Player Discussion Ethan Bear: It's a Bear Market

[McJC]

I'd offer him 4.5m x 6 years (essentially the Rasmus Andersson contract)
That contract would look like a steal as soon as next year

 

[McTonyBrar]

I think Caleb Jones is a better player than Darnell Nurse.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.....

 

[Heavy Dee]

No he really is not. Is he plyaing too much? Yes, but that does not mean he is playing terrible, or awful.

Like I said earlier, the hatred for Nurse is completely off base. We do not have the depth to sustain long stretches without him or Klefbom in the line up.
Bear has actually struggled a bit but again that can be expected with him being a rookie and playing more than he should.

People ragging on Nurse will turn on Bear, Jones or Bouchard in a few years though, give it time.

Nurse is an awesome athlete who happens to play hockey (look at his lineage).

He doesn't think the game at an elite level. Next year will make 5.5 million and who knows after that.

Yes he brings intangibles etc.... But your argument doesn't hold water. He makes the same mistakes playing 18 minutes a night that he does playing 24.

 

[Zaddy]

People have short memories.

Bear outplayed Jones every step of the way minus his injury riddled year.

Jones struggled mightily last call up when asked to step into a top 4 role.

That's how I remember it anyways. People just forget how good Bear was 2 years ago.

Jones could be only a year away or could never progress it's a crap shoot. But I really like what I've started to see from Jones and agree at this point the sky's the limit.

Completely disagree with this. They were always close (I mean heck, one was drafted in the 4th round and one in the 5th in the same draft, very little difference) but I think a small majority of HFOil (including me) had Jones ahead and I think he was ahead as the better prospect all the way up until Bear's comeback from that injury and when he started eating differently and all that. He just became a different player and started becoming who he is today. Meanwhile Jones took a big step back in pre-season this year compared to where he finished off last year. So it's really only this year that Bear leapfrogged him. But they were always close as prospects, some favored Bear, some favored Jones.

And Jones looked great initially in his call-up last season, it wasn't until he was asked to play way above his head that he completely sank. No prospect should be put in that situation but that was the sorry state of our defense at the time. But he looked comparatively great when he first got the call.

 

[Skolman]

I think Kenny definitely has to lock Bear up long-term this summer, give him 4-4.5m x 6-7 years.

That contract will look like a bargain moving forward

 

[Mr Positive]

I think Kenny definitely has to lock Bear up long-term this summer, give him 4-4.5m x 6-7 years.

That contract will look like a bargain moving forward

if we are adjusting the Klefbom contract for inflation, we are talking more like 5 million AAV

And Bear is more proven today than when Klef signed so we should expect a bit more for Bear.

 

[fuswald]

Saw Bears weakness in Dallas. Speed. His top speed is lacking and it was exploited multiple times.

 

[Aerchon]

Saw Bears weakness in Dallas. Speed. His top speed is lacking and it was exploited multiple times.

I'd say speed and size was exploited but that is extremly rare. Part of bigger minutes bigger role.

Jones really struggled last night and look slow at times as well.

Larsson and Nurse had great nights and looked like the vets they are supposed to be. Carrying their rooks through a tough game.

Playoffs are going to be tough for Bear and Jones I'm thinking.

 

[guymez]

When healthy I would pair :

Klefbom Bear - 1st pair
Nurse Green - 2nd pair
Jones Larsson/Benning - 3rd pair.

The way Larsson is playing now is more like the 2016/17 version...so I would place him above Nurse in terms of reliability.

As it stands right now we know that Nurse isnt a top pairing dman. He is a middle pairing dman.
Same can be said for Larsson although with the right partner Larsson can play top pairing minutes...Nurse cant.

 

[nabob]

The way Larsson is playing now is more like the 2016/17 version...so I would place him above Nurse in terms of reliability.

As it stands right now we know that Nurse isnt a top pairing dman. He is a middle pairing dman.
Same can be said for Larsson although with the right partner Larsson can play top pairing minutes...Nurse cant.

what partner has Nurse ever had that is capable of anchoring a top pairing?

Schultz? Benning? Larsson? Nurse has never played with a top pairing Dman in his entire career.

Nurse is getting completely Petry’d right now and we are going to regret it.

 

[pratt]

I like the Rafalski comp for Bear. Maybe Torey Krug is a good comp as well.

 

[AddyTheWrath]

Lost in all the Makar & Hughes talk is that this guy placed 10th in Calder voting! Congrats to him. Bang on 5th round pick - wish we capitalized a bit earlier in the draft though (16 overall ).

 

[voxel]

Lost in all the Makar & Hughes talk is that this guy placed 10th in Calder voting! Congrats to him. Bang on 5th round pick - wish we capitalized a bit earlier in the draft though (16 overall ).

And the 8th place draftee was another Oiler pick in Marino. Another late pick.

 

[sandhu111]

what partner has Nurse ever had that is capable of anchoring a top pairing?

