7 assists to that, but nothing in his last 5 games and only 2 in his last 10. We have a problem here.

    Adding to this the fact the Oilers are barely playing him. He is 12th among forwards in ice-time per game at 11:32 per night. In his last 10 games, he’s been below 10 minutes total in 6 matches. The team is not playing him. He is on the Nail Yakupov plan for development. He’s going to learn how to be a pretty good 3rd or 4th liner at this rate and have very little training about how to be a top 6 forward. 

    In the AHL he can be playing 2x as much hockey, every game, and on the top line. He can be learning how to be an effective professional on North American ice at the AHL level. He can be playing with offensively minded players who are tasked with scoring goals at the AHL level. He can be developing under the eye of the organization at the AHL level. Importantly, he could have been there this whole time and not even have burned the 1st year of his ELC, let alone burning an RFA year. 

    He could have played the first 43 games of the Oiler season in the AHL and played the final segment of the NHL season AND the playoffs without starting the clock on his UFA status. Instead, the Oilers have plugged him into the NHL lineup regardless of his ability to contribute offensively. They are committed to giving Puljujarvi every possible advantage in future contract negotiations without receiving any real benefit in return.

    Why don’t the Oilers trust their own coaches and staff in Bakersfield? Why is it better to let this kid struggle so greatly in the NHL for 9 minutes of playing time instead of giving him lots of ice at a level where he might be better suited? Why do the Oilers, as an organization, love playing 18 year old forwards in the best league in the world as soon as possible? 

    I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.

    LINEUP

    Davidson missed yesterday’s practice but skated this morning. We will see what happens there. Oesterle was recalled again as well. 

    Maroon McDavid Draisaitl
    Lucic RNH Kassian
    Pouliot Caggiula Eberle
    Lander Letestu Puljujarvi

    Klefbom Larsson
    Sekera Benning
    Russell Gryba

    Talbot
    Gustavsson

    OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME

    1) Loaded For Bear. When it comes to hunting Bruins, McLellan believes that loading up his top line is the best option. A top line of Maroon, McDavid, and Draisiatl represents Edmonton’s top three goal scorers on a single line. The problem with this plan is that this line will surely still have to face the Marchand-Bergeron line. Bergeron has been a defensive wizard for a long time and if there’s anyone who can shut down Edmonton’s fully loaded line it’s Patrice Bergeron. The Bruins are certainly a lot weaker than they have been in the past when it comes to depth, but best on best they can still hold their own. So McLellan’s gamble is that this configuration can either outplay the Bruins’ top line or Edmonton’s 2nd-4th lines can beat out the Bruins 2nd-4th lines. Let’s hope so.

    2) Wake Up. Todd McLellan was upset with his players after the beatdown that Columbus gave them. He said it was a playoff atmosphere and he had a whole bunch of no-shows. Eberle was invisible, Pouliot made a boneheaded play that resulted in a goal against, the Larsson/Klefbom pair was crushed in shot attempts, by the 3rd period McLellan was already working on a shortened bench. As a response the Head Coach has scrambled his forward lines again. Now Draisiatl is with McDavid, Eberle is on the 3rd line, and Puljujarvi is playing on the 4th line. This has to be the wakeup call to a lot of players. Edmonton has been cruising along at a sleepy pace since their October streak ended. They need their best players to get up to speed.

    3) David Due? David Pastrnak is 2nd on the Bruins in scoring but number one with a bullet in goal scoring. He has 19 goals already this year (more than what Eberle is on pace to score for the whole year). That’s 5th in the entire NHL. He also hasn’t had a single point in the last 7 games. He’s still shooting lots. In those 7 games he’s had 26 shots on net but cant find the twine. Edmonton has a knack for breaking opposing players out of their scoring slumps and this one stands out. He looks about ready to explode. Scary thing about Pastrnak is that his goalscoring has come largely at 5v5. He has 13 goals 5v5 this year. The next closest Bruin has 6 goals 5v5. Keep him off the board and stay out of the box.

    Puck drops tonight at 5PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet West. Game On!
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