Scout
11-10-2007, 07:13 AM
Courtesy Hockey Futures:
Oil Kings trying to make good first impression
Written by: Guy Flaming on 11/05/2007
It’s tough being an expansion team in the WHL, but not necessarily for the reasons you might think. Yes the Edmonton Oil Kings have a team mostly consisting of players the rest of the league left by the curb, but it’s not a lack of talent that is challenging the league’s newest franchise. The hardest thing about being a new team in the WHL is living up to the example of the last few expansion clubs and making the playoffs in their first year.
The Everett Silvertips set the bar in their inaugural campaign by not only reaching the post-season but also getting to the league finals only to lose to the mighty Medicine Hat Tigers. Everett’s oppressive defense brought head coach Kevin Constantine and his troops success that year but it was far from entertaining hockey. That season the ‘Tips only scored 157 goals in the 72-game schedule, but amazingly only surrendered 153 thanks to a trap that was worked to near perfection.
The Chilliwack Bruins saw post-season action in 2006-07, largely due to the fall of the Kelowna Rockets but they also executed an offensive game plan that kept things interesting for fans even on nights when their club was on the losing end. By contrast, Chilliwack scored 169 times but their much more freewheeling nature cost them as they were scored on 260 times.
Dave Sheldon is the play-by-play voice of the Bruins this year but was also with the Silvertips in their infancy so he knows full well what expansion teams go through. According to Sheldon, the differing styles of play between Everett and Chilliwack stemmed from different reasons.
“The Chilliwack Chiefs were a very good BCHL team and the Bruins kind of usurped their fan base to move into the area,” Sheldon explained recently on The Pipeline Show. “The Chiefs were all about run and gun hockey and you could not bring in the defensive-minded system that was in place in Everett. These fans would have gotten turned off right away. [The WHL] is supposed to be a higher brand of hockey so this team made the decision very early on to run and gun and that they would try to win games 4-3 or 5-3.
“What Everett needed to do right away in an American market is win and win now,” said Sheldon. “I’m not saying that they gave up the farm because they didn’t. Everett had to make sure that they won, it didn’t matter if they won 2-1 because as long as they won, the people would show up. Now they have a very solid franchise and fan base there.”
Yet the situation facing the Edmonton Oil Kings is different from both of those examples as the new junior franchise is sharing a building and a market with other professional sports organizations, not to mention a university with popular athletics programs. The City of Champions has been a tough place for new organizations to break into over the past several years. Pro soccer, both indoors and out, have failed as has pro basketball and the local minor pro baseball team struggles for attendance.
With the Edmonton Oilers owning the WHL team, the Oil Kings are not in a position where they have to worry as much as Everett did about response from the fans. If that were the case, the Oil Kings would not have come out of the gate with the most expensive ticket prices in the entire three-league CHL. To that end, there isn’t nearly the amount of pressure to win immediately here as there was in Everett.
Oil Kings General Manager Bob Green stated early on that he wanted a hard-working club that was not going to get pushed around by other teams, would battle and compete every night but would not be defensively stifling. That plan was further developed through the expansion draft where it was clear that Green was building his team from the back end out, concentrating on getting a strong and dependable blueline so that his forwards could play a more open style of game.
Goaltending
When training camp opened most people felt that Tommy Tartaglione was a near shoo-in for one of the two roster spots on the club. However, shortly into camp he was released by the team “for disciplinary reasons” which one team source confirmed to be alcohol related. Not long afterwards, Tartaglione resurfaced with the Prince George Cougars.
WHL expansion teams are allowed to carry five 20-year-olds on their roster compared to the three-player limit imposed on the rest of the league. Edmonton netminder Alex Archibald is in his final year of WHL eligibility and occupies one of those limited spots. Coincidentally, Archibald was Chilliwack’s netminder last season so is very familiar with the trials and tribulations of a first-year team.
“I guess the biggest difference so far has been that this year we’ve lost six in a row and last year we lost 11!” joked Archibald. “As soon as we got out of our drought last year that was when we came together and we became one of the best teams in the league.”
Asked if he was disappointed with being left unprotected (again) and thus selected by his second expansion team in back to back years, Archibald shook his head.
“They had a good young goalie in Chilliwack and I thought I was either going to be traded or left exposed,” he said. “I was really glad to get the opportunity to come here because Edmonton’s a great city and they’ve proven that so far with the fan support. If good things happen afterwards then they happen, but if not then I have a great [WHL-funded] scholarship to fall back on. It’s my last year so I’ll give it all I’ve got and have no regrets.”
