Confirmed with Link: Oilers Sign LHD Markus Niemelainen (3rd round pick #63OA of 2016 Draft) To a 2 Year ELC

[Tobias Kahun]

There is no real ahl thread I don't believe so this may as well go here.

Our AHL affiliate has gone from crap to extremely promising to crap all too quickly.

A signing like this is a long shot gamble at best and shows the farm is in dire straights.

Bouchard should be in the nhl full time by the end of this year at the latest. If they manage to move Russell that means even Laggesson will likely be a 7/8 guy and with the team.

Take away Yamamoto, Bouchard, Bear, and Jones... Ouch.

Only leave second teir prospects Benson, McLeod, Maxismov, maybe Lavoie, and Samourukov to anchor a team with no depth, experience, or possobke nhl talent beyond those listed. Maybe Marody can up his Game?

Anyways. Things are looking extremely rough for the Condors next season. If there is one.

This isn’t just an Oiler specific thing.

when NHL teams graduate players from the AHL to the NHL, those teams will get worse.

it’s a simple concept.

 

[BarDownBobo]

There is no real ahl thread I don't believe so this may as well go here.

Our AHL affiliate has gone from crap to extremely promising to crap all too quickly.

A signing like this is a long shot gamble at best and shows the farm is in dire straights.

Bouchard should be in the nhl full time by the end of this year at the latest. If they manage to move Russell that means even Laggesson will likely be a 7/8 guy and with the team.

Take away Yamamoto, Bouchard, Bear, and Jones... Ouch.

Only leave second teir prospects Benson, McLeod, Maxismov, maybe Lavoie, and Samourukov to anchor a team with no depth, experience, or possobke nhl talent beyond those listed. Maybe Marody can up his Game?

Anyways. Things are looking extremely rough for the Condors next season. If there is one.

There’s a stickied thread that was posted in yesterday.....

 

[Aerchon]

This isn’t just an Oiler specific thing.

when NHL teams graduate players from the AHL to the NHL, those teams will get worse.

it’s a simple concept.

The Condors as a team have a pretty bad record with only a few outlying seasons. While their isn't always a direct correlation between ahl success and nhl success it certainly helps.

I guess what I'm trying to say in this thread is Niem isn't likely to be a quality AHL player. And that our AHL team needs a lot more AHL talent to insulate what few remaining legit nhl prospects remain.

It's my understanding that some AHL franchises manage to stay good even when decimated by nhl call ups. I understand the correlation but hope moving forward the ahl club can be more consistent.

I also think with all the recent graduates our drafting last year and this year is extremely important moving forward. Both our ahl and nhl team have a massive amount of room to be better.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

The Condors as a team have a pretty bad record with only a few outlying seasons. While their isn't always a direct correlation between ahl success and nhl success it certainly helps.

I guess what I'm trying to say in this thread is Niem isn't likely to be a quality AHL player. And that our AHL team needs a lot more AHL talent to insulate what few remaining legit nhl prospects remain.

It's my understanding that some AHL franchises manage to stay good even when decimated by nhl call ups. I understand the correlation but hope moving forward the ahl club can be more consistent.

I also think with all the recent graduates our drafting last year and this year is extremely important moving forward. Both our ahl and nhl team have a massive amount of room to be better.

Lots of AHL teams stay good by just signing the best AHL players and never giving their prospects the key roles aswell.

it needs to be a balance of having good players to insulate prospects and having opportunity for prospects to play in key roles.

 

[Draiskull]

When a 19 year old rookie Dman is your 2nd highest scorer your team is not going to be good.
Only 4 players scored goals in double digits.

 

[Jumptheshark]

When a 19-year-old rookie Dman is your 2nd highest scorer your team is not going to be good.
Only 4 players scored goals in double digits.

Since we are talking about Bakersfield, this is one reason why we are seeing so many players added to just AHL contracts. For me the bigger issue I saw in the few games I caught on line, is that I do not see an NHL goalie on our farm right now. That is why I understand why the oilers have drafted goalies in the last 3 drafts

 

[bone]

Nicely? They have like 8 LHDs and Bouchard the lone RD

I'm not seeing 8 LHDs in Bakersfield signed to NHL contracts. Looking at current guys on Cap Friendly:

Brandon Manning- obviously not coming back
Broberg - Staying in Sweden next year
Bouchard - RHD
Samoroukov - LHD
Day - Unsigned RFA but actually a Righty
Lagesson - Unsigned RFA LHD, but also a reasonable prospect to play in the NHL next year
Lowe - UFA LHD, do we expect him to resign?
Lennstrom - LHD

I see two LHD currently with NHL contracts signed for next year before this signing that are most likely in the AHL with Lagesson being the possible third assuming Lennstrom is coming over. Plus there will likely be one veteran signing (Lowe-type), I'm not seeing this an an absurb over-allocation of LHD for the farm, but I'd imagine they are done on the left side for now except the veteran signing (which may be an AHL contract).

Agreed with others they need to fill out other spots in the lineup (RHD, Centre and Wing) but it just so happens they are getting the left defense done first.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Interesting. I thought he would have been long gone.

Hasn't done much overseas. Had a career high 7 points in 55 games in the Liiga this year.

Not sure where you're seeing that — other than looking at solely numbers and not his body of work.

As a 20-year-old in 2018019 he played a significant role in the playoffs during HPK's run to the Kanada Cup. And this year he averaged nearly 20 minutes a game.

Harkening back to his role in the WJC, he was the solid, steady presence on a Finland team that generally played a wide open style; winning a gold medal in the process.

