The Edmonton Oilers added to their training camp roster on Tuesday by officially inviting forward Kevin Westgarth to camp. Westgarth is a 30 year old forward who spent last season with the Calgary Flames, and previously spent time with the Carolina Hurricanes and Los Angeles Kings organizations. Westgarth was undrafted and joined the Kings organization following four years at Princeton.
The Lowdown:
Kevin Westgarth is big, tough, physical and can fight. In short terms, he is an enforcer at the NHL level who will protect his teammates and fight when called on. At age 30, it’s safe to call him a veteran version of Luke Gazdic. He’s a guy that stands in at 6’4” and 234 pounds, and loves to use that weight to his advantage out on the ice.
The Hockey News calls him a solid fighter who can intimidate the opponent with massive hits, and who can change the momentum with a big fight. He’s pretty good at fighting too, and certainly is capable of holding his own against the big dogs of the NHL in this regard.
The problem is, outside of fighting and hitting, Westgarth does not provide much to a hockey club. The Hockey News calls him a guy with not enough skill to play a regular shift at the NHL-level, and claims he is a player that takes really bad penalties at bad times.
His offensive numbers suggest a player that does not provide anything in this regard, and his possession stats suggest a player the more often than not is chasing the puck and not moving it in the right direction. To put it politely, this is a 13th forward at best on a good NHL team.
Why Is He Here?:
The Oilers feel that an enforcer is needed for the NHL roster. Why, I’m not sure. Luke Gazdic is recovering from shoulder surgery, and may be further behind than we realize. If that is the case, this is simply the Oilers covering their backs in terms of their enforcer. This also could be Edmonton hiring temporary protection from pre-season goonage like we saw last year from Vancouver.
Training Camp Odds:
Kevin Westgarth comes in as a long-shot to make the Oilers roster. If Luke Gazdic is healthy, he’ll take the enforcer role on the roster. That leaves only the fourth line right wing spot open, and I highly doubt Westgarth up-ends a player like Tyler Pitlick or Steve Pinizzotto. He’s not a Matt Hendricks type player either, so he doesn’t fit that kind of mold for this roster.
His odds are well less than 50% to get a contract. How can he do it? Play like an NHL regular, although to this point he hasn’t proven he can do that on a consistent basis. Another way he can make it? Pray like heck Luke Gazdic isn’t ready on October 9th or that all of Pitlick, Joensuu and Pinizzotto implode in camp.
The Verdict:
From here, it certainly looks like Kevin Westgarth is a hired gun for pre-season protection from AHL-level goons from teams like Vancouver and Calgary. To be honest, if that is all this is, I have no problem with it. I’ll go on the record and say he won’t get a contract unless Gazdic isn’t ready to go opening night, and there has been no indication of that to this point. It looks like a two week trial run between these two sides.
That all said, the Oilers have done crazier things before, so we’ll just have to wait and see. I’d love to see Westgarth surprise and be the next Hendricks, but I highly doubt it. Odds are, we don’t see Westgarth in a regular season game for the Oilers this year.
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