Injury Report: Andrej Sekera out indefinitely (torn Achilles)

[Blue Line Turnover]

Poor Seksy

 

[MessierII]

Yes, it hurts in the ass a bit since the islanders got twelfth overall, but losing Dobson isn't that awful

It’s pretty freaking bad. This should not be the shining example of how easy it is to get a top 4 D. Larsson is substantially better than Hamonic.

 

[super6646]

It’s pretty freaking bad. This should not be the shining example of how easy it is to get a top 4 D. Larsson is substantially better than Hamonic.

Right... I mean both are mostly stay at home d-men with little offensive upside. Larsson is younger, but you guys gave up Taylor Hall. We have no clue what Dobson could become, and we already have defensive prospects that are pretty good.

 

[Senor Catface]

It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times.

 

[Took a pill in Sbisa]

there's some point there, in that we are so eager for improvement, not just because we have McDavid but because we had a legendary span of losing before that. Perhaps there is some unfair pressure on Chiarelli.

If you look at what Chiarelli inherited, there were great things but also huge gaps that aren't fixable with simple deals, such as a 1D. There was also never a clear moment to get that player that Chia missed out on.

And ultimately, I agree that our roster isn't good enough after this time, but it's exaggerated now because Sekera has had these unpredictable issues and he is a solid Dman. Also, Talbot had a rough year, so although he seems like a weak addition right now, imo he does represent a big win from Chiarelli. If you don't have a good goalie, you're done. Teams struggle for years if they don't have a goalie. I'd argue that that issue is currently wrecking the Flames' rebuild.

Also, I choose to believe Nicholson when he says that Chia's saving grace is the state of our drafting, scouting and development, which apparently has benefited greatly because of decisions that Chia has made to remake our system. Nicholson has some motive to pump up Chia's tires, but to me he seems like a guy who doesn't hold his tongue, and even in that speech where he praised Chiarelli it almost sounded like he was trashing some other aspects of his performance so far.

My opinion of the team is that Chiarelli has generally done a good job, although he's dogged by some bad decisions along the way. But I get it. He NEEDED to creates wins ASAP, which is why he was so aggressive, and aggressiveness in GM is destined to lead to some bad moves.

Ultimately, I have one unambiguous criticism of Chiarelli: He has utterly and completely failed to bring in any sort of offensive defenseman. Benning was advertised as such, but that was quickly shown to be an exaggeration. Sekera too, and now the rhetoric is pushing that Nurse could possibly be that guy (spoiler alert: no). Even now, Chia says that drafting Bouchard has taken away organizational desire to get a OFD, and to me that potentially condemns our team not just for this upcoming season but for several after, and that assumes that Bouchard pans out. Btw, over the years there have been OFD available that Chia's struck out on. Even now, with Faulk right there, he is a player who couldn't be more available unless we're not on his NTC list. If he would come here though, I really don't see any excuse why we would not be the #1 front runner to get him. But anyway, there must be others available.

Btw, I'm not saying that our defense has no offensive skill. We have some guys who can put up okay numbers if they play over their heads. It's just that without that one pivotal guy one the blue line, it has a cascading effect where everyone else looks bad is playing above their ability when it comes to figuring out what to do with the puck in the offensive zone.

When looking at his full body of work, I just can't justify giving Chia anything other than an F.

You start by mentioning the #1 defenseman. I don't buy that we couldnt have greatly improved our top-4 without gutting the roster. As mentioned above, look no further than 3 hours south in Calgary. Vatanen wasn't all that expensive for New Jersey and all he did was play 22:45 per game as their top right shot d-man.
I also think Chiarelli gets way too much credit for Talbot and fixing our goaltending. I fear that it's getting to the point where Talbot is starting to get overrated on these boards. Since acquiring him, he's been a bottom 15 goalie statistically in both GAA and SV%. His Vezina consideration 2 seasons ago was largely due to the fact that he racked up the GP because Chia failed to provide an adequate backup. Something he still hasnt shown he can do to this point.
As for the drafting, scouting and development, I think its far too early to label it successful. Surely we've all learnt our lesson with Stu MacGregor about premature praise.
We only have our 3 1st rounders that have debuted in the NHL so far, as well as Bear (who frankly was lucky to see any action but was fortunate from the piling injuries), and frankly the Puljujarvi pick is looking more and more suspect when comparing to his comparables from the draft year. The only other NHLer tied to the Oilers draft picks was made by the Islanders and was the Calder Trophy winner last season.
Has Chiarelli generally done a good job? I'd say not really. Being aggressive isn't a good quality if it ultimately makes the roster worse.

