Edmonton Oilers: Derick Brassard signing limits options at center

Derrick Brassard has signed… with the New York Islanders. Much to the dismay of the Edmonton Oilers, there still is a hole at third-line center.

The Derrick Brassard saga is over. Despite being an obvious fit with the Edmonton Oilers, He will not be wearing the orange and blue in 2019-2020, at least. Not in Edmonton anyway. Instead of signing with the Oilers, Brassard ended up choosing the New York Islanders as his 2019-2020 home.

Unfortunately, this leaves the Oilers in a bit of a pickle, as they currently do not have a viable third-line center. At this point in the off-season, the pickings in free agency are slim. But there are still names that stick out as potential options. Most notably, Brian Boyle and Riley Sheahan fit the bill as players who could step in that role.

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Brian Boyle

Brian Boyle is not an offensive juggernaut. At this stage in his career, he will not be able to offensively carry a line like Brassard potentially could have.

In spite of this, I still think that Boyle can contribute in other ways. Boyle can still bring tangible assets to an Oilers team needing anything they can get.

He is a hulking force of a center, standing at 6’6″ and 245 pounds, with a strong history of being a good face-off winner. Edmonton does not currently have that kind of presence on their roster, the closest being Zack Kassian.

Boyle has scored decently well, mostly in a fourth-line role over the past three seasons. Averaging 20-25 points and 10-15 goals, he would be another welcome boost the Oilers bottom six scoring, a place of need in Edmonton.

Also, Boyle has a history of playing both on the power play and the penalty kill, being extremely useful at both. He would be a great addition to a new penalty-killing group featuring Josh Archibald and Markus Granlund. He also would be a perfect net-front presence on either unit of the powerplay, depending on what coach Dave Tippet wants to do with his lines.

The only knock on Boyle is his possession metrics, an area where Boyle has struggled. Unfortunately, he has not posted a positive Corsi rating since 2016-2017, his last year with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Boyle represents a good third or fourth line option that, if signed, could fill out Edmonton’s bottom 6. He would also help take some of the pressure off of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Connor McDavid to win face-offs, something both players struggle with.

Riley Sheahan

Sheahan is a bit of a wild card player. Originally drafted 21st overall by Ken Holland’s Red Wings in 2010, Sheahan has struggled to break out as a player. Now at age 27, he is more than likely not going to improve from his average point total of around 30 points a season. Although as recently as the 2017-2018 season, he played at a 35-40 point pace.

What Sheahan can do for the Oilers is play on the second powerplay unit, play on the third line, and win more face-offs than he loses. In fact, in his short time with the Florida Panthers, he posted a 54.9% face-off percentage, doing extremely well. Unfortunately, he had a down year last year, due in part to Pittsburgh’s acquisition of Brassard.

In a fourth-line role in both Pittsburgh and Florida last year, Sheahan posted 9 goals and 10 assists for 19 points. However, the year prior, when he was acquired to play a third-line role with the Penguins he thrived. He scored 11 goals and 21 assists for 32 points while posting a 54.4% face-off percentage.

Sheahan did this while starting 64.8% of his shifts in the defensive zone. Interestingly enough last season, in Pittsburgh his zone starts increased to 76.3% started in the defensive zone.

If the Edmonton Oilers were to sign Sheahan he would effectively be a replacement for Ryan Strome. A decent third-line player that can add supplemental offense to a team that last year, was anemic in that regard. Sheahan would right one of the wrongs Chiarelli made last year, making him a strong acquisition.

Wrap Up

I’m not sure who at this point would be the better player for the Oilers to acquire. Looking at the Holland connection if I had to guess Edmonton will most likely bring Sheahan in, either via PTO or on a one year deal. With the needs of Edmonton being a defensive center with a high ability to win face-offs, both players fit the bill.

However, Sheahan brings more speed and brings more potential offense. In reality either player would be very good additions to the Edmonton Oilers roster. It remains very clear that Edmonton needs to add a center. Taking into account their cap situation it also becomes very clear that that player cannot cost much more than $1 million a season.