By Jeremy Wright
In a surprising move, Craig MacTavish has dropped the first swing of the axe in what promises to be a busy run in to the Olympics for Oilers management. Devan Dubnyk has been sent to the Nashville Predators for Matt Hendricks.
Hendricks will surely slot in on the fourth line upon arrival to the sink hole that is the Oilers this season. What can we expect of him?
A 32 year old native of Blaine Minnesota, was drafted by Nashville in the 5th round of the 2005 draft. The 6’3″ forward bounced around the minors from 03-04 to 08-09 and finally caught on for 56 games with the Avalanche in 09-10. He is a player who can probably be best described as a stop-gap “gritty” option for the Oilers 4th line until some home grown talent is ready to step in (hopefully next season). Sadly, he will not be any solution for help this season as his underlying stats are terrible to say the least. Here are some numbers from this season…
Corsi QoC -.970 (worst among Nashville forwards)
One Ice Corsi -17.04 (worst among Nashville forwards)
PDO 970 (6th best among forwards)
48GP 5G 5A -5 54 pim
I think it obvious MacT had no intention of signing Dubnyk and did this deal to just get something in return. He is slated to be a UFA at season’s end. Clearly, judging on the return, Dubnyk’s performance this season has ended up with him having little to no value and I guess it can be looked at as something is better than nothing. I believe Dubnyk will turn his game around and David Poile will prove to be the wiser of the two GMs involved in this deal.
Rumours are now churning and the day may just be beginning. Stay tuned…
UPDATE!!!
Just coming down the twitter pipeline is word that G Ben Scrivens has also been acquired, from the LA Kings, for a 3rd round pick. More analysis of the deals later in the day…
Feel free to share some banter with me on Twitter, @borisnikov, be it hockey or otherwise.
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