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This in from noted hockey writer Kevin Allen of USA Today, a defence of the Adam Larsson-for- Taylor Hall trade coming from Larsson’s old GM Ray Shero in New Jersey.

“The Oilers have taken a lot of grief over this, but has anybody sat down and watched Larsson?” Shero told Allen. “He’s actually pretty good.

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“You have to make a team, and that is challenging in a salary cap world. To get a young dynamic forward who was signed made a lot of sense for us. Edmonton needed a signed young defenseman to go with all of their young forwards. They are off to a great start this season. That says something.”

My take

If the Oilers were off to their usual horrid start, I suspect there would be plenty of knives out in Edmonton over the Larsson-for-Hall deal about now, but that’s not the case with Edmonton winning. It’s given Larsson some time and space to earn the respect of Oilers fans. I get the sense that so far most fans like the player’s toughness, defensive positioning and simple, direct passing game. They also like that Larsson has taken on a tough job — playing against top opposition attackers each game — and he’s holding his own. Most of all, of course, fans like that the team is winning, and that’s put a rosy glow over all of GM Peter Chiarelli’s moves. So long as the winning keeps up, the complaining shouldn’t grow loud. I also like Larsson’s game, but I don’t yet love it. There’s no denying he’s had some struggles here so far. I have actually watched him closely — repeatedly reviewing all scoring chances where he and other Oilers have been involved — and I’ve found he’s so far made too many defensive miscues for my liking, though part of the blame for that has to go to his partner Oscar Klefbom, and, of course, to their tough assignment. Trouble for these two generally starts with Klefbom losing a battle on his side, and the puck coming dangerously into the slot, putting Larsson in a tough spot. But he’s lost a few too many of those slot battles. You can see all this in his high rate of mistakes on both scoring chances against, in general, and on Grade A scoring chances against, in particular. At even strength, he’s made 2.5 mistakes on scoring chances against per game. By comparison, Darnell Nurse is at 1.1 mistakes per game, Kris Russell, 1.1, Eric Gryba, 1.4, Klefbom and Andrej Sekera, 1.9. Larsson’s got to get his number below two mistakes per game, but there’s plenty of time for that to happen. The season is young, as is the player himself. All that said, I’d still give Larsson and the Larsson-for-Hall trade a passing grade at this point. It was always expected New Jersey would get a win out of the deal, but Edmonton is so far doing OK by it. Larsson has got the team out of all kinds of tough situations with his brainy yet brawny play. He’s plugged a major hole on the Oil’s defence. Yes, there’s been a few too many mistakes, but we saw the same with Andrej Sekera and Eric Gryba as they found their way with the Oilers last year, only to see both of them play steady hockey for the remainder of the year. Larsson, who will turn 24 this weekend, is also a young d-man, a veteran of only 288 NHL games, so he’s at that stage where he should be coming into his own, but isn’t a fully finished product. Right now, he’s playing at about the same level of effectiveness as Jeff Petry did in his early seasons with the Oilers, but, again, the season is young, and I expect Klefbom and Larsson to do more than hold their own as things progress. It’s not rash to expect improvement to occur given the age of the two players, their talent and their unfamiliarity with one another to date. As they settle in, Larsson’s play (and his numbers) should pick up.

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