This is Taylor Fedun. He's the latest free agent signing by the Edmonton Oilers, and a rare NCAA pickup for the organization. I'm always encouraged by these kinds of signings, since real value is available. This has been proven time and again over the years and Edmonton has appeared unable to join the game.
It's tough to find a reliable scouting report on Fedun. He's 6.01, 210 and has some offensive ability. Here's a breakdown of his situational stats:
- Overall: 29gp, 10-12-22 +8
- Even strength 29gp, 3-6-9
- Powerplay: 29gp, 7-6-13
- Penalty kill: 29gp, 0-0-0
- Jeff Petry 38gp, 4-25-29 (.763)
- Fedun 29gp, 10-12-22 (.759)
LT: is he then signed for next year or can he join the Barons? Considering the last posting was about Clear Day I'm assuming he joins the Barons next year...
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that he can play in OKC now. The clear day is for roster eligibles only, once a player is signed after that he's free to play.
ReplyDeleteRight you are LT.
ReplyDeleteAny major junior player who signs after clear day is exempt from the rules of clear day. I'd assume it's the same for collegiate signings also.
Not sure if he's among the Barons' normal top-6 though.
This has been proven time and again over the years and Edmonton has appeared unable to join the game.
ReplyDeleteHow about Brain Lerg?
Oh...
Looks like a nice value gamble with little downside. At worst he looks like a decent AHL player moving forward. At best he's a potential NHL defenceman with an all-around skillset for the cost of an NHL contract spot and not much else.
ReplyDeleteWell we can at least gather from the oilers website that he was captain of Princeton, so that bodes well
ReplyDeleteTambellini grinning ear to ear -
ReplyDelete"I just signed Tyler Seguin!"
Lowe -
"Is that blood coming from your ear?"
He appears to be ahead of Gilbert at the same age too, although I am loathe to compare divisions equally in the NCAA.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteInteresting player, could be a late bloomer. He does have all the traditional ticks management likes eh? Local boy, smart guy, and he has decent size. Whatever faults Kevin Lowe has, he always did have the savant touch for digging defensemen out of nowhere. So hopefully this is a good pick up for the Oilers. I do like free assets. If nothing else the price is right.
ReplyDeletePosted this on the last thread then noticed nobody will see it so am reposting here.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, just wanted to chime in that I watched the Drummondville game from Sunday night. I thought Couturier was better than many here saw him. Yes he looked a little disinterested once or twice, including on the goal that occurred on his shift. That being said, I saw a lot of Joe Thornton in him. The way he protects the puck, passes very well, and is good in his own zone as well as the neutral zone. I would definitely like to see him more.
I have been spending time going over to HF recently, a place I had never really been before today, to read up on Adam Larsson. There are a few Swedish fans who post there frequently, one appears to be some sort of amateur scout. The general theme is that he is considered to be the best dman since Lidstrom, although not considered to be better than Lidstrom or even play a similar style. The comparable, believe it or not, is to Rob Blake or a bit of Ray Bourque.
They say last year he was a third pairing dman with lots of pp time. This year he is a second pairing dman who was asked to concentrate on his defensive awareness and positioning. For some reason he is on the second pp unit and gets about half the time as last year. I believe Rundblad, who Ottawa got in a trade last year from St. Louis, who is two years older than Larsson and a former top 15 NHL draft pick, gets the first unit pp time.
Nevertheless, the two Swedes posting on it are insistent that he will be better than Hedman and OEL, although both believe OEL has a higher ceiling than Hedman because of his skating. They compare those to to Pronger and Niedermayer, respectively.
Both of those guys are pretty good but to me Bourque was the best of his generation, and if Larsson is him, I take him over Sakic or Thornton.
And Dennis, my favourite Oil dman from the day was Bo Bo Mironov although I also really liked Brewer until he thought he was better than he was.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011 11:21:00 PM MST
One other thought I had that has not been talked about much was the idea of the Oilers going after Glencross this summer. For all the mourning over the Penner trade, I almost see Glencross as being able to replace Penner's goals with more speed, more nastiness, and a very high end penalty killing ability.
