Making the Grade – Ryan Jones & Jesse Joensuu

Today I’m going to have a look at two players who can be called the Oilers 13^th forwards, Ryan Jones and Jesse Joensuu. Both players play a bottom six role on the team, seeing time on the wing on both the third and fourth lines. The bottom six forwards tend to get the bulk of disdain from the fans, media and us bloggers alike and maybe it isn’t really fair but that’s a whole other article for another time. The players while they are both bottom six cusp forwards both play a different style of game. I’ll begin with Ryan Jones.

*Remember that these grade are as I see them, you may or may not agree and that is completely fine, feel free to comment at the end of this article with your agreements, disagreements or general observations after you are done reading*

Ryan Jones

Offense – B-

Jones is a third/fourth line winger and as such isn’t expected to get a great amount of points. In my mind you should hope for around 20 to 30 points for a player where he plays. Anything over 30 points would be seen as a tremendous season. Now Jones has played 12 games this season and has 2 goals to go along with 1 assist so if you were to think what that might look at over and 82 game season then you could expect if the pace continued he would end the season at around 14 goals and 7 assists for 21 points. Right around where production should be for a bottom 6 forward.

Defence – B-

Again like I said in my Boyd Gordon piece, the Oilers have allowed more goals than any other team (88) and therefore I have a difficult time giving anyone on this team a decent grade here. However, Jones in his 12 games is a -1 and has a goals against while on the ice/60 minutes played of 1.62 (GA On/60) which is quite respectable when compared to the other oilers players. It would be interested to see where Jones would fit with these stats if he had more games.

Team Play – A

You cannot fault Ryan Jones for his try this season. After being sent down to OKC out of training camp he has come back to the team and shows a willingness to do whatever it takes to be in the line up and fit in with Dallas Eakins vision of a bottom 6 role player. Jones has fought, killed penalties, blocks shots and can play, if asked in all roles of the ice. If you follow me on twitter you know that I’m the type of guy that would rather have a guy like Jones on the fourth line than and enforce like Gazdic. But again that’s an article for another time.

Overall – B-

I only hope that Jones can get more time going forward, and if not, can be traded or picked up of waivers for a team that will use him. He’s a perfect role player in my mind and with his refreshed attitude after the wakeup call of being sent down I think that the Oilers would be better with him in the line up.

Jesse Joensuu

*Before you read on with Joensuu’s report card please note that I wrote this article yesterday well before game time. I stand by my analysis but will say that he played a pretty decent game against the Preds last night and if that continues then his mid term grade will rise dramatically. I also believe that Mark Arcobello is the main contributing factor to last nights success of the fourth line, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Arco makes the players around him better and there aren’t many better examples of that then last night performance.

Offence – F

Again Joensuu like Jones is a bottom six role player, but the fact that he has played in the same amount of games and only has 1 goal to show for it means he is not doing his job offensively. During the pre-season we were all gang busters with uncle Jesse’s performance (3 goals and 1 assist thru 5 games). People were talking that this might be the big ranging winger that can play in the top 6. Well an injury sidelined that and our expectations fell back to reality and here we are.

Defence – F

Double J is struggling. He sits at minus 8, not the worst on the team but he’s managed that number in only 12 games, and sits third worst on the team in GA On/60 at 5.40, ouch. His is constantly on the losing end when it comes to Corsi as well as he’s been on the ice for 65 shots for and 109 shots against, which is the worst differential on the team IN ONLY TWELVE GAMES. Either way I have a hard time reasoning why he isn’t a healthy scratch and Ryan Jones is.

Team Play – D-

As you can see above JJ is doing nothing to help this team, sure he’s hitting, but he isn’t creating turn overs, he isn’t greating scoring chances, he isn’t doing what it takes to be a good role player on arguably the worst team in the NHL. If you cannot do those things consistently then you shouldn’t have a spot in the line up.

Overall – F

Whether you are and advanced stats guy, or someone who uses traditional stats only or someone who uses both (me) Jesse Joensuu doesn’t pass any of these tests and though he’s only played in 12 games he hasn’t done anything to make this blogger think he has been the least bit successful.

Thanks for Reading

Catch Up on the whole Making the Grade Series so far

Will Acton

Jordan Eberle

Mark Arcobello

Sam Gagner

Boyd Gordon

Luc Gazdic

Ales Hemsky

Taylor Hall