Peter Chiarelli had what we might charitably describe as a

divisive summer, with the fan base split over both his choice of Adam Larsson

as a long-term defensive solution and also the cost paid to acquire that

player.

While the trade itself is highly debatable, what seems

beyond dispute is the fact that the Edmonton Oilers will go into next season

with a better top defence pair then they have iced in a long while.

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A Brief History of the

Top Defence Pairings of the Rebuild Era





2015-16: Darnell

Nurse and Andrej Sekera. With Oscar Klefbom injured and Justin Schultz

traded midseason, the two top defencemen in terms of minutes last season were

Sekera and Nurse. That’s just as bad as it sounds. Sekera is a capable enough

veteran, but pushed to his off-side (where

he isn’t as good) and saddled with a first-year player he had very little

chance. Needless to say, it was also deeply unfair for his rookie partner to be tossed into the deep end, too.

2014-15: Oscar

Klefbom and Justin Schultz. Among the more baffling items of the Craig MacTavish

era was the preference for Schultz over Jeff Petry. Schultz not only got more minutes,

but lasted longer as an Oiler due to the team’s reluctance to extend Petry

prior to his free agent year. The 2014-15 version of Klefbom entered the year

with just 17 games of NHL experience, but somehow ended up the team’s best

left-side option.

2013-14: Andrew

Ference and Justin Schultz. It was really Schultz and Petry who led the

team in ice-time, but Ference was the club’s top left-side option, averaging

21:03 per game in his first year with the team. The 34-year-old Ference simply

wasn’t up to the job, while Edmonton’s Schultz experiment continued with

lackluster results. As a duo, this pair managed a 42 percent Corsi rating.

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2011-13: Ladislav

Smid and Jeff Petry. This is the closest thing the Oilers have seen to a

legitimate top pairing in the last five years, and it really wasn’t. Smid was

always a limited player, but his strengths compensated nicely for Petry’s

weaknesses, while Petry himself was long underappreciated as a puckmoving

defender at evens. This was a 47%

Corsi duo on a 46% Corsi team, which wasn’t bad given the minutes they

played but wasn’t good enough, either.

2010-11: Ladislav Smid

and Tom Gilbert. Ryan Whitney and Jeff Petry each played less than half the

season (though for different reasons) and with few other options then-coach Tom

Renney decided to play his two real NHL defencemen together. It worked relatively

well, for mostly the same reasons that Smid/Petry would over the following

years. The Oilers as a team ran a 46% Corsi; Smid/Gilbert together clicked at

51%.

2009-10: Chaos. Lubomir

Visnovsky was dumped at mid-season, with Ryan Whitney replacing him. Sheldon

Souray was injured and ultimately banished. Tom Gilbert played with Denis

Grebeshkov until the latter was shipped off to Nashville. In all, Pat Quinn

would use 14 different defencemen in what remains the worst season of the last

decade for the Oilers.

There are a lot of reasons the Oilers were as bad as they

were over the rebuild era, but a lack of stability at the top end of the

defence (along with the lack of depth behind the top pair) was a key

contributor. Just a year before the chaos of 2009-10, Edmonton had run a

five-man unit anchored by Sheldon Souray and Lubomir Visnovsky, with Tom

Gilbert, Denis Grebeshkov and Steve Staios in supporting roles.

Then Steve Tambellini started making changes and the whole

thing went pear-shaped.

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Klefbom and Larsson

The closest comparison to Klefbom/Larsson on the above list

is probably Smid/Petry, but it’s hard not to like this newer version better.

Larsson, obviously, is the stylistic fit for Smid. Both are

big, strong, defence-first defencemen. Larsson just happens to be better. I’ve

groused as much as anyone about the lack of offensive track record from Larsson

in the NHL, but he can make a pass and put up 18 points in brutal minutes last

season. At the same point in his career, Smid had 25 career points and had never

taken on the kind of responsibility that Larsson did in 2015-16.

For that matter, even in his prime Smid never took on the

kind of defensive responsibility that Larsson did last year.

Klefbom is also well ahead of where Petry was at the same

age. Petry, who went the longer college route, split his rookie pro campaign

between the NHL and AHL at the same age as Klefbom was last season. Klefbom’s

bigger, just as fast, and tracking ahead of Petry in both the offensive and

defensive zones.

That isn’t a knock on either Smid or Petry, both of whom

have enjoyed fine NHL careers. Rather, it’s a reflection of how good Klefbom

and Larsson look at a younger age.

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Chiarelli can’t take credit for Klefbom, and he may well

have overpaid for Larsson. Nevertheless, he enters next season with a better

top pairing that any the Oilers have seen in at least eight years.



