EDMONTON — Which Edmonton Oilers player does the most with the least?

Ryan Jones. He’s maybe giving the Oilers the biggest bang for the buck, too.

He has:

­— Nine goals in 53 shots and averages 11 minutes of ice time a night for a $975,000 salary,

— Nine goals, all even-strength,

— Twelve points, all five-on-five, and

— The most even-strength goals on the team (tied with Taylor Hall).

He’s also a really good talker, never a bad thing for a scribe on deadline or between games on a slow news day. It might have something to do with the surname. So is Ryan Whitney, and so was Ryan O’Marra until he was sent back to the American Hockey League farm team at Oklahoma City.

Coaches grade players every game, maybe every period. Chances are that Jones, the most versatile of the Oilers forwards, is a B-plus student on coach Tom Renney’s eyes, at worst. He’s Edmonton’s version of the Detroit Red Wings’ Dan Cleary, who won’t play here on Tuesday because he’s got a busted ankle.

If coaches like consistency, Jones brings it. OK, one night against the Minnesota Wild in Game 5 of the Oilers’ season, he and fellow fourth-liners Colin Fraser and Zack Stortini got their butts stapled to the pine after two shifts and two goals against. But after writing 100 times on Renney’s greaseboard: “I will get my head out of my butt,” he’s been the model of consistency ever since.

Jones played a season-high 17 minutes and 40 seconds against the Calgary Flames on Saturday, filling in for Jordan Eberle after the rookie winger hurt his ankle early in the second period.

He’s played just about everywhere up front this season. OK, he hasn’t seen the power play either, but maybe that should change. The Oilers have scored only 20 power-play goals in 37 games, half as many as the Red Wings.

Jones isn’t much for blowing his own horn, but he does feel “the outside expectations of my game were a lot lower than the ones I had.”

Why not? He had 15 goals and only 29 points in 95 NHL games coming into this season.

“I think people assumed I would come in, battle for a spot, and be in and out of the lineup,” said the 202-pound winger. “But, in my eyes, I was going to battle for a spot and make it hard decision for the coaches to let me go. I just play hard and go to the net ... you go there and pucks bounce your way.

“I’m not going to say I fully expected this, but I’m not surprised at all.”

Jones did score a breakaway goal with a nice tuck through Chicago Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford’s legs in late October. But most of his goals are scored with bodies around him.

Most nights, Jones looks like a harried guy trying to get on a crowded subway train just before it leaves the station, squeezing into a little space with a big body. But he’s effective. He’s proof positive that often the smallest moves made by general managers pay the biggest dividends. He was a waiver wire pickup last season from the Nashville Predators, small print among the transactions.