Just taking the Tambellini approach and sitting on his hands would arguably have equated to a better team than the one entering this season.

 

[Cloned]

It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times.

This post deserves a runaway gif.

 

[Soundwave]

Nurse could be a #1D, but he's looking more like a really good 2nd pairing guy. I like him though, and think first pairing isn't crazy at all, but it's a stretch to think he could be a top tier Dman.

As for the Dmen Chia could have got, that was my point in that last bit I wrote. He has failed the team in getting us an offensive Dman. Getting Sekera and Russell were good moves though, although the Russell extension is bad because of the NMC attached. I mean geez, Ellis just signed in Nashville for 6 million, with no NMC. Just awful, Chia.

But yes, he did good things too. He found Maroon for spare change, and got a good pick out of him. Similarly, it looks like Rattie will be another gem for cheap. Most of all, Chia needs guys like Rattie, Koskinen and Reider to prove that his scouting is good, but also he needs bounce back years from Talbot and Larsson to prove that his judgement is sound.

It is worth it for Chia to spend this new cap space he's got, and to spend assets to get players.

I think people should pump the breaks a little on Rattie. He had a bunch of points with McDavid in their first 6 games, but then in the last 6 games with McDavid he was shut out of like 5/6 of those games and was a -6, that doesn't cut it if you're gonna play long term with McDavid.

I wouldn't be surprised if he's back in the AHL by Halloween.

Maroon is the only legit great find by Chia that no one really saw coming that he's found, Talbot was already being talked about in Oiler circles and the media before Chiarelli was even hired and Sather did a little bit of a favor there. And we couldn't keep Maroon because Chia blew a ton of cap on Lucic, so we have basically nothing to show for that.

This is a paltry amount of good moves in 4 summer's worth of work. His last legit really good trade or signing (Maroon) was almost 2 1/2 years ago and we weren't able to retain even him. That's not good enough.

 

[joestevens29]

He'll be blamed either way because people don't seem to understand they won't have Sekera's LTIR overage the whole season(assuming he comes back at some point).

They can likely only afford someone that's making something around $1.5M after Nurse's contract. If you're getting a legitimate top 4 defenseman at that price, it's going to be a young player that you'll have to give up the farm for.

Losing Sekera for most of the season doesn't just magically make someone like Justin Faulk an option.

Peter decided not to make a tough move this summer and give up assets to give himself some cap space. Now he has to live with his choices.

 

[CupofOil]

When looking at his full body of work, I just can't justify giving Chia anything other than an F.

You start by mentioning the #1 defenseman. I don't buy that we couldnt have greatly improved our top-4 without gutting the roster. As mentioned above, look no further than 3 hours south in Calgary. Vatanen wasn't all that expensive for New Jersey and all he did was play 22:45 per game as their top right shot d-man.
I also think Chiarelli gets way too much credit for Talbot and fixing our goaltending. I fear that it's getting to the point where Talbot is starting to get overrated on these boards. Since acquiring him, he's been a bottom 15 goalie statistically in both GAA and SV%. His Vezina consideration 2 seasons ago was largely due to the fact that he racked up the GP because Chia failed to provide an adequate backup. Something he still hasnt shown he can do to this point.
As for the drafting, scouting and development, I think its far too early to label it successful. Surely we've all learnt our lesson with Stu MacGregor about premature praise.
We only have our 3 1st rounders that have debuted in the NHL so far, as well as Bear (who frankly was lucky to see any action but was fortunate from the piling injuries), and frankly the Puljujarvi pick is looking more and more suspect when comparing to his comparables from the draft year. The only other NHLer tied to the Oilers draft picks was made by the Islanders and was the Calder Trophy winner last season.
Has Chiarelli generally done a good job? I'd say not really. Being aggressive isn't a good quality if it ultimately makes the roster worse.