Seventeen-year-old Dalyn Flette (1990) is the backup to Archibald and after a sub-par start to the year the former Kamloops Blazer has recently put together solid wins over the Calgary Hitmen and the Everett Silvertips.
Defense
Edmonton’s defensive corps is laden with veterans. Twenty-year-old Bretton Stamler was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings in 2005, went unsigned, and is now looking to earn a pro contract after his final WHL year. Stamler, who was left exposed by Seattle, said he thinks playing in Edmonton will be a bonus for that reason because it will be a hub for scouts to come and watch a lot of games.
“I’ve got to figure out a way to get signed and get on with my career because that’s what I want to do, I want to play in the NHL,” said the very level-headed rearguard. “Going to the ECHL and kicking around the lower leagues in pro isn’t really what you want to do so I’d like to hopefully earn a [AHL] contract by the end of the year.”
Stamler began the season after attending Oilers training camp and was named captain of the Oil Kings just prior to opening night.
The other 20-year-old on the back end is Matt Swaby who played for the Tri-City Americans last year. Swaby is a two-way defenseman but has never put up more than 20 points and struggles against larger physical opponents of which there are plenty of in the WHL. Recently an Oil Kings promotion centering on the Canadian Finals Rodeo prompted the defenseman to express his potential desire to become a cowboy once his playing days are done.
Cameron Cepek was chosen by Montreal in the seventh round back in 2005 but after a strong training camp his Oil Kings season has been fairly vanilla -- six points, a minus-7 rating and some displays of below-average fighting.
Drew Nichol (1989), Tyler Hlookoff (1990) and newly-acquired Adrian Van de Mosselaer (1990) round out the blueliners and while none have stood out, all have played decently and should only get better as the year goes on.
Overall the defense has not, until very recently, lived up to its billing. The team has struggled to score 5-on-5 so the stat is surely inflated because of it, but at the end of October, the top four blueliners combined for a horrendous minus-28 rating. However, during recent weeks the team has fared much thanks in large part to the improved play of the defensemen.
year in just their sixth season.”
Oil Kings trying to make good first impression
Written by: Guy Flaming on 11/05/2007
It’s tough being an expansion team in the WHL, but not necessarily for the reasons you might think. Yes the Edmonton Oil Kings have a team mostly consisting of players the rest of the league left by the curb, but it’s not a lack of talent that is challenging the league’s newest franchise. The hardest thing about being a new team in the WHL is living up to the example of the last few expansion clubs and making the playoffs in their first year.
The Everett Silvertips set the bar in their inaugural campaign by not only reaching the post-season but also getting to the league finals only to lose to the mighty Medicine Hat Tigers. Everett’s oppressive defense brought head coach Kevin Constantine and his troops success that year but it was far from entertaining hockey. That season the ‘Tips only scored 157 goals in the 72-game schedule, but amazingly only surrendered 153 thanks to a trap that was worked to near perfection.
The Chilliwack Bruins saw post-season action in 2006-07, largely due to the fall of the Kelowna Rockets but they also executed an offensive game plan that kept things interesting for fans even on nights when their club was on the losing end. By contrast, Chilliwack scored 169 times but their much more freewheeling nature cost them as they were scored on 260 times.
Dave Sheldon is the play-by-play voice of the Bruins this year but was also with the Silvertips in their infancy so he knows full well what expansion teams go through. According to Sheldon, the differing styles of play between Everett and Chilliwack stemmed from different reasons.
“The Chilliwack Chiefs were a very good BCHL team and the Bruins kind of usurped their fan base to move into the area,” Sheldon explained recently on The Pipeline Show. “The Chiefs were all about run and gun hockey and you could not bring in the defensive-minded system that was in place in Everett. These fans would have gotten turned off right away. [The WHL] is supposed to be a higher brand of hockey so this team made the decision very early on to run and gun and that they would try to win games 4-3 or 5-3.
“What Everett needed to do right away in an American market is win and win now,” said Sheldon. “I’m not saying that they gave up the farm because they didn’t. Everett had to make sure that they won, it didn’t matter if they won 2-1 because as long as they won, the people would show up. Now they have a very solid franchise and fan base there.”
