Subj : Developing Oilers Defensemen: A Cautionary Tale
To : All
From : The Hockey Writers - Main
Date : Fri Sep 11 2020 04:40 am
Edmonton can be a tough place to live, especially if you're a professional
hockey player. The only surer thing in the City of Champions - Do city monikers
lapse if they're not renewed every couple of years, like unused library cards?
- than seven hours of daylight and temperature of minus-20 in early January,
is the outrage and demand that a player be driven out of town. Justin Schultz
playing for the Oilers (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)
A few years later, there will be shrill calls for that same player to be
re-signed after they';ve been successful on another team and are available
again. Recent cases: Taylor Hall, Jeff Petry, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Strome, Devan
Dubnyk, Cam Talbot and now Justin Schultz.
"Remember Justin Schultz? Believe it or not, he could actually be a remedy for
one of our problems right now." - Phil Gretzky, advocating bringing back
Schultz to play for the OilersSchultz';s Story Arc
It is useful to recall how coveted Schultz was as a free agent coming out of
the University of Wisconsin in 2012. Almost a local boy - Kelowna is only 500
miles from Edmonton - he was drafted 43rd overall by the Anaheim Ducks in the
2008 NHL Entry Draft. In 2012, he skillfully manipulated his university status
to become a free agent unless the Ducks signed him within 30 days. Twenty-six
NHL teams offered a bid for him. In three years with the NCAA Badgers, Schultz
had scored 113 points in 122 games as a defenseman.Related: Dale Hawerchuk
Trade Revisited
He took advantage of his bargaining position, shunning not only the Ducks';
offer, but every other NHL team';s as well, to choose the Oilers. Edmonton fans
were ecstatic. At a time when the team was having trouble attracting players
to the city and Schultz could have joined almost any NHL team, he picked the
Oilers. A Torrid Start
Schultz started his pro career during the 2012 lockout, playing for the
Oilers'; AHL affiliate in Oklahoma City where he scored 48 points in 34 games.
To illustrate how impressive that point total was for a raw rookie, compare it
to the top established NHL Oiler stars playing on the same team with him during
the lockout. Jordan Eberle beat Schultz';s total by just three points in the
same number of games. Future NHL MVP and first overall 2010 NHL Draft pick
Taylor Hall scored 34 points in 26 games. Schultz';s totals are truly
impressive for someone playing professional hockey for the first time.Schultz
got off to a torrid start for the Barons (Steven Christy/OKC Barons)
Schultz won the 2012 AHL award for Best Defenseman and was chosen to play for
Canada in the 2013 IIHF World Championships, along with players like Steven
Stamkos, Matt Duchene, Claude Giroux, Eric and Jordan Staal, PK Subban, T.J.
Brodie and Dan Hamhuis. He led the team in points by a defenseman during the
tournament. Joining the Oilers for the resumption of the shortened 2012-13
season, Schultz scored 27 points in 48 games, just shy of first-overall draft
choice Nail Yakupov.
Once again, Schultz, a free agent defenceman, put up point totals challenging
high-end, first-overall draft pick forwards. All for a player that cost no
draft picks or players in trade. For Oilers fans, it felt like playing the
tables in Vegas with house money.Falling Out of Favour
Things quickly went downhill from there. During Schultz's time with the Oilers,
the team ranked 24th, 28th and 28th in a 30-team league. His point totals
stayed roughly the same, in a full 82-game schedule instead of 48 in the
lockout-shortened season. Despite being a minus-15 in that time, he averaged
18:27 of ice time - the top defensemen in the league were averaging around 21
minutes. Related: Trouble Brewing with the Oilers Young Core?
Missed coverage and getting beat was common. Fans were calling for his head. In
the 2015-16 season, Schultz was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins for a
third-round pick. A much stronger team than the Oilers, the Penguins won the
Stanley Cup that year. With the championship team, Schultz averaged just 14:14
of ice time in the remaining 18 games of the season, a truer showing of his
ability and on-ice role. What Went Wrong?
With the Oilers, Schultz was asked to play a role he was not able to fulfill.
An offensive specialist, he didn't possess the overall game to be a
first-pairing defenseman, even on a weak team. He needed to be sheltered,
mentored and nurtured if he was ever going to fill that role. And yet he kept
getting thrown out on the ice. Forced to take minutes he couldn't cope with,
against top players he couldn't handle in the defensive end, his confidence and
development cratered.Schultz played only a minor role in the Penguins Cup
win(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Current young Oiler defencemen like Ethan Bear, Caleb Jones, Evan Bouchard,
Philip Broberg, and Dmitri Samorukov have had promising starts to their
professional careers in the Edmonton system.
If we don';t want them to go down the same career arc as Schultz, the Oilers
have to learn the lessons that saw Schultz go from the most coveted free agent
in the league to eventually being traded away for a third-round draft pick and
settling in as just a complementary piece on a Stanley Cup team.Time to
Percolate
All of this is a cautionary tale for the Oilers when it comes to the
development of their current crop of young, talented defencemen. General
manager Ken Holland has often stated the necessity for players' development to
be set on a low simmer and percolate in the minors before being thrown into an
NHL role they're not ready for. The Oilers successful slow approach with
2019-20's rookies Kailer Yamamoto, Bear, and Jones confirmed the efficacy of
that strategy.
The Oilers would be wise to use the same thinking when it comes time for the
next wave of minor league prospects to jump up to the big team and be more than
flashes in the pan. When they do, they're going to need solid first-pairing
defencemen above them to take the heavy playing minutes against top opposition
until they show they can handle the role. That's precisely what the Oilers
didn't do with Schultz, but did do with Bear and Jones.
Bear was only given the top minutes he got this year - just short of 22:00 as a
rookie no less - after he proved he could handle them. In the meantime, he had
Adam Larsson, Oscar Klefbom, Darnell Nurse and even Kris Russell to shelter
him in the lineup until he showed he was ready. Jones has rightly been kept on
an even slower pace.Bouchard was named OHL defenceman of the year for 2018-19
(Photo by Terry Wilson / OHL Images)
The Oilers don't need Schultz right now. He is past his prime as an offensive
asset, he never mastered play in his own zone well enough to be considered a
top defenceman, and he has no experience when it comes to mentoring upcoming
players. Yes, the Oilers need another veteran addition on defence to tutor
their rising D-corp, especially if it is going to be substantially re-built
this season,�but that player is not Schultz.
"What NHL insider and former NHL general manager Brian Lawton meant when he
said he could see the Oilers trading two of their top-four d-men before next
season, is that two of Edmonton's better blueliners could be moved in the
coming weeks."- Jim Parsons, The Hockey Writers
Holland obviously thought that was going to be Mike Green until he unexpectedly
retired. If not Schultz or Green, who would be good choices in that role?
Kevin Shattenkirk might be, or Tyson Barrie on a short-term, value, "show me"
deal.The Moral of Our Story
The Oilers need to go forwards, not backwards. What is needed to school and
develop their strong crop of incoming defencemen is a veteran who has shown how
to be a top defenceman and mentored younger players before. But, he has to
come at a value price.
The post Developing Oilers Defensemen: A Cautionary Tale appeared first on The
Hockey Writers.
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