Just taking the Tambellini approach and sitting on his hands would arguably have equated to a better team than the one entering this season.

Please. Can people stop pointing to the Flames as if they are some sort of benchmark for success?
The Oilers have won more playoff series under Chia than the Flames have under Treliving and don't give me "But the Oilers have McDavid" rhetoric because McDavid won the Art Ross last season and they still finished bottom 10 so it takes more than one player to succeed.

FTR, not defending Chia because he has made his fair share of mistakes and deserves to be fired if they miss the playoffs or even now for that matter but the Flames haven't gone anywhere with all these "prized" defensive acquisitions, the best of which they have already traded away.
Oh and no, the Tambo approach wouldn't have been better, are you kidding me? With the Tambo approach, they would still have a garbage defense (yes, worse than the D they have now) and garbage goaltending although it would have been damn nice to keep those 2015 draft picks.

 

[Mr Positive]

I think people should pump the breaks a little on Rattie. He had a bunch of points with McDavid in their first 6 games, but then in the last 6 games with McDavid he was shut out of like 5/6 of those games and was a -6, that doesn't cut it if you're gonna play long term with McDavid.

I wouldn't be surprised if he's back in the AHL by Halloween.

Maroon is the only legit great find by Chia that no one really saw coming that he's found, Talbot was already being talked about in Oiler circles and the media before Chiarelli was even hired and Sather did a little bit of a favor there. And we couldn't keep Maroon because Chia blew a ton of cap on Lucic, so we have basically nothing to show for that.

This is a paltry amount of good moves in 4 summer's worth of work. His last legit really good trade or signing (Maroon) was almost 2 1/2 years ago and we weren't able to retain even him. That's not good enough.

I'd say Rattie has already exceeded expectations though. He hasn't reached Maroon's heights here though, but he has similar status to what Maroon was in his first partial season here. But sure, he could bottom out as well, but I thought he played a really smart game here, and so I think it is sustainable.

As for Talbot, it is true that he didn't require expert scouting since he was known already and sought after, but Chiarelli got the player. I criticize Chia for failing to get an OFD, so I have to give credit for getting our goalie. I know people say that Sather did us some favor as well, but I don't buy that. He tried and failed to get a 1st rounder for Talbot. After that, our offer was the best one. Someone else offered more picks, but the picks we offered were much better ones.

 

[Little Fury]

Please. Can people stop pointing to the Flames as if they are some sort of benchmark for success?
The Oilers have won more playoff series under Chia than the Flames have under Treliving and don't give me "But the Oilers have McDavid" rhetoric because McDavid won the Art Ross last season and they still finished bottom 10 so it takes more than one player to succeed.

FTR, not defending Chia because he has made his fair share of mistakes and deserves to be fired if they miss the playoffs or even now for that matter but the Flames haven't gone anywhere with all these "prized" defensive acquisitions, the best of which they have already traded away.

Whether or not Calgary succeeded or not is beside the point, which is they were able to acquire legit top 4 D men without giving up the king's ransom the Oilers did.

 

[Little Fury]

I'd say Rattie has already exceeded expectations though. He hasn't reached Maroon's heights here though, but he has similar status to what Maroon was in his first partial season here. But sure, he could bottom out as well, but I thought he played a really smart game here, and so I think it is sustainable.

Maroon was an NHL player when he arrived in Edmonton, Rattie an AHL tweener. I doubt Rattie sticks with the team for very long.

 

[Drivesaitl]

If I hear one more "Reggie" comment as if Sekera is a beloved player here or a friend I think I'll barf. In this entire contract did we get more than one season from this player? What a nothing addition and huge cap cost. Hopefully he just retires at this point. Can't imagine how bad he will be with past ACL injuries and now a torn achilles.

