Help From The Farm

It has been a very rough season for the Edmonton Oilers hockey team, and the biggest two reasons for that have been defense and goaltending. At the start of the year, goaltending cost Edmonton roughly five or six games, which would not be enough for a playoff spot, but would have them at least still alive, and significantly higher in the standings.

Those two positions were keeping the ship down, and while there are still other problems, these two areas were of the biggest concern.

Goaltending:

It’s been fixed since January, thanks to some nifty moves by GM Craig MacTavish, who honestly has done a decent job since taking over last April as Oilers GM. Ben Scrivens could be the best deal MacT makes when all is said and done. Scrivens has been unreal for Edmonton, and looks to have the starting job set for next year. He only cost a third round draft pick.

Viktor Fasth was good in Anaheim last season, and has looked good in two games with the Oilers to this point. He’s a big upgrade on Nikolai Khabibulin from last year, and on Jason Labarbera, Richard Bachman and Ilya Bryzgalov from this year. He only cost a 3rd and 5th round pick, another very good investment.

In Scrivens and Fasth, Edmonton has a good goaltending tandem that they can trust. That’s a huge thing for any team to have, and a must for good teams.

Defense:

This is the biggest problem, and this is also where the help from the farm comes in. The Oilers are giving up huge shot total amounts right now, and must change that if they want to have any kind of success.

The blue-line the team entered the season with clearly was not good enough. Out are Ladi Smid, Nick Schultz and Corey Potter, and soon to be flushed are Denis Grebeshkov (in OKC), Philip Larsen, and possibly Mark Fraser. That’s a lot of bodies, and maybe two NHL defenders. You won’t have success that way.

Jeff Petry is a good option for a number three defender, while Andrew Ference is a good option for a number four on a good team. Those players are playing in roles way over their heads however, and are struggling as a result. Edmonton badly needs defensive help, and that likely will come via trade in the off-season.

Two guys who might be a major part of the solution have come from the farm, and have had big impacts in their respective stints. Martin Marincin has been with the club since December, while Oscar Klefbom has been with the team for nearly a week now.

Marincin has been handing an extremely tough role on this Oilers team, and has arguably been the team’s best defender since getting called up. His corsi and possession numbers are very good when considering everything, and he looks like he knows what to do out there. He has been a trustworthy player, and seemingly should be able to hold a top-four defensive spot for the team next season.

Oscar Klefbom has only played in four games, but has looked good in doing so. He struggled, as expected, at the start of the AHL season, but slowly became the Barons’ best option on the blue-line. He looked shaky in his first game, but he has played good hockey for this team since then, and looks like a guy ready to handle the NHL grind.

Klefbom is a smart player who is a big body and strong defender. He won’t supply much offensive help, but he is a good shut-down guy, and he has demonstrated that to this point. Dallas Eakins has done a good job sheltering him a little bit, and I honestly think we will see Klefbom on the NHL roster next fall as then umber five or six guy, and that seems like the logical role for him.

The Oilers defense has seen some improvement thanks to the recall of these two. Marincin has posted great numbers and formed a very good pairing with Jeff Petry, while Klefbom has helped the third pairing in his brief stint. He’ll get the last 14 games, as he should, to gain more experience and solidify a spot on the roster next year.

I won’t get into armchair GM stuff in this piece, but the Oilers need to add at least one defender that can chew up 20-25 minutes a night and play on the top-pairing. Whether that is signing UFA Andrei Markov or making a trade for a player like Coburn, it has to happen. The Oilers need to find a way to add a legit top-pairing guy to help slide everyone into their proper role.

That being said, if the Oilers can add said player and add him to what looks to be a decent group in its infancy, then things could be much, much better next season. In large part, that is because of these two guys. Martin Marincin has been an effective top-four defender, while Oscar Klefbom looks like he can handle third pairing minutes for this club and maybe more as time moves on.

If they can keep that up and improve during the off-season, Craig MacTavish’s job as GM of the Oilers got a lot easier. There has been a lot of fair criticism of the Oilers drafting and developing, but the help on the farm that could help this blue-line will put all of those to rest.

In a dark season, Martin Marincin is a sure bright spot, while Oscar Klefbom looks like he might not be far behind. Slowly but surely, some pieces begin to fall into the right place thanks to the farm.