The Waving Of Mark Fayne

The Edmonton Oilers did something that really surprised me on Wednesday afternoon. The team waived defender Mark Fayne after just about 100 games with the club. Fayne was signed by former GM Craig MacTavish to be in the group’s top-four, but he has struggled.

Last season, Fayne didn’t provide much offense to the team, but he played some solid defensive hockey. Over the summer, I thought Fayne was positioned to take a top-four role and be a key member of the Todd McLellan defense. Unfortunately, that has not been the case and we are here.

Fayne isn’t a physical defender, a Peter Chiarelli player if you will. He also struggles to move the puck, isn’t overly quick and struggles to defend the blue-line while quickly moving back. He’s not a Todd McLellan player either, and that leaves him in quite an awkward position.

Is Fayne a bad player? Regardless of what many think, I’d say no. He’s a shut-down defender, plain and simple. He’s not there for the offense and he is limited in the moving the puck, but he’s solid at clogging up the shooting lanes, breaking up the cycle and generally keeping chances to the outside.

That said, Fayne didn’t play that game this year, he made too many mistakes. He struggled massively at the start of the season and sat for three straight games before coming back in and playing decent hockey. His game against Dallas last Friday night, however, might have the been the worst I’ve ever seen an Oiler play.

Fayne was absolutely dominated by a strong Dallas attack and ended up getting benched by Todd McLellan in the third period. McLellan has also cut Fayne’s ice time way down this season, and Fayne has also been taken off the penalty kill.

He lost the trust of his coach, and that’s a big problem. On top of that, he isn’t the type of player his GM likes and he was brought in by a previous management team. This was the perfect storm for Fayne to end up on waivers.

What happens at noon eastern today is anyone’s guess. Fayne still has considerable money left on his deal and has a term of two more years on the contract. The odds that someone takes that off Edmonton’s hands is slim to none. If a team were to do it, I could see Toronto, Buffalo or New Jersey being the claiming team.

If he clears, Fayne will go to the AHL and signs, from Bob Stauffer and others, suggest that Nikita Nikitin will get another shot in Edmonton. Apparently he has been solid in the AHL this season, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

I still believe that Fayne is a better option than Justin Schultz and Eric Gryba, but the Oilers do not agree. Edmonton got rid of one of their better defenders on Wednesday, and that is a baffling decision to me.

What Edmonton does next will be interesting to me. I don’t agree with the move to demote Fayne, but if Edmonton can snag another defender then maybe this will end up being an upgrade for the team.

One thing is for sure, Peter Chiarelli and Todd McLellan are molding their team in Edmonton. Fayne was not good and he is being held accountable. I guess that’s a solid start towards building a team.