Player Discussion Adam Larsson (Hall talk will result in a thread ban)

[t0nedeff]

Have always thought he has way more offense to give but for some reason the coaching staff is stifling that. I don't think they've ever given him pp time that wasn't basically a faceoff with 10 seconds left on it I mean guy is right handed and can actually 1 time a puck or use his slapshot but instead we wasted a year forcing guys like Benning in that role and watch him fail over and over again.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Larsson needs to add a booming shot or put up more points for most to fully appreciate him. Defensively he is our rock.

 

[Zaddy]

Larsson needs to add a booming shot or put up more points for most to fully appreciate him. Defensively he is our rock.

People are just really attached to these offensive defensemen nowadays. A guy like Burns is tremendous offensively but terrible in his own zone. It's honestly a bit of a joke that a guy like him won the Norris. The guy had 58% OZ starts that year too, the most out of anyone on that Sharks team and had Vlasic and Braun taking all the tough minutes. Guys of Larsson's ilk don't get enough recognition in this league.

 

[A91]

Love Lars

I hope we somehow get OEL. Having an elite partner gives you so much confidence to do things you normally wouldn't.
He was on pace for 31 points his last season with NJ iirc he played with Greene a reliable dman.

 

[snipes]

Larsson needs to be on our top PP unit.

 

[Panda Bear]

Whenever you see Larsson "unleashed", he ends up carrying the puck deep into their zone--often behind the net--and dishing it off to the slot.

He doesn't have a killer shot, sure, but he has phenomenal vision and very good puck protection.

I still think back to that one powerplay he ran against the Sharks in the playoff last year where he basically kept the puck in their own zone the whole time.

 

[McIce Whole]

Larsson needs to be on our top PP unit.

I don’t understand why we haven’t experimented much with this. I would love to see Lars given a shot on the first or even second unit PP

 

[nabob]

I don’t understand why we haven’t experimented much with this. I would love to see Lars given a shot on the first or even second unit PP

I think it's probably because they don't want to have him him playing 25+minutes a night. If you put him on the top PP unit then you have to reduce his minutes somewhere else.

 

[Chimpradamus]

I think it's probably because they don't want to have him him playing 25+minutes a night. If you put him on the top PP unit then you have to reduce his minutes somewhere else.

Maybe not every night, but it's not like there are many D-men in Edmonton worthy of playing those minutes instead of a defenseman like Larsson. It's not only that he is a rock to get through for the opposing offense, when he gets the puck, he's very good in the breakout, unless the coaches have ordered him to play it like Adam Foote. He has very good vision, a good pass and a pretty underestimated slap shot.

He didn't get much PP time for Sweden either, because later on they had Klingberg and Ekman-Larsson, while running four forwards. But for Edmonton? He should absolutely get a chance.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

I think it's probably because they don't want to have him him playing 25+minutes a night. If you put him on the top PP unit then you have to reduce his minutes somewhere else.

I start thinking this, but at the same time it not like the rest of the defence is Justin Schultz in the defensive zone. I trust Nurse, Russell, and even Klefbom and Sekera (when they're healthy) enough that Larson doesn't need to be a purely defensive specialist here. I think this is more TMac's stubbornness, à la never playing Nuge and McDavid together until other wise forced to.

I wouldn't mind trying him with Sekera next season, play him with a guy that can distribute the puck, a bit like OEL.

Sekera-Larsson
Nurse-Klefbom
Russell-_______

 

[mjlee]

 

[Drivesaitl]

Larsson also finished with a +13 rating, best on Team Sweden and I think 3rd best in tournament only behind Aho and Teräväinen who scored a ton of points for Finland.

Wonder when people are going to start appreciate how good he is defensively. It's not a coincidence he keeps leading his teams in that stat while playing shutdown minutes.

For team Sweden.

Am I the only one a bit disappointed that this play is not occurring with the Oilers and as fans that we are not seeing that benefit? Also with his comments one would wonder how much happier he was playing for Sweden than here.

Isn't that a potential issue?

This is one of the exact reasons I dislike watching the Worlds and watching Oilers on it. Its that unmistakable consolation tournament that has me inclined to wonder how much more we could have got out of certain players.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Whenever you see Larsson "unleashed", he ends up carrying the puck deep into their zone--often behind the net--and dishing it off to the slot.

He doesn't have a killer shot, sure, but he has phenomenal vision and very good puck protection.

