Player Discussion Brandon Davidson - How do you like your crow?

[Mc5RingsAndABeer]

I'm very hesitant to declare a defender as NHL worthy without a large sample size.

 

[Baronsfan]

This is a guy that I put well ahead of guys like Musil and Simpson, where many didn't.

I actually think his sickness really set him back and think if not for that he would be even better now.

Having said all that, and seeing him pay decent for us as well, I think he would be best served with another season in the minors to work on his game/shot etc.

He needs one more year of full time/top pairing minutes in BAK and I think we sign him as our #7 guy for as long as it's feasible.

The only reason he is here is because of injuries and a complete melt down from Nikita and Ference.

Full credit for him making the most of this opportunity, but one also has to point out we are dead last in the NHL with THE easiest defense core to break into.

From someone who has watched a lot of Brandon Davidson the past 2-3 years in OKC, I'm confident in saying he doesn't particularly need more time in the minors imo. He really wouldn't gain much from any more time in the A, he was probably the most solid D to ever come through Oak City through the Barons 5 year tenure. His play last season in OKC was about as solid as I've seen from a d man at the AHL level.

The big thing with him is not send him down for longer, but get him into the line up regularly. He has gotten better throughout the season and I think he is only going to improve the more experience he gains. Davidson proved last season that he can be a dominant presence on the back end at the AHL level, I would rather Reinhart go down and prove the same before BD goes back down.

People need to realize that going to the minors will not alleviate mistakes at the NHL level. He will get away with the same mistakes and more in the AHL than here. He's not been a terrible liability so I would say the best route is try to stick with him and the more experience he gains at this level the more he will learn. It's not like the Oilers have any better options at this point. Perhaps the only thing he could gain experience in the A is being more relied on offensively as he was always used as a shut down defender in OKC, but I much prefer his style of play than a cheat for offense d man like Brad Hunt.

 

[Aerchon]

From someone who has watched a lot of Brandon Davidson the past 2-3 years in OKC, I'm confident in saying he doesn't particularly need more time in the minors imo. He really wouldn't gain much from any more time in the A, he was probably the most solid D to ever come through Oak City through the Barons 5 year tenure. His play last season in OKC was about as solid as I've seen from a d man at the AHL level.

The big thing with him is not send him down for longer, but get him into the line up regularly. He has gotten better throughout the season and I think he is only going to improve the more experience he gains. Davidson proved last season that he can be a dominant presence on the back end at the AHL level, I would rather Reinhart go down and prove the same before BD goes back down.

People need to realize that going to the minors will not alleviate mistakes at the NHL level. He will get away with the same mistakes and more in the AHL than here. He's not been a terrible liability so I would say the best route is try to stick with him and the more experience he gains at this level the more he will learn. It's not like the Oilers have any better options at this point. Perhaps the only thing he could gain experience in the A is being more relied on offensively as he was always used as a shut down defender in OKC, but I much prefer his style of play than a cheat for offense d man like Brad Hunt.

Time in the AHL should never hurt anyones career.

I agree with basically everything you said but in an indirect way you are just reinforcing my thoughts.

Davidson will not get a lot of playing time. While he has played well can you honestly say he should be played over Gyrba, Reinhart, or I guess Nurse or Schultz when he comes back?

I read an article where Davidson only specifically practiced his shot this last offseason. His offense is certainly an area he could work on in the minors.

 

[Joey Moss]

I wonder if Ference will ever play again here..

Nurse, Davidson, Reinhart, Gryba are all ahead of him and Schultz hasn't even come back yet.

 

[McJadeddog]

I won't eat crow, but he isn't a plug.

he looks like he could end up being an average bottom-pairing guy if he continues to develop.... he is still VERY slow though, so bottom pairing is at high as he'll ever reach IMO.... on a good team he is still in the AHL or the 7th dman

 

[McJadeddog]

Nurse-Sekera
Klefbom-Schultz
Reinhart-Davidson

should be our D-core unless proven otherwise.

i would likely agree with this, except i would have fayne in instead of reinhart.... ference should never see the ice again, barring disastrous injuries.... gryba should be the #7 that subs in for davidson or fayne, depending on various factors... reinhart should be playing mondo-minutes in the AHL, and be the first injury callup

 

[BowDangles]

Nurse-Sekera
Klefbom-Schultz
Reinhart-Davidson

should be our D-core unless proven otherwise.