ReplyDeletetoday I listed to Lowetide's interview from two weeks ago with the FlamesNation guy who argued that Glencross has been "carrying the play" more than any other flame the last three seasons, in terms of corsi and scoring chances. And that this season, if you can believe it, Iginla and Tanguay are only even on SC, while Glencross is a big plus.
(some of this I got from reading articles at Flamesnation, not all from the Lowetide interview)
I know his pedigree is not that great, but he reminds me of Burrows (who wasn't even drafted...neither was Penner) and I think he would be worth a slight overpay. Word is he is asking for $ 3 million and I can't see how the Flames can afford that, given they are already at $56 million with only 16 players signed and would need to give Tanguay a BIG raise.
I would throw $10 million at Glenx for three years and put him on the top line with Horcoff and Hemsky.
The obvious point to add is to re-sign Hemsky.
Stauffer has said a few times he thought the Oilers would choose between Penner and Hemsky and keep the other one so hopefully they do.
If you get Glenx to replace Penner, then you get Teubert and the pick for free and are actually ahead $1 million in cap space and add a guy who is nastier and faster than Penner.
Given Tambellinni's comments to Matheson Sunday night maybe something like this is still possible. Glencross was roommates with Gagner, Cogliano and Gilbert for his three months here and I could see , if he was tyeing up for three years or so, that our upside in that time may be better than the Lames'.
Question for all you smarty pants: Will Fraser on the morning show on Monday said GLencross signed with the Flames for the same money the Oilers offered him. Does anyone know if this is true? I had heard at the time that the Oilers didn't offer him anything because they were busy trying to sign Hossa and they didn't know how much money they would have left over , so he took the first decent offer he got from the Flames. Does anyone know which story is true???
OF: What I just think feels wrong when they say that kind of stuff about Larsson is
ReplyDeleteA: Just how ahead of him Rundblad seems to be ahead of him
B: Lidstrom was not a high pick, much more a late bloomer himself.
It's a bit OT, but since he was mentioned, Rundblad is a tremendous prospect. He's 3rd in the entire SEL in scoring despite being a defenceman. With him and Karlsson, Ottawa should be set with high end D for the next 10 years.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the age difference between Larsson and Lundblad?
ReplyDeleteRundblad is a late '90 birthday and Larsson is a late '92.
ReplyDeleteAll of this is taken off the Al Gore, so second hand and take it with a grain of salt. I've been tracking Adam Larsson since he was 16, and I'd be thrilled if he became an Oiler, so another grain of salt for my bias.
ReplyDeleteLT, Rundblad has an October 8, 1990 birthdate, and Larsson a November 12, 1992 birthdate. So he's just a hair under 23 months older than Larsson.
FPB, here's the answers to your questions:
A: Just how ahead of him Rundblad seems to be ahead of him
From Swedish fans of Skellefteå AIK, Rundblad struggled last season and was recast in his current role. Apparently he's turned a corner and is now their number one offensive weapon and utilized as such; i.e. he gets the prime PP time and offensive zone starts, and he fully takes advantage of it.
Larsson has been recast this season as a shutdown defenceman. I don't know why, but maybe it's a learning thing since Swedish teams tend to like all-around players, as MPS mentioned everyone has to be responsible in the SEL. Larsson is being deployed on the 2nd pairing in a shutdown role.
To add to this, Larsson has apparently been nursing a nagging injury for a substantial part of the season. This culminated at the WJC, where he only played in important games after he suffered another injury or aggravated an existing one against Canada. After the WJC his team shut him down, likely not willing to take any risks with such a young player with so much potential.
It's important to note that while playing in closing games of the WJC injured, he was still arguably Sweden's best player, no small feat.
B: Lidstrom was not a high pick, much more a late bloomer himself.
Lidstrom was drafted in a different era under different draft rules, when picking Euro players wasn't common.