Markus Niemeläinen HPK:sta Ässiin

 

[Senor Catface]

Edit

 

[McDNicks17]

Not sure where you're seeing that — other than looking at solely numbers and not his body of work.

As a 20-year-old in 2018019 he played a significant role in the playoffs during HPK's run to the Kanada Cup. And this year he averaged nearly 20 minutes a game.

Harkening back to his role in the WJC, he was the solid, steady presence on a Finland team that generally played a wide open style; winning a gold medal in the process.

Markus Niemeläinen HPK:sta Ässiin

I wouldn't really say it was a significant role. He was playing bottom pairing minutes with HPK in both the regular season and playoffs.

His icetime took a big jump this year, but Assat was a worse team than HPK was.


I don't really think he has enough puck skill for the NHL. Even the most defensive of defensive defensemen in the league showed at least a little offensive ability at some level.

I'd love to be pleasantly surprised, but I'm expecting him to come over, put up 5-10 points in the AHL and be back in Finland for the last year of his this contract.

 

[BOUNCE]

Finally made it! Excited to see what he can do. Good luck to Markus tonight!

 

[UpHere]

He seemed to play pretty big and physical in the preseason, hope he can bring some more of that - we could use a cycle breaker

 

[Magnum23]

He looked pretty good , a bit nervous but skating , poise, puck handling abilities seems to be there. Want to see him play more minutes

 

[Aerchon]

I hope I get to eat some crow with this kid. Solid NHL debut and I like everything I am seeing/hearing bout his game this year.

 

[OiledUp]

His passing was a little off point and he got surprised by how fast the NHL is a couple of times but overall a nice first game for him, the size, skating combo with at least ok puckhandling and an obvious willingness to play physical is absolutely looking like it could be enough to find him an NHL niche down the line.

 

[OiledUp]

His passing was a little off point and he got surprised by how fast the NHL is a couple of times but overall a nice first game for him, the size, skating combo with at least ok puckhandling and an obvious willingness to play physical is absolutely looking like it could be enough to find him an NHL niche down the line.

That was an oddly phrased sentence at the end but you get my drift.

 

[Esko6]

Wow, I was quite surprised go see him in the game stats. Can he be a a player or is this just to give him a game or two of NHL to reminiscence when he has retired?

 

[McFlyingV]

Wow, I was quite surprised go see him in the game stats. Can he be a a player or is this just to give him a game or two of NHL to reminiscence when he has retired?

Looks like he might have a shot at being a big, mobile and physical bottom pairing D, but we will see.

 

[Gordian Knot]

Looks like he might have a shot at being a big, mobile and physical bottom pairing D, but we will see.

 

[Trafalgar Sadge Law]

Pretty solid debut in an overall rough night for our d corps. Seems to have more physical tools to stick around the NHL than lagesson, better skater, better speed, stronger, more physical. Seemed tentative in terms of decision making with the puck which is understandable. Didn't really notice him too much defensively besides a few positioning errors on the cycle which again is to be expected for a debut game. Would like to see him go after guys along the boards and clear the crease more with his speed/size.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Pretty solid debut in an overall rough night for our d corps. Seems to have more physical tools to stick around the NHL than lagesson, better skater, better speed, stronger, more physical. Seemed tentative in terms of decision making with the puck which is understandable. Didn't really notice him too much defensively besides a few positioning errors on the cycle which again is to be expected for a debut game. Would like to see him go after guys along the boards and clear the crease more with his speed/size.

I noticed 2 major things. One good and one bad.

Good, he's very physical and with his wing span can really swallow up an opponent, he continues to develop, he could really be a suffocating presence.

Bad, he's a good skater, but he's got bad foot work right now. That can be coach/trained out his game, but there were a couple times I noticed he was really struggling to move his feet quick enough to get himself in position.

All in all, good first game, 5 hits in 10 mins. There might be a bit of a player here.

 

[Bring Back Bucky]

I hope I get to eat some crow with this kid. Solid NHL debut and I like everything I am seeing/hearing bout his game this year.

The great thing avoid being wrong about a player in a negative fashion is that the crow actually tastes pretty good !

 

[joestevens29]

I noticed 2 major things. One good and one bad.

Good, he's very physical and with his wing span can really swallow up an opponent, he continues to develop, he could really be a suffocating presence.

Bad, he's a good skater, but he's got bad foot work right now. That can be coach/trained out his game, but there were a couple times I noticed he was really struggling to move his feet quick enough to get himself in position.

All in all, good first game, 5 hits in 10 mins. There might be a bit of a player here.

It's almost a good thing he got this early call up. It's kind of like McLeod, they told both him and the coaching staff what he needed to work on and he did.

Now it will be up to Markus. I mean most guys aren't dumb he probably realizes after last night that he has some work to do, so hopefully now he does.

 

[McSuper]

I hope I get to eat some crow with this kid. Solid NHL debut and I like everything I am seeing/hearing bout his game this year.

I hope I get to eat some more crow with this kid

Fit it for you .

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

It's almost a good thing he got this early call up. It's kind of like McLeod, they told both him and the coaching staff what he needed to work on and he did.

Now it will be up to Markus. I mean most guys aren't dumb he probably realizes after last night that he has some work to do, so hopefully now he does.

100% when kids who aren't 1st rounders finally earn that taste of the NHL, I suspect they learn a ton about their strength's and weaknesses.

I thought he played well, honestly, his last shift in the 3rd was quite good in a tough, tight game against a good team.