I still think back to that one powerplay he ran against the Sharks in the playoff last year where he basically kept the puck in their own zone the whole time.

What complete nonsense. We have McDavid, Draisaitl, and you're talking about one fictitious PP that was run by Larsson. Can we tone down the hyperbole a bit? I haven't seen Larsson be the QB of one PP here. Nor does he ever look like a go to target on the PP except if you want someone else shooting into a block when Sekera isn't on the ice.

Adam Larsson has 17 goals in his entire NHL career, never more than 4 goals, and all I'm hearing is all about his offensive acumen and how the Oilers are holding him back here. Its surreal. He's never had anything close to resembling an NHL shot. Doesn't get many assists either. Theres been one NHL season where he even hit 20pts.

But hey, in response to this I'll be seeing videos about how he scored a beauty goal once in Peewee or something..

 

[Mcnotloilersfan]

What complete nonsense. We have McDavid, Draisaitl, and you're talking about one fictitious PP that was run by Larsson. Can we tone down the hyperbole a bit? I haven't seen Larsson be the QB of one PP here. Nor does he ever look like a go to target on the PP except if you want someone else shooting into a block when Sekera isn't on the ice.

Adam Larsson has 17 goals in his entire NHL career, never more than 4 goals, and all I'm hearing is all about his offensive acumen and how the Oilers are holding him back here. Its surreal. He's never had anything close to resembling an NHL shot. Doesn't get many assists either. Theres been one NHL season where he even hit 20pts.

But hey, in response to this I'll be seeing videos about how he scored a beauty goal once in Peewee or something..

This is terribly short-sighted. His numbers are due to utilization and slow development.

In Jersey he played for a strong defensive system. Now in Edmonton he is asked to be our top shut down guy.

In Larsson's draft year, he was projected to be a future Norris winning dman. His slow development had people thinking he was a bust. Now I highly doubt he ever wins a Norris, but I do think he can become a very good #1 guy if he continues to gain the confidence to use his skill in all situations. He thinks the game incredibly well.

 

[Zaddy]

Don't know if this was posted yet but here's an article with swedish NT coach talking about Larsson as well as some comments from Larsson himself. Some interesting stuff in there.

WORLDS: Larsson encouraged to activate offensively

"He's been tremendous, just tremendous," the coach said of his 6-foot-3, 210-pound blueliner playing in his second world championship. "I think you can see that he's more than just a shutdown defenseman. It's kind of fun to see him let loose a little bit here in the offensive end and, obviously, we encourage that because we don't see him as just being a shutdown defenseman, but we also know he's very dependable in his own end and break up plays and get the puck out quickly."

"I went over to see him play a couple games at the end of the season and I was really impressed," he explained. "You can tell his legs feel fresh and he feels good. He's just become so strong and dependable. He's taken pretty big steps, but we also know there's a little bit more offensive in his game than he's been able to show in Edmonton.

"When he was younger, I saw a lot of that offensive game from him," Gronborg continued. "Now, he has a little bit of a different role on his club team, but it's not like he forgot how to do those things offensively. That's why we're playing him a little bit differently here. We know he's got another dimension to his game and we want to see what he's got."

Through nine games, Larsson has a goal and three assists and said he's paying extra attention to Oliver Ekman-Larsson (Arizona) and John Klingberg (Dallas).

"I'm watching them a lot - you can't help but watch them, they're so good - but especially with their offensive game," the 25-year-old said. "I want to see if there's anything they do that I can add to my game and help me become more active on the offensive side of the puck too. I don't play very offensive in Edmonton, but here the coaches encourage me to do a little bit more and be more involved with the offense and not just a shutdown guy. I used to play that way - more offensive. Why not do it again?"

 

[dustrock]

For team Sweden.

Am I the only one a bit disappointed that this play is not occurring with the Oilers and as fans that we are not seeing that benefit? Also with his comments one would wonder how much happier he was playing for Sweden than here.

Isn't that a potential issue?

This is one of the exact reasons I dislike watching the Worlds and watching Oilers on it. Its that unmistakable consolation tournament that has me inclined to wonder how much more we could have got out of certain players.

You'd think going back to play for your home country and being happy to win after a long, frustrating season would be understandable, but I guess not for some people.

Oh, did I mention his father died this year?

And he had injuries as well? Hmm.

