Edmonton Oilers Hire Todd McLellan as Coach

Michael Clifford

2015-05-19

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Edmonton Oilers announce Todd McLellan is the new boss behind the bench. What does that mean for fantasy?

The rumours about the Edmonton Oilers hiring former San Jose Sharks coach Todd McLellan have been swirling for a while, and word came from TSN's Darren Dreger that indeed it would be McLellan to be Connor McDavid's first head coach. Official word just came down in the form of a press conference that McLellan would be the next coach of the Edmonton Oilers.

This caps a whirlwind month for the Oilers as they have cleaned house internally, hired Bob Nicholson as the CEO, hired Peter Chiarelli as the team's General Manager, won the draft lottery that gave them a potentially generational player, and have now found the coach that they hope can foster this young team and propel them back to the postseason.

So what does this mean for the Oilers in fantasy terms?

First, it's important to note that McLellan, at least with the Sharks, wasn't afraid to rely on his top players game in and game out. He's not like Alain Vigneault with the New York Rangers who likes to spread out ice time. It likely means that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins maintains his 20-plus minutes of ice time per game. It also means expect a heavy dose of Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle. It should mean that McDavid and Leon Draisaitl will get softer assignments that helps ease them into an NHL role. Expect Nugent-Hopkins to play the role of Joe Thornton next year, taking all the tough assignments in the hopes of freeing up some space on the ice for their lesser experienced players. That won't be too much of a deviation from last year for their top players (aside from Taylor Hall rebounding as he should). I expect there will be a bit of continuity among those guys from last year to this year.

I will also expect a similar style in play from the team as they had under Dallas Eakins. Expect the Oilers to focus more on clean zone exits and entries, with a renewed commitment to full team defense in their own zone. Hopefully that leads to fewer breakdowns like this. This could take some getting used to so expect growing pains, but overall, better underlying numbers should lead to an improved goals for/against ratio. Maybe this is a year where their Oilers top skaters don't finish as minus players pretty much across the board, which is a huge boost to their fantasy values in roto leagues.

McLellan will need some more help on the blue line. While Darnell Nurse and Oscar Klefbom may be very good down the road, I don't think they're ready to lead a defense corps. Andrew Ference is still there for veteran leadership, but this team hasn't had a true number-1 defenseman since Chris Pronger, and there won't be one this year. Chiarelli will have to help McLellan in the personnel department before this team really takes a step forward in their on-ice product and start to even out their goal differentials.

This all assumes McLellan approaches the Oilers in a similar fashion that he did the Sharks over the last few years. Of course, the Sharks were hoping to contend for a Stanley Cup while the Oilers would just like to not finish in the basement, so the expectations are a bit different out of the gate. I do expect McLellan to use his players on proper lines and in proper situations. I don't expect this team to take many strides forward until they get more defence help (and maybe a new goaltender), regardless of who is behind the bench.