Let’s talk about what the Oilers need to do with Nail Yakupov. They have an asset there whose value across the league has dropped significantly. In 2012 he was a consensus 1st Overall pick, a leading scorer in the Ontario Hockey League and a kid who had broken a record held by Steven Stamkos for goal scoring. He graduated to pro in the KHL during the lockout and did well despite not being played a lot. In his debut NHL campaign he won the rookie scoring race and lead his team in goal scoring.
Then the team fired their Head Coach and replaced him with Dallas Eakins. Things then start to go pear shaped for Nail. Instead of getting more minutes based on the year before he’s forced to start over with a man who has no ties to him. The focus becomes about what he can’t do instead of what he can do. He gets benched and sees no increase in ice time as one might expect after leading your team in goals.
Things got so bad early into Eakins’ tenure as coach that Yakupov’s agent tried to intervene and word got out that if Edmonton didn’t want Yakupov he would be happy playing anywhere else. They stuck it out and that talk quickly became hushed, but it was obvious that he was lost out there. Eakins and the young scorer just couldn’t get on the same page.
I don’t think Dallas Eakins had anything against Nail, not at all actually. But I think the way Eakins tried to change Yakupov as a player was extremely counter-productive. It’s not THAT he wanted Yakupov to be more defensively responsible, it’s how he went about it. Eakins treated Yakupov as he would any late round pick that wanted to make it to the NHL. Play a physical game, know your way around your end of the ice, pay your dues. It’s exactly what you expect from Anton Lander or Rob Klinkhammer. Maybe not, however, the way you expect a high end offensive player to be carried along.
Nail was unable to adapt fast enough and under Eakins he just wasn’t getting the job done. Then there’s the matter of chemistry. He developed maybe just a little with Sam Gagner but the Oilers’ center had his own issues he was dealing with. That 1st year under Eakins Gagner’s face was caved in and he never fully recovered that year. Yakupov floundered, bouncing around and never fitting in. Even playing with RNH here and there nothing seemed to click. Certainly there was nothing to make anyone think there should be a permanent centerman for Yak.
He went from 31 points in 48 games as a rookie to just 24 points in 63 games as a 2nd year pro. It was a backwards step but it was shared by other 2nd year players like Jonathan Huberdeau. It was a bad sign but there was still time to bounce back. But things went from bad to worse.
Sadly, the Oilers vacated their 2C position to acquire Teddy Purcell and the vacuum was filled by 18 year old rookie Leon Draisaitl. As it turns out the Oilers made the task of becoming an NHL Center out of camp easier than the task of actually being an NHL Center night in and night out during the season. That’s a move that not only started the count down on Draisaitl’s first contract, but it robbed Nail of a bonafide NHL centerman yet again.
As an observer, the most difficult part of how Yakupov was handled this year was that when he played well he wasn’t getting rewarded with ice time. Eakins would say that Yak was doing everything that was asked of him, but when the 2nd half of the 3rd period rolled around Yak was a permanent fixture on the bench. He might as well have been in the showers already if overtime was called for.
Todd Nelson’s approach has been drastically different so far and there’s no shortage of credit belonging to Derek Roy either. The newly acquired pivot who might be fighting to extend his NHL career has taken it upon himself to be Yakupov’s centerman. They haven’t had great success from a possession stand-point, but Yakupov is playing the best hockey we’ve seen from him since he was a rookie. His confidence is back. He isn’t afraid to make mistakes and that has translated into more decisive action on the ice.
Here is what Elliotte Friedman had to say in his
30 Thoughts:
20. As critical as it is to get Schultz going, he is second after Nail Yakupov. The winger has three goals and six points in his past five games, basically 33 per cent of his offensive production for the season. The morning of that Pittsburgh game, he skated with Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Todd Nelson walked into the dressing room afterward, asking Yakupov what he thought. He said he was developing good chemistry with Derek Roy and preferred to stay there, so the coach acquiesced.
21. There were a lot of interesting things about that. First, Nelson came into the room, which a lot of coaches don’t like to do. Second, Yakupov was given a voice. Asked about it later, Nelson told a story of how Yakupov gave away a puck during one game. He asked the player about it, and Yakupov said, “I know, I can’t give it away.”
Later Nelson went back to him and explained it wasn’t a scolding, but an attempt to understand how he processed the play so the coach could get an idea how he thinks the game.