I agree that that's who they should play but I doubt they will because that is a ton of money In the press box with Fayne, Ference and Gryba.

I think Fayne has a lot more to give as well

 

[Baronsfan]

Time in the AHL should never hurt anyones career.

I agree with basically everything you said but in an indirect way you are just reinforcing my thoughts.

Davidson will not get a lot of playing time. While he has played well can you honestly say he should be played over Gyrba, Reinhart, or I guess Nurse or Schultz when he comes back?

I read an article where Davidson only specifically practiced his shot this last offseason. His offense is certainly an area he could work on in the minors.

I agree that it won't ever hurt anyone's career, but in Davidson's case there comes a point where it might not do much good either. He has deficiencies, but I think it's to the point that it needs to be at the NHL level where he learns those lessons, as a lot of his issues I think will iron out once he gets more up to pace of the NHL speed consistently. He's been one of the better D last few games imo, but I'm a big fan of his so I might be a little more optimistic of him than others. He looks a lot better on the point on the pp than Schultz though, I'm glad to see him not afraid to use his shot which is definitely underrated.

Like I said if there is one thing he could work on in minors it would be having a consistent offensive game, but I don't consider him to be an offensive defenseman, so I'm not sure he has much untapped offensive potential. He creates a heck of a lot more offensively than Reinhart and Gryba already though.

I'm not too impressed with Reinhart to be honest. I think a lot of people are just really high on him due to his tenure with the oil kings. I think you play one of him/Gryba with Davidson, not both together. I just find it a little unfair to assume Davidson has more to learn at the AHL level than a player like Reinhart when Davidson has proven that he is a force down there, whereas Reinhart by most accounts was pretty inconsistent, no? I wasn't too familiar with him in the AHL due to him being in the east, but I thought I heard he had his struggles in Bridgeport.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Based on play I'd keep Reinhart up over Davidson. That said we have too many D here so unless we deal one or two Reinhart may well get the short end of the stick.

 

[BarDownBobo]

I don't think Davidson would clear waivers if we tried to send him down. His play recently has likely opened the eyes of a few teams, especially those dealing with injuries right now.

 

[Aerchon]

I don't think Davidson would clear waivers if we tried to send him down. His play recently has likely opened the eyes of a few teams, especially those dealing with injuries right now.

Lol, I am pretty sure Washington would at least consider taking him and dropping Chorney.

 

[MessierII]

Maybe if the isles covet him he could become part of a package for Hamonic.

 

[scb23]

No way he clears waivers, and he's been miles better than Gryba and Reinhart so far.

Very impressed with him this year. I didn't think there was a player there - I'll gladly eat crow if he keeps it up.

 

[K1984]

I wonder if Ference will ever play again here..

Nurse, Davidson, Reinhart, Gryba are all ahead of him and Schultz hasn't even come back yet.

If all is right in this world he should't play again.

His last game against the Flames might be the worst performance I have seen from an individual d man on this team in the last three years, and that is obviously saying something. He was an absolute tire fire every time he was on the ice, brought absolutely no redeeming quality.

Thankfully we have a coach that recognizes this and isn't afraid to deservedly park him. You just know that past regimes would have played politics and put him in the lineup.

 

[LTIR]

interesting thread..
eating crow over a #6 Dman on the worst NHL team outperforming the likes of Ference and Gryba..

Davidson is at best a bottom pairing Dman... #7 on a good team.

I should be eating crow.. only because I predicted Davidson to be better than Nurse this year.

 

[IAGTTAYM]

http://becauseoilers.blogspot.ca/2015/11/evaluating-oiler-defensemens-impact-on.html

An interesting piece and it correlates well with what I'm seeing on the ice.

