The current Oilers depth chart has some players who were in the NHL too soon (Ladislav Smid, Taylor Chorney, others) and you see it every year across the league.
Meanwhile, at the AHL level there are men trying to make the big club who have been labelled "AHL veterans" and therefore fill a slot in the world's best minor league. The AHL rule (as I understand it) states that every AHL team can dress 5 "veterans" and that status is attained by the following:
- A Veteran player is one who has played 260 games total in the NHL, AHL & European Premier League. Any combination of those leagues' games add up to 260, makes him a veteran.
A larger issue is Taylor Chorney's waiver status. He's a year from AHL veteran (146 AHL, 56 NHL) status but can't be sent to OKC without clearing waivers. This is the same consideration that meant Edmonton would keep Theo Peckham a year ago and send out Sean Belle instead, so it's a huge item if you believe Taylor Chorney has NHL potential.
The Chorney waiver situation could also impact Jeff Petry, who can be sent out. The point of this post is to highlight these items and the fact that the 7 best defenders may not be in Edmonton opening night.
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There's a chance Potter makes the Oilers. Tom Renney is familiar with the player from his Ranger days and the contract Potter signed ($225k in the AHL, $525k in the NHL) is a monster minor league contract. Chorney will make $62,500 in the AHL, $735,000 in the AHL and Petry's numbers are similar to Chorney's.
Potter was tied for 6th in the AHL in plus minus last season, and he enjoyed his best offensive season in the AHL. Potter also had a strong playoff for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and based on scouting report should be considered a strong candidate for NHL employment this fall.
Waivers and the AHL rule are not his friends.
The single most beautiful thing about a rising young hockey team, is that these tweeners and general busts are fast forgotten.
ReplyDeleteRob Schremp fan.
What's the knock on Potter? Waivers were his friend once upon a time.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm being dense, but doesn't being an AHL veteran work in his favour to play in the NHL? All else being equal, an AHL team would prefer a non-veteran, since they're limited in the number of veterans they can ice.
ReplyDeleteSteve Smith: AHL teams have a limit but by the time you've signed your 5 all of the good ones are gone.
ReplyDeleteAs it is, I count 6. Ryan Keller, Bryan Helmer, Potter, Yann Danis, Lennert Petrell, Josh Green.
Chorney might get claimed on waivers. So what. He is a marginal prospect and no loss to the organization. If Potter is better keep hm
ReplyDeleteTOJ: I agree. I don't think the Oilers do, though.
ReplyDeleteThe money is kind of interesting, there is a notable financial motivation to keep Potter in the NHL ahead of Chorney, given those terms.
ReplyDeleteChorney in the NHL, Potter in the AHL would cost the Oilers org $960K for the season, while Potter in the NHL, Chorney in the AHL would cost $587.5K. Unlikely you'd actually save the whole ~400K due to injuries, but still a pretty decent chunk of change.
What I read on Black Dog yesterday as a result of the commendation from LT also hammers on the "too soon, too young, thrown to the wolves" meme.
ReplyDeleteI find it almost impossible to be objective about this claim based on the information circulated. From an economic perspective, a consistent misjudgment across the league suggests that there's an underlying economic rationale, if not a hockey rationale.
The first argument to look at would be NPV (net present value) due to experience, injury risk, mileage, and terms of the CBA against the actual economics of what puts bums in the buckets. If you tighten the guitar strings of rationality too tight, no fan would show up at all: we'd all be home industriously eking and scratching our way to Malthusian glory. Don't we show up to be happily inoculated from the disappointments of life by the bright tassels of homerism? Don't we all wish to stand broad (if not tall) under the double digits of heroism? Did the south love General Lee because he was actually winning the war? or because he put up one hell of a gallant show? If facing facts was central to human nature, the stubborn old coot could have surrendered six months sooner. But he had the glory of his heritage and custom and the faith of his men to consider, and no army counts the crosses of sacrifice while faith endures.
How much does the peep show of greatness influence this calculation? LT is already "filing away" snapshots of RNH justifying the faith of the faithful on a carrot lush with bright green foliage upon slender root.