Everyone loved Larsson last season. Now he's playing again like last season. He's probably happy to be playing well.

 

[Drivesaitl]

You'd think going back to play for your home country and being happy to win after a long, frustrating season would be understandable, but I guess not for some people.

Oh, did I mention his father died this year?

And he had injuries as well? Hmm.

Everyone loved Larsson last season. Now he's playing again like last season. He's probably happy to be playing well.

So as Oilers fans we get a complete another season of misery, few things good going on, Larsson is supposedly injured all year and yet he apparently puts on his best play all season in Europe in some crackerjack tournament and as an Oiler fan I should be thrilled about that? It actually bugs me when players have their very best efforts elsewhere. Albeit as an Oiler fan I'm conditioned to see that.

Further, and this is the key point, without headcoach changes all I can look forward to is to not see whatever version of Larsson was on display in Europe. Because I've never seen offensively productive play from him here. About what I've seen is him be a Swedish version of Jason Smith. That being on a good year.

 

[nabob]

For team Sweden.

Am I the only one a bit disappointed that this play is not occurring with the Oilers and as fans that we are not seeing that benefit? Also with his comments one would wonder how much happier he was playing for Sweden than here.

Isn't that a potential issue?

This is one of the exact reasons I dislike watching the Worlds and watching Oilers on it. Its that unmistakable consolation tournament that has me inclined to wonder how much more we could have got out of certain players.

Did you miss the entire 2016-17 season? Or were you so mad about the Hall trade that you refused to acknowledge that Larsson immediately because the best shutdown Dman we had seen in a decade and was able to elevate Klefbom's play so that the pairing put up legit top pairing numbers all season long. Did you miss the game where he played over 40 minutes while dinged up and was dominant.

Leave it to you to find a way to create a negative out of a very large positive, especially considering everything Larsson has gone through this year.

 

[nabob]

So as Oilers fans we get a complete another season of misery, few things good going on, Larsson is supposedly injured all year and yet he apparently puts on his best play all season in Europe in some crackerjack tournament and as an Oiler fan I should be thrilled about that? It actually bugs me when players have their very best efforts elsewhere. Albeit as an Oiler fan I'm conditioned to see that.

Further, and this is the key point, without headcoach changes all I can look forward to is to not see whatever version of Larsson was on display in Europe. Because I've never seen offensively productive play from him here. About what I've seen is him be a Swedish version of Jason Smith. That being on a good year.

He was injured. He was on the IR. Do you think that was fake? He was very good to close out the season once healthy after coming back from the tragic and sudden death of his father. If you can't be happy for him for playing like he did in this tournament after the year he has had then it really says a lot about you as a poster. It's a new low for you Replacement. One I didn't think you could reach.

 

[nabob]

What complete nonsense. We have McDavid, Draisaitl, and you're talking about one fictitious PP that was run by Larsson. Can we tone down the hyperbole a bit? I haven't seen Larsson be the QB of one PP here. Nor does he ever look like a go to target on the PP except if you want someone else shooting into a block when Sekera isn't on the ice.

Adam Larsson has 17 goals in his entire NHL career, never more than 4 goals, and all I'm hearing is all about his offensive acumen and how the Oilers are holding him back here. Its surreal. He's never had anything close to resembling an NHL shot. Doesn't get many assists either. Theres been one NHL season where he even hit 20pts.

But hey, in response to this I'll be seeing videos about how he scored a beauty goal once in Peewee or something..

Speaking of Draisaitl how was his play on the PP this year? Pretty sad that he put in a half assed effort here to close out the last half of the schedule but was able to light it up for Germany on a weak club against some of the best players on the planet. Too bad we didn't see that effort for the Oilers.

 

[Drivesaitl]

This is terribly short-sighted. His numbers are due to utilization and slow development.

In Jersey he played for a strong defensive system. Now in Edmonton he is asked to be our top shut down guy.

In Larsson's draft year, he was projected to be a future Norris winning dman. His slow development had people thinking he was a bust. Now I highly doubt he ever wins a Norris, but I do think he can become a very good #1 guy if he continues to gain the confidence to use his skill in all situations. He thinks the game incredibly well.

I heard comments about Schultz being a future Norris winning Dman. lol.

Thinks the game incredibly well? That's overstating his contribution. He's a physical top pairing D that when on makes opponents pay for sitting around the crease. Adam Larsson as recently as this season wasn't on any top 50 list of NHL D that I saw. Which is about apt from what I've seen.