 

[joestevens29]

interesting thread..
eating crow over a #6 Dman on the worst NHL team outperforming the likes of Ference and Gryba..

Davidson is at best a bottom pairing Dman... #7 on a good team.

I should be eating crow.. only because I predicted Davidson to be better than Nurse this year.

Ya it's all fine and dandy as the kid really has a story that makes you want to see him succeed, but it's such a small sample size.

Lets keep in mind a guy like Marincin was getting similar praise not too long ago and last I heard he was struggling.

 

[SaskOilers]

Since I've been pumping the tires of Davidson lately I decided to do a bit more digging. I don't consider myself to be an advanced stats guy but I do have fun looking at the different sites out there and playing with some of the numbers. I created a simple chart from War On Ice to try and look at how our d-core is performing in relation to one another this year.

View attachment 86261

Now I'm certain there are better ways to analyze some of the numbers deeper, but I thought this chart was kind of interesting.

It appears that Davidson recieves the easiest zone starts of all d-men but makes the most of his opportunities.

Ference, Reinhart, and Gryba also recieve fairly easy zone starts but all give up more chances than they get.

Nurse, Fayne and Sekera are grouped in the middle. Fayne is outperforming both Sekera and Nurse in corsi differential (not sure if this is the best corsi metric to use) which seems a bit odd to me. Obviously using only differential will not show corsi for/against, just the ratio.

Klefbom receives the second toughest zone starts and comes up almost even in scoring chances for/against.

Schultz gets the toughest zone starts by far and it shows in his corsi/scoring chance differential.

Like I said I'm new to this, but the sense that I'm getting from browsing a few different advanced stats sites say that Davidson has been performing quite well in comparison to our other D.

Anyways, don't be too critical, but I would be interested in hearing more about how our D are performing in some of the critical advanced stats categories.

 

[duul]

Like I've been saying for a while now, he and Nurse have been our two best defencemen this year. Pretty pathetic really, but he is looking good.

 

[Seedling]

No crow for me. I do remember being laughed at for suggesting he would get picked up from waivers and he is going to be one of our best D men. Having said that, I was totally wrong about Lander.

 

[Seedling]

Based on play I'd keep Reinhart up over Davidson. That said we have too many D here so unless we deal one or two Reinhart may well get the short end of the stick.

I thought Reinhart had a very good camp and really tailed off after the his first five games. He's not ready yet. It's by a hair but Davidson seems better to me at the moment. I'm hoping Reinhart really comes along like his fans suggest he will. I think he will but he's not ready and even though he was relatively equal in play, but not quite to Davidson, he's the easiest guy to send down. No way I risk waiving Davidson.

 

[Mr Positive]

No crow for me. I do remember being laughed at for suggesting he would get picked up from waivers and he is going to be one of our best D men. Having said that, I was totally wrong about Lander.

I highly doubt he would have been picked up on waivers. He would now though.

 

[Aceboogie]

There was a thread on trade boards at the start of the season asking lesser known players whod be good wiaver pick ups in pre season and I had mentioned I thought Davidson would be a prime candidate. I was high on him to start the season (not like #3 high but solid #5-6 guy)

Hes put his dues in in the AHL and plays the game right. Hes simple but a jack of all trades type guy. Hopefully our new Strudwick or even Smith lite

 

[SoftDumps]

How do I like my crow? ...in the press box

Joking aside, he appears to be a nice piece for bottom pairing depth at the moment, which is pretty good considering his development path.

 

[ChaoticOrange]

There was a thread on trade boards at the start of the season asking lesser known players whod be good wiaver pick ups in pre season and I had mentioned I thought Davidson would be a prime candidate. I was high on him to start the season (not like #3 high but solid #5-6 guy)

Hes put his dues in in the AHL and plays the game right. Hes simple but a jack of all trades type guy. Hopefully our new Strudwick or even Smith lite

Davidson's 4 points in 16 games are only 5 off Struddy's career high

Tom Poti lite, maybe?