Replacement*
Checked out
Sekera has been good value for money and a very welcome addition. If he has a RH brother out there somewhere, I'd sign him to the same contract and roll the two of them as our top pairing. It's rare to find a Chris Pronger who can thrive with MAB on the other side. We just need to find Sekera a Spacek to play with.
Good value? My lordy, what value is that? He's been among the worst Oiler defenders.
Lets unmask the lone ranger.
The Oilers to this point in the season have allowed a total of 9 pk goals. Sekera, amazingly, has been on for 8 of those. Sekera has been on ice for a pathetic 17.50 GA/60mins while on pk. I'll let that sink in for a moment. To put it into perspective the king of horrible D here, Ference, is allowing 8.55GA/60mins. Less than half of Sekeras number. Sekera at this point would be one of the worst PK D not only on this team (he's been the worst by a wide margin) but in the league. Basically any 5 on 4 pk with Sekera on it resembles more of a 5 on 3. He's been that bad. like he's not even on the ice, which judging from his mental play is not all that surprising.
Next, EV., Sekera on ice is allowing 3.50 GA/60mins, a horrid number, one that would be expected from bad rookie D's. Ference is slightly worse on the team at 3.60. Fayne is been ruled dead and without a pulse at 3.90. A truly ghastly number that suggests NHL imposter. Nobody else even close to being this dismal in GA.
This is the type of help Sekera has brought this team. He's been better than Fayne, a player who is been benched multiple games due to being missing in action on the ice.
I'd be hard pressed to find top 4 D with worse numbers than Sekera this year in the NHL.
I realize its early, limited sample but people should recall Sekera was also awful in preseason games.
This is a player quite clearly who didn't come here prepared to play. That's a huge problem considering we have this guy longterm at 5.5M.