Very seldom did I see the player he was advertised to be. Along with Lucic Sekera will go down as one of the biggest disappointments that Chia dragged here and overpaid.

 

[ToeMcDrag83]

Andreja vu

 

[Mr Positive]

If I hear one more "Reggie" comment as if Sekera is a beloved player here or a friend I think I'll barf. In this entire contract did we get more than one season from this player? What a nothing addition and huge cap cost. Hopefully he just retires at this point. Can't imagine how bad he will be with past ACL injuries and now a torn achilles.

Very seldom did I see the player he was advertised to be. Along with Lucic Sekera will go down as one of the biggest disappointments that Chia dragged here and overpaid.

I disagree quite strongly. Sekera was very needed. The cost of bringing him here was the UFA mercenary price. If you inherit a team with huge holes, and you have to go to the UFA pool to fix them, you will pay big cash.

Sekera was a great addition because he plays the right way. He lacks some of the offensive zone skills we really needed, but as a mentor he was important for the development of players such as Nurse, Klefbom, Benning, and perhaps Larsson. I say he had two great years with us. In that first year, the team was injury plagued but he played almost every game. He had to play a lot with a very young and very green Nurse. In the following year, he was an important piece of us making the playoffs.

Sekera was always meant to be a veteran stop gap, to just be here while our young defense was developing. We needed him last year, and our team's suffering had a lot to do with Sekera's absence and his reduced ability because he was still recovering. He is a "glue" player that is meant more to make others look good rather than to stand out himself.

 

[Jamin]

I thought he was pretty good first year. Really good second year, anchored 2nd pairing and became shin pad assassin, I like the willingness to shoot keeps pkers honest.

Last year was trash. I was looking forward to seeing if he could rebound.

 

[Little Fury]

If I hear one more "Reggie" comment as if Sekera is a beloved player here or a friend I think I'll barf. In this entire contract did we get more than one season from this player? What a nothing addition and huge cap cost. Hopefully he just retires at this point. Can't imagine how bad he will be with past ACL injuries and now a torn achilles.

Very seldom did I see the player he was advertised to be. Along with Lucic Sekera will go down as one of the biggest disappointments that Chia dragged here and overpaid.

This is a bad take. Sekera took time to settle in but was one of our best blueliners by the end of 15-16 and played a massive role in 16-17 while carrying Russell around. Can't blame him for the injuries either.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I disagree quite strongly. Sekera was very needed. The cost of bringing him here was the UFA mercenary price. If you inherit a team with huge holes, and you have to go to the UFA pool to fix them, you will pay big cash.

Sekera was a great addition because he plays the right way. He lacks some of the offensive zone skills we really needed, but as a mentor he was important for the development of players such as Nurse, Klefbom, Benning, and perhaps Larsson. I say he had two great years with us. In that first year, the team was injury plagued but he played almost every game. He had to play a lot with a very young and very green Nurse. In the following year, he was an important piece of us making the playoffs.

Sekera was always meant to be a veteran stop gap, to just be here while our young defense was developing. We needed him last year, and our team's suffering had a lot to do with Sekera's absence and his reduced ability because he was still recovering. He is a "glue" player that is meant more to make others look good rather than to stand out himself.

Sorry, to say that Sekera was ever great here forgets what a great D even looks like. He's a passable top 4 D that is non physical, is not even a PMD, is not a shutdown D, and lacks the dominance or offensive acumen of NHL great D's. He's really never been great. One could say he flirted with good, maybe.

 

[Mr Positive]

Sorry, to say that Sekera was ever great here forgets what a great D even looks like. He's a passable top 4 D that is non physical, is not even a PMD, is not a shutdown D, and lacks the dominance or offensive acumen of NHL great D's. He's really never been great. One could say he flirted with good, maybe.

if you want a "great" UFA dman you are paying 7-8 million AAV+, not 5.5 million. I don't think Sekera took a discount to come here, but he didn't demand extra either. We paid the going rate, and he gave us a fair performance for that salary. I'd say it was even a good deal considering that we had lots of cap space during that first and second year anyway, and now that the cap is trim it looks like we can LTIR him. But yes, I was thinking we would have to trade him next summer anyway. He is very good but the goal is to eventually move his salary out and let the young guys take over.

