Oilers Have Strong New Options For Penalty Kill

An underrated aspect of the Oilers' shocking turnaround last season was their improved penalty kill.

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The PK blossomed under head coach Kris Knoblauch and assistant coach Mark Stuart, placing as the seventh-best in the league from Knoblauch's hiring to the end of the season. It ascended to another level in the playoffs, where their 94% kill rate was by far the best in the league.

Many of the team's top penalty killers are returning this season: Mattias Janmark and Connor Brown will likely be the team's top shorthanded forwards after their excellent playoff run, and Darnell Nurse and Mattias Ekholm will still anchor their respective units.

But the departures of Warren Foegele, Ryan McLeod, Cody Ceci, and Vincent Desharnais leave the Oilers with a few holes on the penalty kill, ones that won't be easily filled. Finding replacements for those players has been one of the coaching staff's main concerns throughout the pre-season. Let's take a look at where things stand with a week left in training camp.

Forwards

One player who seems to have already won a PK role is Vasily Podkolzin. Though he arrived in Edmonton with no penalty killing experience, he's a hard worker and a battler and seems ready to transition into being a solid bottom-six grinder in his new home. He even scored a shorthanded goal next to Derek Ryan against Seattle on Saturday night.

If Janmark-Brown and Ryan-Podkolzin are the top two forward combos, that leaves Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Leon Draisaitl, and Adam Henrique to fill any other penalty kill minutes. Of course, the coaching staff would probably like to limit Nugent-Hopkins' and Draisaitl's penalty kill minutes since they play so much at 5-on-5 and on the powerplay.

To that end, we could see whoever wins the 13th forward spot -- whether that be Noah Philp, James Hamblin, or Raphael Lavoie -- kill some penalties whenever they draw into the lineup. It would be a good idea to get them comfortable there anyway, as they'll be replacing Ryan on some nights.

Defence

In Cody Ceci and Vincent Desharnais, the Oilers lost two of their most important penalty killers this summer. In Desharnais specifically, they lost one of their strongest. Replacing the two defenders on the right side has been a top priority in Edmonton for the past few months.

Last year, Desharnais and partner Mattias Ekholm were both top-twenty among defencemen on the penalty kill, per Natural Stat Trick. This year, it should fall on Ty Emberson to replace Desharnais. Even though Emberson will take on most of Cody Ceci's minutes next to Darnell Nurse in other situations, Ekholm was so good shorthanded last year that he should keep that top unit job, and Emberson's the right guy to join him.

Emberson had sparkling numbers on the PK in San Jose, allowing only 5.32 goals per 60 in 30 shorthanded minutes last season. That was not only by far the best number on the Sharks, but tenth leaguewide among defenders with at least 30 minutes on the penalty kill. That'll work.

That leaves Brett Kulak or Josh Brown to slide in next to Nurse. It wouldn't be a surprise to see Brown take that spot, given his size, physicality, and handedness, but I think that would be a mistake. Apart from even-strength numbers that should make it difficult for him to even make the team, Brown is nothing special as a penalty killer.

His xGA/60 on the PK last year in Arizona was 7.29, 72nd among defencemen and right above Cody Ceci's 7.33. Brown also has a propensity for taking penalties, which is obviously not what you want from a penalty killer. Contrast that with Kulak, whose xGA/60 of 6.08 was 24th in the league. Kulak-Nurse would make two lefty defencemen on the same penalty kill, but the numbers unequivocally point to that as the best choice.

With Ekholm-Emberson and Kulak-Nurse, the Oilers would have three of the top 25 penalty killing defencemen from last year, plus a group of forwards as adept at scoring goals as they are at preventing them. That's a pretty nice luxury to have when you have the kinds of offensive weapons the Oilers do.

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