The Red Wing scouts loved him, raved about him after having chanced to see him play. Lidstrom was from a small town and playing in the middle of nowhere at the time. Apparently Don Meehan saw him too and raved about him, but was on very friendly terms with the Wings management and stayed quiet.
When the draft rolled around, the Wings knew they could get him in lower rounds because he was European and an unknown (ranked very low by everyone). So that draft they waited then nabbed him in the 3rd round 53rd overall.
I think it's safe to say in this age and day, if a Lidstrom type was a young 18 year old in the draft, he'd go much, much higher.
As it stands now, I think Larsson is the best player available, and he's who the Oilers should draft sealed with a bullet.
Interesting note, the Senators got Rundblad from St. Lois for their 15th overall, which works for both teams.
ReplyDeleteSt. Lois traded the very promising young defenceman for the chance to grab Tarasenko who inexplicably fell to 15th because he was a Russian.
Keep in mind that at the time of the draft, there weren't two players that were clearly better than everyone else, there were actually three. Hall, Seguin, and Tarasenko. I think St. Lois did very well to trade and grab him. If I was an Ottawa fan I'd be happy with Rundblad at 15th overall, but I'd be even happier with Tarasenko, who projects to be a special player, right up there with Hall and Seguin.
For his part, Tarasenko clearly seems to be destined for the NHL, you know, after he's done developing a bit more and tearing up the KHL for a bit.
On to Taylor Fedun, from the Al Gore, he's what we know about him:
ReplyDeleteLocal boy.
Did his full 4 years at Princeton, graduating with a Mechanical Engineering degree (smart cookie)
Captain of the Princeton team.
Wore an A for the Spruce Grove Saints, where he was coached by the current coach of the Oil Kings (i.e. the Oilers are very familiar with him). Olcyzk said the Oilers were tracking him for years.
There was apparently interest from the Canucks, but Fedun really wanted a shot to play for his hometown team, the Oilers, it's something of a dream for him (although getting his degree was every bit as important).
spOILer said...
He appears to be ahead of Gilbert at the same age too, although I am loathe to compare divisions equally in the NCAA.
Spoiler, Princeton is in what's acknowledged as the toughest collegiate division. I think a disproportionate number of championship teams seem to come out of there.
Also interesting is Fedun mentions a game he'll never forget was being on the losing end of a final 16 game his 2nd year at Princeton, where they were leading by 2 goals with 38 seconds left. Seems to have been a defining moment in his hockey life and something that's driven him.
There's a fun blurb about his signing in the Vancouver rags prints here:
Oilers sign Princeton defenceman for farm team
Seems like a solid bet, and it costs nothing but a contract. Like "a found wallet". I liked the Lerg signing, and like this one even more.
uni,
ReplyDeleteSomething else of note in that link was the comment made my Lundmark regarding Lander and that he'll be playing in the NHL next season describing him as a stud.
Very encouraging.
uni: The ECAC is definitely not the strongest conference. It's a step below the Big 3 conferences, which are Hockey East, CCHA, and WCHA. They haven't produced a champion since 1989 and only 2 Frozen Four apperances in the last 15 seasons. Plus, their schedules tend to be a lot shorter because of academic requirements which is probably not beneficial for development.
ReplyDeleteAnd I must disagree about Tarasenko being the consensus #3 player in the draft, which he never was. Statistically, that's where he would have been slotted, but most rankings and scouts had him in the back half of the top ten, regardless of him being Russian. And Tarasenko's numbers have actually regressed from last season and they're well shy of Kuznetsov's and the numbers Filatov put up last year.
Ah, I was going by what I'd read on a few blogs with the Collegiate conferences, I stand corrected then.
ReplyDeleteTarasenko was very highly rated at the draft, and the only reason he was ranked below the top 10 was specifically because he was Russian. As far as offensive talent was concerned he was regarded right up there with Hall and Seguin I believe.
His numbers have regressed a little this season, and yes Filatov and that Kuznetsov are doing better, but Tarasenko still projects to be a star. You have to remember he's still a very young man playing in arguably the 2nd best men's league in the world.
Oh well, time will tell =).