The Edmonton Oilers came to terms with Yakupov on what I think is a solid two-year bridge deal. The $2.5 million per year is less than he *could* have made per year in his entry-level contract but there's no way that he was reaching all of his bonuses considering the offensive struggles he faced.
Some people will still think the Oilers are paying too much money to a kid who had just 33 points this year but I think it's extremely important to view his season with some context. There is no way his year, like many Oilers, should be viewed without considering life under Eakins vs life under Nelson.
Eakins had Yakupov playing a third-line role with third-line minutes and a mandate to play defense. This is a high pedigree scorer who has only ever played offensive minutes with the mandate to score.
In the final game the announcing crew went at length to say that Yakupov had made many personal strides in his game over the final half of the year. Notably they said he was now moving his feet.
That, of course, is malarkey. Full Stop. Anybody suggesting that he wasn't giving it the full effort is completely full of it and is creating a narrative that isn't even close to accurate. Eakins asked Yak to play a certain way and late in games he was benched often. The offense was crippled due to unsustainably poor personal and on-ice shooting percentages which, along with Scrivens and Fasth's brutal play, resulted in an atrocious PDO of 96.36 that nobody can look good sporting.
Under Nelson all of those things rebounded nicely and he was given a second-line role and second-line minutes, as well as some trust in the third period.
There were two Yakupovs this year: There was the Eakins Yakupov who was a third-line player on pace for a 21-point season. Then there was the Nelson Yakupov who was a second-line player on pace for a 46-point season.
Yakupov's detractors often bellyache that the Oilers didn't take Galchenyuk (even though the other choice was always Ryan Murray). Galchenyuk had 46 points this year. That's the same amount Yak could have had if we extrapolate his production from the Nelson portion of the year.
There is a lot of work for Yakupov to prove he can be a productive everyday top-six player, but if the last half of the season is any indication then there's a real opportunity for Yak to outperform this contract moving forward.
Sometimes you hope these bridge deals will motivate players to get better. I don't think Yakupov needs that motivation. From what I can see he is still as in love with the game as when he was a child. He's a rink rat with an infectious love for this children's game. I think he just wants to know the team believes in him and Todd Nelson did that.
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