In anycase I've seen much more offensive acumen from the much younger Darnell Nurse, who I think is ultimately going to be a better D than Larsson, and even from Ethan Bear who hit the NHL running with some enticing offensive NHL chops. I rarely see anything like that from Larsson at the NHL level. Nobody really has.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Speaking of Draisaitl how was his play on the PP this year? Pretty sad that he put in a half assed effort here to close out the last half of the schedule but was able to light it up for Germany on a weak club against some of the best players on the planet. Too bad we didn't see that effort for the Oilers.

lmao. Draisaitl had 70 pts this season. Not sure what you were watching. Drai didn't play better in Europe than he did here. He's doing fine here. A new low point for you, blah blah blah, yada yada.

Also I missed where Larsson was very good to close out the season.

Have the last word. You can respond with anything you like I guess.

 

[CupofOil]

So as Oilers fans we get a complete another season of misery, few things good going on, Larsson is supposedly injured all year and yet he apparently puts on his best play all season in Europe in some crackerjack tournament and as an Oiler fan I should be thrilled about that? It actually bugs me when players have their very best efforts elsewhere. Albeit as an Oiler fan I'm conditioned to see that.

Further, and this is the key point, without headcoach changes all I can look forward to is to not see whatever version of Larsson was on display in Europe. Because I've never seen offensively productive play from him here. About what I've seen is him be a Swedish version of Jason Smith. That being on a good year.

The Oilers were out of the playoff race pretty much all season and his father died so I'm sure you can understand why he lost some motivation as the year wore on.

He's now further removed from the death of his father (time heals) and removed from the toxicity of the Oilers season so it's no wonder that he feels refreshed playing for his national team. Don't see why anyone would take issue with this.

 

[Drivesaitl]

The Oilers were out of the playoffs pretty much all season and his father died so I'm sure you can understand why he lost some motivation as the year wore on.

He's now further removed from the death of his father (time heals) and removed from the toxicity of the Oilers season so it's no wonder that he feels refreshed playing for his national team. Don't see why anyone would take issue with this.

Oh wait. Taylor Hall shuts it down in a meaningless season in last 30 games after 6 stellar seasons for us and he gets crucified on this board with any amount of shit made up. Larsson has a non stellar season in only his 2nd season here and its all OK.

For a player with huge skates to fill I do expect the utmost from the player every season. Given how much was given up to bring him here. That he played better in Europe than he did all season here doesn't exactly sit well with me. Nor do I think its a matter of healing being the difference. I think, and as per his statements he's just enjoying playing in Europe a lot more than here. Which I can see as a problem down the road. Not to mention he's being paid to play well here.

Not sure I understand the comment about "Oilers being out of the playoffs pretty much all season. Larsson played poorly to start the season and was a minus player 4/5 first games and 6 out of the first dozen. Larsson's play at Evens and on PK was one reason this team wasn't good enough out of the gate. More is expected of him, as it should be. He's our apparent Defensive team leader.

 

[CupofOil]

Oh wait. Taylor Hall shuts it down in a meaningless season in last 30 games after 6 stellar seasons for us and he gets crucified on this board with any amount of **** made up. Larsson has a non stellar season in only his 2nd season here and its all OK.

For a player with huge skates to fill I do expect the utmost from the player every season. Given how much was given up to bring him here. That he played better in Europe than he did all season here doesn't exactly sit well with me. Nor do I think its a matter of healing being the difference. I think, and as per his statements he's just enjoying playing in Europe a lot more than here. Which I can see as a problem down the road. Not to mention he's being paid to play well here.

Not sure I understand the comment about "Oilers being out of the playoffs pretty much all season. Larsson played poorly to start the season and was a minus player 4/5 first games and 6 out of the first dozen. Larsson's play at Evens and on PK was one reason this team wasn't good enough out of the gate. More is expected of him, as it should be. He's our apparent Defensive team leader.

When did I ever say anything about Hall? Why does freaking Hall have to be brought up every time we talk about Larsson even in a conversation that has nothing to with Hall?

All I'm saying is that it's tough to keep spirits high during a miserable hockey season and then losing your father during miserable hockey season. He is further removed from both events and was playing in a meaningful tournament for his beloved nation so he's playing with joy. Why would anybody crucify the young man for this?