 

[CupofOil]

Whether or not Calgary succeeded or not is beside the point, which is they were able to acquire legit top 4 D men without giving up the king's ransom the Oilers did.

Sure but where did that get them? They can acquire all the top 4 D they want but if it doesn't translate to success then why point to it as a big positive?

Furthermore, Chia was in on Hamilton and was willing to offer a similar package that Calgary offered but was turned down so he could have had Hamilton for picks if Boston management wasn't so spiteful, and I sure as hell would rather have Bouchard and McLeod than Hamonic or in Calgary's case, Dobson and Wilde or whoever they would have drafted with those picks so I wouldn't point to that as a positive for Calgary.

 

[joestevens29]

I disagree quite strongly. Sekera was very needed. The cost of bringing him here was the UFA mercenary price. If you inherit a team with huge holes, and you have to go to the UFA pool to fix them, you will pay big cash.

Sekera was a great addition because he plays the right way. He lacks some of the offensive zone skills we really needed, but as a mentor he was important for the development of players such as Nurse, Klefbom, Benning, and perhaps Larsson. I say he had two great years with us. In that first year, the team was injury plagued but he played almost every game. He had to play a lot with a very young and very green Nurse. In the following year, he was an important piece of us making the playoffs.

Sekera was always meant to be a veteran stop gap, to just be here while our young defense was developing. We needed him last year, and our team's suffering had a lot to do with Sekera's absence and his reduced ability because he was still recovering. He is a "glue" player that is meant more to make others look good rather than to stand out himself.

Sekera was a real good signing. Don't think anyone could've predicted what's happened to him lately.

 

[MessierII]

Sure but where did that get them?

With their healthy “stacked” top 4 of Gio, Hamilton, Brodie and Hamonic they won a whopping 1 more game than us. What a model franchise.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Sekera was a real good signing. Don't think anyone could've predicted what's happened to him lately.

Lately?. he missed 50 games last season and played poorly in the games he did play being one of our worst D last season when he even was in the lineup. This season on injury prognosis he's again likely to miss 50 or more games.

This player was always a meh addition anyway. I remember seeing posts here saying he'd be gravy, get 40 or more pts/season, be an offensive dynamo. lol

Its like people took a look at 2-3 hilite reels and figured this guy was offensively gifted.

 

[Little Fury]

Sure but where did that get them? They can acquire all the top 4 D they want but if it doesn't translate to success then why point to it as a big positive?

That's like saying "they can acquire all the top 10 picks they want but if it doesn't translate to success then why point to it as a big positive?" Having them doesn't guarantee success. But not having them guarantees failure.

Furthermore, Chia was in on Hamilton and was willing to offer a similar package that Calgary offered but was turned down so he could have had Hamilton for picks if Boston management wasn't so spiteful

Or if Chia didn't overvalue Nurse.

I sure as hell would rather have Bouchard and McLeod than Hamonic or in Calgary's case, Dobson and Wilde or whoever they would have drafted with those picks so I wouldn't point to that as a positive for Calgary.

And I'd rather have a top 10 winger than draft picks.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Lately?. he missed 50 games last season and played poorly in the games he did play being one of our worst D last season when he even was in the lineup. This season on injury prognosis he's again likely to miss 50 or more games.

This player was always a meh addition anyway. I remember seeing posts here saying he'd be gravy, get 40 or more pts/season, be an offensive dynamo. lol

Its like people took a look at 2-3 hilite reels and figured this guy was offensively gifted.

What he did do is help guys like Nurse and Klefbom develop instead of being tossed to the wolves like Schultz was. The injuries have really taken their toll as he was very good for us 2 seasons ago. He is not an offensive dynamo, but is damn good 3 on 3 when healthy. The bottom line is that his injury hurts us in a big way assuming that he was going to be at least close to form after a full offseason of training. Last season's Sekera is not hard at all to replace, the one from 2 seasons ago? That's another story.