Nov 23, 2015
Edmonton: Defence, goaltending fail again in first quarter
TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button assigns his letter grades for the Edmonton Oilers at the one-quarter mark of the NHL season. The team with the most exciting collection of young forwards continues to be undermined defensively.
By Craig Button
The Edmonton Oilers have won the draft lottery three times since 2010, but no matter how lucky they are with ping-pong balls, they continue to gamble and lose on goalies and defencemen.
The team with the most exciting collection of young forwards in the NHL continues to be undermined defensively. The Oilers get an F because they’re tied for last overall and have just one more point through 20 games than they did last year.
Below are the Oilers’ individual player grades.
Three factors were considered in assigning grades: performance, results and expectations, as framed by age, previous performance and cap hit/contract average annual value (AAV). Skaters must have appeared in a minimum of 10 games and goalies, five, to be graded.
Spotlight Player Grade: Amidst the doom and gloom on defence, Darnell Nurse could be a beacon of hope for the future. Thirteen games into his NHL career – 11 of them this season – Nurse is demonstrating the potential to become a dominant defender who can keep up with the likes of Hall, McDavid, Eberle, Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins. Nurse is a force of nature, and while the path to stardom on the blueline is seldom seamless, Nurse has earned a B-plus grade in the early going.
Editor’s Note: Follow TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button at @CraigJButton and join the discussion on his Interim Report Cards.
Grading System
A Excellent
B Very Good
C Satisfactory
D Poor
F Failing
Inc. Incomplete
Oilers' Grades By Player
| Goalies | Grade | Age | AAV | W | L | OT | Sv% |
| Anders Nilsson | D+ | 25 | $1.0 m | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0.901 |
| Cam Talbot | D | 28 | $1.5 m | 3 | 8 | 0 | 0.890 |
| Defencemen | Grade | Age | AAV | GP | G | P | +/- |
| Darnell Nurse | B+ | 20 | $863 k | 11 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| Oscar Klefbom | B- | 22 | $894 k | 20 | 4 | 11 | -1 |
| Andrej Sekera | C | 29 | $5.5 m | 19 | 1 | 8 | -4 |
| Brendan Davidson | C | 24 | $585 k | 11 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| Eric Gryba | C | 27 | $1.3 m | 19 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| Griffin Reinhart | C | 21 | $863 k | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mark Fayne | D+ | 28 | $3.6 m | 17 | 0 | 1 | -5 |
| Justin Schultz | Inc. | 25 | $3.9 m | 9 | 0 | 1 | -6 |
| Andrew Ference | Inc. | 36 | $3.3 m | 5 | 0 | 0 | -2 |
| Forwards | Grade | Age | AAV | GP | G | P | +/- |
| Taylor Hall | A+ | 24 | $6.0 m | 20 | 9 | 24 | 11 |
| Leon Draisaitl | A+ | 20 | $925 k | 10 | 7 | 17 | 10 |
| Connor McDavid | A | 18 | $925 k | 13 | 5 | 12 | -4 |
| Ryan Nugent-Hopkins | B- | 22 | $6.0 m | 19 | 6 | 15 | 3 |
| Nail Yakupov | C+ | 22 | $2.5 m | 20 | 2 | 11 | -1 |
| Matt Hendricks | C+ | 34 | $1.9 m | 10 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Teddy Purcell | C | 30 | $4.5 m | 20 | 4 | 11 | 0 |
| Benoit Pouliot | C | 29 | $4.0 m | 19 | 4 | 10 | -6 |
| Lauri Korpikoski | C | 29 | $2.5 m | 12 | 2 | 3 | -4 |
| Luke Gazdic | C | 26 | $800 k | 12 | 0 | 0 | -4 |
| Mark Letestu | C- | 30 | $1.8 m | 20 | 2 | 4 | -5 |
| Iiro Pakarinen | C- | 24 | $818 k | 12 | 1 | 1 | -5 |
| Anton Lander | F | 24 | $988 k | 20 | 0 | 0 | -8 |
| Jordan Eberle | Inc. | 25 | $6.0 m | 7 | 3 | 3 | -3 |
| Rob Klinkhammer | Inc. | 29 | $725 k | 7 | 1 | 1 | -3 |
| Andrew Miller | Inc. | 27 | $630 k | 6 | 0 | 0 | -1 |