Yakupov is on a 5 game point streak in which he’s picked up 6 points. The team has been lacking Benoit Pouliot and Taylor Hall but Yak has stepped up to try and fill the scoring void. He is back to looking very dangerous on the Power Play and he matched the Jets in physicality, taking a run at Myers after Roy was cross checked in the neck while face down on the ice.
There need to be changes to Edmonton’s roster, no doubt. They don’t have enough quality defensemen and their netminding is in shambles. There are a surplus of wingers who are playing out of position, like Teddy Purcell who would be on the 4th line if Pouliot and Hall were healthy. However, trading Yakupov, as some are suggesting, would be a terrible idea. This would be Miro Satan all over again but worse.
His on-ice shooting percentage this season is a lowly 5.2%, submarined while playing with Draisaitl at a time when nobody on that line was capable of scoring. This number is bound to rise over time and we can see that Derek Roy has a 9.2% this year. Points are going to come and Yakupov’s fortunes are bound to change.
Even with his ice-time just barely growing we are seeing his learn to be a better volume shooter. In his first year he shot 1.69 times per game in 14:33 average TOI. In his second year that jumped to 1.94 shots per game in 14:18 average TOI. This year he’s up to 2.12 shots per game in 14:47 average TOI. If Nelson and Roy can get the young Russian better prepared to handle bigger minutes we should see a jump in shots and another jump in scoring should follow.
We are just now seeing that Yakupov was stunted by a coach who didn’t understand him and an incomplete roster. Under someone else’s guidance and provided a mentor with NHL experience the life has come back into this kid’s game. The team suffered a full year just to gain the right to draft Yak 1st Overall in 2012 and I doubt the return on a trade will net them anything beyond a significantly worse pick or a questionably talented defenseman with a so-so contract.
This is not a player I want to see the team give up on yet. He’s finally got the right coach and the right centerman. I think we are just scratching the surface of what he can do. It would be a terrible mistake to think that this is best version of Nail Yakupov that we will ever see and trade him now while we think it’s the high note.
LINEUP
Somehow Luke Gazdic survived being turned into a human pretzel. When he was hit by Byfuglien (totally clean hit by the way) his head was pinned to the boards while his feet swung behind him, contorting his body into a position it was never meant to be in. He left with a massive cut to his chin and somehow was skating this morning. I don’t want his job. I would NEVER want his job, but I’ll be damned if he doesn’t deserve some sort of medal for what he’s been through on this last road trip. The entire Gordon line was back skating again and that should be a huge boost to the team as well. Fasth has been placed on IR after he also (this time voluntarily) tried to move his body in a way that human skeletal structure doesn’t really allow. Scrivens has been activated off the IR. Marincin will play on his Birthday (today) and Aulie is out. Fraser will also spot in for gazdic.
Purcell RNH Eberle
Hamilton Roy Yakupov
Hendricks Gordon Klinkhammer
Fraser Lander Pakarinen
Ference Petry
Klefbom Schultz
Marincin Fayne
Scrivens
OILERS KEY TO THE GAME
1) Free Falling. The Bruins have lost 4 in a row and 5 of their last 6 games. As they try to hold onto the last Playoff spot in the East they are running out of gas and the club is in serious trouble. They lost a heartbreaker in OT to the Flames and will be looking to leave Alberta with at least 3 of a possible 4 points. If the home team can get out to an early lead it might be able to get into the head of the Bruins who are no doubt going to take this game more lightly than they should.
2) 1st Game Back. The first game back after a lengthy road trip always seems to be a bad one. The Oilers have long struggled with taking the foot off the gas on these situations. They haven’t been good enough to afford that. The Jets absolutely dominated the game against them and the score was flattering to the Oilers. The reality is that they were out attempted almost 2:1 in the game and that’s not acceptable. They need to overcome the let-down that usually happens when they come back from the road and do a better job of being in the game.
3) Reunited. The Wagon line of Hendricks-Gordon-Klinkhammer was back on the ice today and the Oilers need them. They play a lot of hard minutes for the team. They can handle themselves with restrictive zone starts or tough opposition, or both without much hesitation. They hit. They provide some decent speed (that’s on Klinkhammer). Because they can do all those things very well it gives Nelson a lot of options that he otherwise just wouldn’t have.
Puck drops at 8:08 PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet. Yak On!
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