Schultz? Benning? Larsson? Nurse has never played with a top pairing Dman in his entire career.

Nurse is getting completely Petry’d right now and we are going to regret it.

I think that every time I see posts on him. I believe we have competent management but if we do trade him we'll be watching him as a veteran stud like petry this year in the playoffs that we gave up entering his prime...
And fans wonder why we watch our players on other teams and wonder why we threw them away
Ebs looked pretty good out there as a vet winger as well this playoffs....

 

[Zamknij kurwa ryj]

Watched some film of Bear's from last season and it's a case of Jekyll and Hyde.

His footspeed and quickness (which was never great to begin with), his puck movement and his decision making have all dropped off a cliff this season. Not sure what's up with him but the inability to execute simple plays and constantly trying to make an extra ill advised move that either results in a turnover or an odd man rush going the other way is getting frustrating.

Did Nurse carry him that much last season? I know towards the end of the year he started regressing hard and Nurse got dragged down with Bear a bit but he was never as bad then as he is now.

Him and Jones right now are a disaster of a pairing and if we keep going back to it, bad things are gonna happen.

 

[GMofOilers]

Watched some film of Bear's from last season and it's a case of Jekyll and Hyde.

His footspeed and quickness (which was never great to begin with), his puck movement and his decision making have all dropped off a cliff this season. Not sure what's up with him but the inability to execute simple plays and constantly trying to make an extra ill advised move that either results in a turnover or an odd man rush going the other way is getting frustrating.

Did Nurse carry him that much last season? I know towards the end of the year he started regressing hard and Nurse got dragged down with Bear a bit but he was never as bad then as he is now.

Him and Jones right now are a disaster of a pairing and if we keep going back to it, bad things are gonna happen.

to slow for the NHL, might be the slowest nhl player I have ever seen.

pretty hard to succeed with that.

 

[GMofOilers]

Can the Bear experiment be finally over? I would trade him for a bag of pucks by tomorrow.

This guy is not a NHL dman, the only reason he seemed like it last year is because Nurse made him look good and covered for him every where on the ice.

 

[Mr Positive]

He's up and down. He has a stretch of really solid games, and then a couple horrible ones.

I still say he's worthwhile, as it's common for young players to be inconsistent. He will get better over time.

 

[Zamknij kurwa ryj]

Can the Bear experiment be finally over? I would trade him for a bag of pucks by tomorrow.

This guy is not a NHL dman, the only reason he seemed like it last year is because Nurse made him look good and covered for him every where on the ice.

Nothing worse than a slow defenseman with shit for brains who enjoys pinching at the worst possible moments and turning the puck over consistently as well.

Bear has made those the only staples of his game.

 

[StoveTopStauffer]

Pretty early to be saying definitively what Bear will be. He's not been good but the guy is also 120 games into his career. May want to give him a few more.

 

[Mr Positive]

Pretty early to be saying definitively what Bear will be. He's not been good but the guy is also 120 games into his career. May want to give him a few more.

Ultimately yes, this was even predictable. Our rebuild had us drafting and developing D very late, so of course it was going to have us be frustrated with them lagging behind the rest of the team. The ideal is to develop your D core first, and have the young forwards come in after. And this is not going to get much better. The reason why Bouchard and Broberg have such a positive opinion is that they haven't played a lot. Granted, they are high drafted, and have higher ability than Bear or Jones or Lagesson, but Nurse was high drafted too. Nurse was roasted over and over on these boards as well, and many wanted him traded too. Same with Petry.

The smart play is to stick with Bear. Hopefully when Bouchard and Broberg are full timers, the extra experience on Bear has given him experience to clean up more mistakes. Just like with Petry and Nurse.

 

[Blue Line Turnover]

I've always been a huge supporter of Bear's, but his performance has been pretty brutal since the play-in series. I think he's a good bottom pair guy, but his mistakes and weaknesses will probably sink a ship in playoff games

 

[ImmuneEH]

I haven't been watching as much this season because I've been busy with school. Does his poor play coincide with his concussion?

Benning, a guy that was well supported for his reliable bottom-pairing play, had a set back due to concussion as well.

Maybe patience is key here?

 

[voxel]

to slow for the NHL, might be the slowest nhl player I have ever seen.

pretty hard to succeed with that.

Then none of you will like Benson or Marody.

I think Bear was great for most of last season and been utterly awful for most of this season (especially post-concussion). While Jones is a better skater, his brainfarts per minutes is back to what I saw in the AHL when I played a high risk game.

 

[missinthejets]

Nurse was high drafted too. Nurse was roasted over and over on these boards as well, and many wanted him traded too. Same with Petry.

I like Bear, and I think there is a legit NHL defender in there with more experience. However comparing him to Nurse and Petry is unfair. Both of those guys have a lot more tools than Bear does. Simple fact is that not being particularly fast or big is going to be a limiting factor on just how good Bear can be.
A late round pick becoming an NHLer is a win, but Bear is going to be a depth guy.