Does Roy fit Anymore?

The Answer to the above question would’ve been a much easier one to answer about a month or two ago. After issuing a complete turnover in his personal production since being traded to Edmonton early in the New Year and igniting some explosive chemistry with a struggling Nail Yakupov, it was safe to say that the Edmonton Oilers wouldn’t let this one slip away. Flash forward to the present and the situation is shrouded in uncertainty of where Roy could possibly slot into a center rotation that now includes a one, Connor McDavid. Though it’s not official, it’s almost certain that #97 of the Erie Otter will be lifting a Oiler jersey over his head come draft day. Roy’s role on the Oilers was offering up a stable and able body in the 2^nd line center position, a spot that McDavid will take over. So, is there even any room for Derek Roy on this Oilers team anymore?

The Oilers now seem to have an overabundance of centermen. They still have the two locks to make the team in RNH and Boyd Gordon, but they now have to divide up the two remaining spots between Roy, McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Anton Lander. McDavid will almost certainly be on the opening night roster as he continues to tear up the OHL, so the conversation really boils into a three-way discussion between Draisaitl, Lander and Roy. Draisaitl spent half of his season with the Oilers last year, showing some obvious signs of not being quite at the NHL level which prompted management to send their 3^rd overall pick back to junior. Anton Lander has racked up a fair amount of air miles on his trips to and from Oklahoma City and Edmonton. While he has succeeded at the AHL, that level of play seemingly failed to translate to the NHL level. The Swede, however, is finally showing signs of being able to handle bottom six NHL minutes as well as being a productive and reliable guy. These are the two players that will battle it out with Roy for that 3^rd line center position.

Lets get this discussion underway. The good thing about Draisaitl is that he is still very young and has tons of room for growth and development; it’s only a matter of time before he learns how to use his frame to his advantage. You cannot go wrong with giving him time in Bakersfield to slowly, but surely, help him properly adjust to the NHL game. The Oilers have a history of rushing their prospects, this is a player they would be wise to take their time on. The next candidate is what rushing a prospect can do to a player, that player is Anton Lander unfortunately. The former OKC captain has been through a lot with the Oilers organization and his ability to have long-lasting confidence has dwindled with every demotion back to the AHL. He has been a source of frustration inside the Oilers organization as he has posted above average stats with the Barons but when he is called upon to play with the Oil, he goes cold. His NHL career was just about to be written off for good if he hadn’t contributed like he did in the last half of the past season. He just turned 24 last month and sending him back to the AHL would do nothing but hinder his development and possibly put his NHL career in jeopardy. He played 38 games for Edmonton this past season, in a bottom 6 role, and finally put up some decent numbers with 6 goals and 14 assists, as well as having started to look like an impact player as the season progressed. When you look at the numbers, Derek Roy and Anton Lander had very similar seasons. Landers success was heavily overshadowed by the chemistry with Roy and Yakupov, despite Lander having two less points than Roy in 8 fewer games, as an Oiler this season. Lander isn’t exactly inexperienced, accumulating 132 games played in the course of 4 seasons being apart of the Oiler organization. Also lost in translation was that Lander was signed to a two-year contract extension on April 2^nd, while news on the Roy front remains as quiet as ever.

Lander is an easy player to brush to the side and label as a typical career AHLer. I mean he does fit the description of one; puts up great numbers and shows fantastic leadership on the farm but can’t copy and paste those characteristics onto the big club. So it could be a fair description to pin on the 2009 2^nd round pick. I, however, tend to disagree with that particular player analysis. Lander was called up and you could tell that he smelt blood in the water, his blood. He knew that if he didn’t perform at an acceptable pace, that this was most likely the last crack he would get to become a regular player in the NHL. It seemed like he used that desperation as motivation and it genuinely portrayed a sense of urgency in the way he played. He was engaged and honed into the play on the ice. He was no longer shying away from some key areas of the game. That being said, he didn’t turn into a perfect player, he made mistakes, but so does every player. He doesn’t posses the obvious talent of Connor McDavid or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, but I think he finally has found whatever has been ailing him in his efforts to become that consistent player we’ve all seen in Oklahoma. Derek Roy is good player as well, but what he lacks is a high ceiling to further improve. The aspects of Roy’s game are all basically developed, not to say he can’t improve at all, just simply that the ceiling he can reach is much lower than Anton’s.

Derek Roy isn’t getting any younger either as he just reached the age of 32. He’s a warrior with over 700 NHL games played on his resume but the fact remains that his personal success with the Oilers was, in large part, because of playing on that second line with Yakupov, a role that won’t be available to him next season, as I don’t believe the next Oilers coach will demote Nail to the third line. Ultimately the decision comes down to the Oilers deciding whether to put an aging veteran coming off a revitalizing last half of a season or a young guy that has finally shown capabilities after developing for the better part of 4 seasons inside the organization. Adding in the fact that Lander has a new contract and Roy does not, the decision seems to have been already made. Unless the new management team of Bob Nicholson and Peter Chiarelli decide differently this summer, then I find it hard to believe that Roy will be apart of the picture moving forward.