From a math perspective, whereby we pretend that actual wins is the metric of merit, one might run things a little differently than the league actually does.
From the NPV bums-in-buckets perspective (happily suckling the plump tit of homerism), nobody pays NHL bucks to watch the angels' share ride the IR to heaven in the sherry cask of the AHL.
With the terribly high injury rate for defensive prospects, the NPV to the players themselves is perilous and putrid: 40 greenhorn cups of coffee could amount to the majority of their life earnings as strained through an unfortunate rut in the ice near the end boards. In such a high risk profession, delaying your entire income stream by two years can hardly bear thought.
The fans want virgin corn, the players want payday. Only a few old gizzards encrusted with numbers muster much complaint about the new car smell emanating from the faithful bourbon cask.
Lincoln said upon his second inauguration that he would hardly change any man in any position, since for every man he appoints he makes an enemy of 19 other supplicants. That's about the same ratio of success in a 30 team league: quality is by definition a numbered edition. Every other suckling franchise waggles omens in quantity by throwing greenhorns to wolves. Argue me wrong in the NPV of PPV revenue streams.
The Old Man hockey prayer:
All that glistens is not gold, but casking in the call-ups makes it go.
(After 800 pages of Lincoln, the man rubs off. Sweet.)
Okay, but then what makes Potter valuable in the AHL is that he can play effective AHL hockey, not his status as a veteran. Given two players with exactly the same ability, one of whom has veteran status and one of whom does not, AHL teams are going to take the non-veteran every time.
ReplyDeleteBut Chorney and Potter don't have the same ability. Chorney is still learning to play pro hockey and Potter has seen sorties into his zone so often he knows every inch of the AHL landscape.
ReplyDeleteBig difference for OKC Barons imo.
DMW:
ReplyDeleteI can understand the argument for keeping some 18 and 19 year old players if you're one of the many teams struggling at the gate, and you think keeping a younger player helps sell some tickets.
And that ticket selling issue might be important for a substantial majority of NHL teams picking in the top 5, but I'm not sure it is for the Oilers right now. It's not like RNH can sell many marginal tickets if the Oilers are already sold out
I agree (from a not terribly qualified position, because I'm not very familiar with Corey Potter). But then what's working against Potter is Chorney's waiver-eligibility (as you noted) and, arguably, his ability to play effective AHL hockey. The 260 game cutoff is irrelevant, except insofar as there's presumably some modest correlation between that and the aforementioned ability (but Chorney's at 202 games, by my count, so he's almost a veteran himself).
ReplyDeleteAnd if the Barons have five other veterans they'd like to be icing, then suddenly Chorney is more desirable to them than Potter, by reason of the latter's veteran status. Prevents them from having to trade Shawn Belle.
Deadman
ReplyDeleteAre you reading Ronald White's new biography of Lincoln? Have you read David Donald's biography which is About 20 years old but is also exceptional
Clearly I don't know much about poetry, but I know that actors aren't supposed to chop their arms like Tiberius quavering on a space elevator, and you can stick a ' mark anywhere you can't your lips around the dialog, if you're not athletically inclined.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's probably that bad.
Destiny of the dauphin:
All that glistens is not gold, casking in the call-ups reeks of scold.
Rosary of the talent-scout realist:
All that glistens is not gold, casking in the call-ups gores the toad.
Penitence of the dithering GM:
All that glistens is not gold, casking in the call-ups p'roles th' extolled.
(GMs as we know are notorious for flabby lips.)
Homily of the classicist old fart (that would be me, I think):
All that glistens is not gold, casking in the call-ups augurs o'sold.
Sutter brothers gospel choir:
All that glistens is not gold, casking in the call-ups lusters by goad.
Hillbilly beatdown:
All that glistens is not gold, so git yer shinebox Robie.
(You don't need no damn Sutter to tell it straight.)
In my defense, I have to say it's August FFS, we're all here drinking the Listerine and licking the shoe polish. Robie, hand me a bar o' the good stuff, I've earned it.