Quote:
Originally Posted by 19Yzerman19
4.5 is absolutely fair for a guy who would play 2nd pairing minutes on half the teams in the league and certainly in Edmonton.
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Looking at the regular season, Nikitin averaged 17:06 TOI in 66 games. Good for 7th on the Blue Jackets. In the playoffs, in 5 games he was bottom pairing (in terms of TOI) 4 times and a healthy scratch once:
Game 1 - 11:38 TOI (6th amongst Columbus defenseman)
Game 2 (2OT) - 20:34 TOI (5th amongst Columbus defenseman)
Game 3 - 11:48 TOI (6th amongst Columbus defenseman)
Game 4 (OT) - 21:23 TOI (4th amongst Columbus defenseman)
Game 5 - 16:21 TOI (5th amongst Columbus defenseman)
Game 6 - Healthy scratch in favor of... former Oiler Nick Schultz!
Nikitin will certainly play top 4 (likely top 2) minutes for the Oilers. Considering Ference is in the same boat, I'm not sure that's worth anything. I don't think he's a top 4 defenseman on 10% of the teams in the league, let along >50%.
The Oilers are in a very tough spot - they have Ference and a bunch of rookies and RFAs. Nikitin is, objectively a 5/6 defenseman league wide. But he's a better alternative to overplaying Klefbolm and Nurse against top lines. No real UFA help (look for them to back the truck up to Niskanen and be rejected) and the Weber wet dream is never going to happen (knock on wood).
Overpay 5/6 defenseman (Nikitin/Ference) to bridge the gap or overplay rookies before their ready? Looks like in 2014-15 the Oilers are going to do both.