Yet the situation facing the Edmonton Oil Kings is different from both of those examples as the new junior franchise is sharing a building and a market with other professional sports organizations, not to mention a university with popular athletics programs. The City of Champions has been a tough place for new organizations to break into over the past several years. Pro soccer, both indoors and out, have failed as has pro basketball and the local minor pro baseball team struggles for attendance.
With the Edmonton Oilers owning the WHL team, the Oil Kings are not in a position where they have to worry as much as Everett did about response from the fans. If that were the case, the Oil Kings would not have come out of the gate with the most expensive ticket prices in the entire three-league CHL. To that end, there isn’t nearly the amount of pressure to win immediately here as there was in Everett.
Oil Kings General Manager Bob Green stated early on that he wanted a hard-working club that was not going to get pushed around by other teams, would battle and compete every night but would not be defensively stifling. That plan was further developed through the expansion draft where it was clear that Green was building his team from the back end out, concentrating on getting a strong and dependable blueline so that his forwards could play a more open style of game.
Goaltending
When training camp opened most people felt that Tommy Tartaglione was a near shoo-in for one of the two roster spots on the club. However, shortly into camp he was released by the team “for disciplinary reasons” which one team source confirmed to be alcohol related. Not long afterwards, Tartaglione resurfaced with the Prince George Cougars.
WHL expansion teams are allowed to carry five 20-year-olds on their roster compared to the three-player limit imposed on the rest of the league. Edmonton netminder Alex Archibald is in his final year of WHL eligibility and occupies one of those limited spots. Coincidentally, Archibald was Chilliwack’s netminder last season so is very familiar with the trials and tribulations of a first-year team.
“I guess the biggest difference so far has been that this year we’ve lost six in a row and last year we lost 11!” joked Archibald. “As soon as we got out of our drought last year that was when we came together and we became one of the best teams in the league.”
Asked if he was disappointed with being left unprotected (again) and thus selected by his second expansion team in back to back years, Archibald shook his head.
“They had a good young goalie in Chilliwack and I thought I was either going to be traded or left exposed,” he said. “I was really glad to get the opportunity to come here because Edmonton’s a great city and they’ve proven that so far with the fan support. If good things happen afterwards then they happen, but if not then I have a great [WHL-funded] scholarship to fall back on. It’s my last year so I’ll give it all I’ve got and have no regrets.”
Seventeen-year-old Dalyn Flette (1990) is the backup to Archibald and after a sub-par start to the year the former Kamloops Blazer has recently put together solid wins over the Calgary Hitmen and the Everett Silvertips.
Defense
Edmonton’s defensive corps is laden with veterans. Twenty-year-old Bretton Stamler was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings in 2005, went unsigned, and is now looking to earn a pro contract after his final WHL year. Stamler, who was left exposed by Seattle, said he thinks playing in Edmonton will be a bonus for that reason because it will be a hub for scouts to come and watch a lot of games.
“I’ve got to figure out a way to get signed and get on with my career because that’s what I want to do, I want to play in the NHL,” said the very level-headed rearguard. “Going to the ECHL and kicking around the lower leagues in pro isn’t really what you want to do so I’d like to hopefully earn a [AHL] contract by the end of the year.”
Stamler began the season after attending Oilers training camp and was named captain of the Oil Kings just prior to opening night.
The other 20-year-old on the back end is Matt Swaby who played for the Tri-City Americans last year. Swaby is a two-way defenseman but has never put up more than 20 points and struggles against larger physical opponents of which there are plenty of in the WHL. Recently an Oil Kings promotion centering on the Canadian Finals Rodeo prompted the defenseman to express his potential desire to become a cowboy once his playing days are done.
Cameron Cepek was chosen by Montreal in the seventh round back in 2005 but after a strong training camp his Oil Kings season has been fairly vanilla -- six points, a minus-7 rating and some displays of below-average fighting.
Drew Nichol (1989), Tyler Hlookoff (1990) and newly-acquired Adrian Van de Mosselaer (1990) round out the blueliners and while none have stood out, all have played decently and should only get better as the year goes on.
Overall the defense has not, until very recently, lived up to its billing. The team has struggled to score 5-on-5 so the stat is surely inflated because of it, but at the end of October, the top four blueliners combined for a horrendous minus-28 rating. However, during recent weeks the team has fared much thanks in large part to the improved play of the defensemen.
year in just their sixth season.”