Matty's Mailbag: Oilers beat writer Jim Matheson answers some burning questions from fans as the playoffs approach (2024)

Golf courses are slowly opening here, something scribes are always interested in, but not hockey players who want to postpone hitting balls for as long as they can.

With that in mind, we bring you more Oiler mailbag questions with the playoffs 10daysaway, with fans not knowing if Oilers are playing Los Angeles or Vegas as a 2-3 match-up in round one or maybe first wild-card Nashville if they reel in Vancouver for first in the Pacific.

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Q: I know there is a discussion about having a trophy for a defensive defenceman and one for an offensive defenceman but since there is only one trophy for top defenceman I would vote for Ekholm on a Norris ballot ahead of Bouchard. What do you think? (Peter Kaszor)

A: Very good question Peter. The Norris trophy these days is primarily a contest between defencemen who put up points, first and foremost. There have been outliers like Rod Langway in the past, winning it back-to-back in the early 80s but today if you play against the other team’s top guns, kill penalties and gets some PP time, but only get 45-50 points, you are fighting an uphill voting battle. You need 80 points and up. Like, two-way studs Victor Hedman and Drew Doughty have only won the Norris once. Jaccob Slavin is a great all-around D and he doesn’t get a sniff at this award. Erik Karlsson has won the Norris three times. As a defender, Karlsson is not in their league.

So, Ekholm and his partner Bouchard? I don’t know who I would vote for so they maybe finish in the top 5. Neither is going to win the Norris. It’ll be Quinn Hughes, Cale Makar or Roman Josi, the last two who have won one Norris . I think Hughes will win (most points, best plus-minus at plus 39) of that group.

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Here, Ekholm and Bouchard are at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Ekholm is a big-bodied, tough to get around defender who plays against the other team’s top players and has tied a career high for points (44). He’s plus 43 this season (plus 71 as an Oiler in his 96 games). Yes, plus/minus can be a flawed stat and can be dismissed by analytic folks, but not when this player is second-best (Gustav Forsling is first) in the whole league. Bouchard is certainly getting better as a defender using his size and quick stick (he’s plus 34) but he’s not Ekholm.

Not many D are.

Bouchard is a terrific outlet passer, getting the play moving north, and he’s one of the top three or four PP point-men with his creativity and booming shot. He seamlessly works with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. He’s a point-a-game NHL defenceman, fourth behind Hughes, Makar and Josi, but even-strength on the Oilers, Ekholm and Bouchard are close. Bouchard has 44 even-stretngth points, Ekholm 40. Makar, for example, has 45.

Bouchard doesn’t get much PK time, just 26 minutes this season. Ekholm has 155, if you’re into that stat as a voting barometer. I might lean to Ekholm over for a top five vote for now, but I would be shocked if Ekholm got even enough votes league wide to finish in the top 10. Again, points matter with most voters today.

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Q: Would you prefer Ryan McLeod or Adam Henrique as the 3C, with the other being the 2LW? (Klima’s Lid)

A: Toss-up. How’s that for being definitive.. I think Henrique is a better centre than a winger because he’s 58.7 per cent on 121 face-offs here (52.9 per cent on 911 draws in Anaheim), and he’s very sound defensively. But, McLeod’s speed as third-line centre has proven very useful with Corey Perry and Evander Kane or Dylan Holloway, who was very good in his first game against Vegas after being recalled.

McLeod’s play-making skills are improving — excellent pass to Ekholm for his goal against Vegas — but what he does best is drive people back with that speed, transporting the puck, and Perry and whomever can do the heavy lifting along the boards for pucks once it’s in the other team’s end and create trouble around the net.

Henrique isn’t a dynamic player but falls into the Draisaitl-Ryan Nugent-Hopkins portability scheme, where they can all play centre or left wing in the top six, always a good thing. Henrique, who has played over 900 NHL games, is still getting used to the Oiler pace/transitional game after Anaheim, but he is the defensive conscience on whatever line he plays on.

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Q: I would put McLeod as 3C but I’d put Dylan Holloway somewhere in the lineup. (Harry Brackenburry)

A: I see you would like Holloway on LW on a second-line with Draisaitl and Warren Foegele. You might be dreaming putting him there but Holloway’s play against Vegas, starting with a thumping hit on Brayden McNabb on his first shift Wednesday, was eye-opening. His play on the third line with McLeod and Perry was strong, with and without the puck. The key is following up the adrenaline rush in future games so Holloway forces coach Kris Knoblauch’s hand and he has to play him, even with a healthy lineup.

He has to be a third-liner,, not as left-winger on the fourth line. He doesn’t kill penalties like Mattias Janmark to get his ice-time up. Knoblauch likes his fourth-liners, all PK people (Janmark, Connor Brown, Sam Carrick/or Derek Ryan in the middle). So he’s not messing with that. If Holloway keeps playing, who comes out in the top 9?

Holloway is clearly too good offensively for the AHL (48 points in 63 games) but in 84 NHL games, the equivalent of an entire season, he has seven goals and 14 points. Is that good enough to be a top 9 NHLer, going into the playoffs? He was tasked with improving his defensive awareness all over the ice and his puck-possession in battles in Bakersfield and off the Vegas game, it looks like he did just that.

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The Oilers definitely could use his powerful skating and tenacity, also youthful enthusiasm. But where he fits in in a top-9 is murky. The left-wingers s are Leon Draisaitl or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Henrique, and Kane.

Q: I’m always leery about KHL stats. A guy like Jordan Weal whose NHL career high was eight goals scored 30 in the KHL this year. Reid Boucher led the league in goals with 44. He scored 20 in 133 NHL games. (Steeped Cheese)

A: This is about the Oilers possibly signing their 2020 fifth-round draft Max Berezkin, who leads the playoff KHL scoring with 14 points in 16 games with Yaroslavl.

The 22-year-old winger who has helped Lokomotiv reach the KHL final, has another year on his Russian contract according to the Oilers so he can’t come over right away but they do like him. You are bang on that Boucher was a marginal NHLer and had 44 goals for Omsk this season, and Weal, who played for LA, Arizona, Philly and Montreal, popped 30 for Moscow Dynamo.

Berezkin had 30 points in regular-season for Yaroslavl. Ex Oiler defenceman Martin Gernat is on Lokomotiv as is defenceman Dmitry Simashev, who went sixth overall to Arizona in the 2023 draft.

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Q: Can Oilers carry Jack Campbell as a 3rd goalie. Not sure Pic can carry the load if things go wrong with Skinner. (Robin.roland13@gmail).

A: Sure they can bring up Campbell after the AHL playoffs with Bakersfield. There is no salary cap in the NHL playoffs so they can fit Campbell’s contract in. The Condors look like they’ll be in the 5-7 seed in the best-of-three AHL round one playoff with four games to go. There’s no need to have Campbell on the Oiler roster until really needed.

You’re under-selling Calvin Pickard. He’s won 12 of 18 regular-season decisions with a .913 save percentage and could get three more starts before playoff. He’s been just fine, although with a caveat. He’s never played an NHL playoff game. Campbell, who hasn’t been in an NHL game for five months, has a 7-8 career playoff record (Toronto, Oilers) with a .920 save percentage.

Bottom line: pretty much every NHL team save for Boston with Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark as an equal tandem has questions once you get past the starter.

jmatheson@postmedia.com

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