Oilers Sign Gregory Stewart
by Scott Reynolds on Jul 16, 2010 12:30 PM PDT
in News
10 comments
The Edmonton Oilers have signed twenty-four year-old forward Gregory Stewart to a one-year contract today. When I saw that Stewart had scored 45 points in 174 AHL games, I figured that this deal was an AHL contract. But then I remembered that it was announced on the Oilers' website, so it must be (at least) a two-way deal. Thus, the Oilers now have forty-six NHL contracts, although that includes all of Taylor Hall, Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson, and Toni Rajala and any unsigned restricted free agents. So why did the Oilers sign this palooka? His other numbers.
As you may have guessed, Gregory Stewart knows how to fight. In fact, he has almost as many fights as he does points. If we include his time in the NHL, Stewart has played in exactly 200 regular season games, has registered 46 points and has engaged in 40 fights. Six of those fights came at the NHL level and hockeyfights.com gave him a 2-3-1 record in those contests including a loss to Bryan McCabe and Brandon Prust. At 6'2'' and just under 200 lbs. he's more cruiserweight than heavyweight, which means he actually needs to be able to play a bit in order to get an NHL job, and given the fact that he played twenty-six games with the Montreal Canadiens, it seems like that must be the case.
But I don't see it. The bulk of Stewart's NHL time came in 2008-09 and he was beat up pretty badly on the shot clock despite some of the softest ice time available. It's only twenty games, but if you can't score, you're not an enforcer and you can't tread water, you're probably not going to stick around for very long. I didn't check, but it strikes me as doubtful that Stewart was taking on anything resembling tough competition in the AHL; it just isn't the typical role of guys who lead their team in penalty minutes get. So he was probably getting sheltered there as well, and he did tread water, posting a +8 in 2008-09 and a +6 in 2009-10 on two very good renditions of the Hamilton Bulldogs.
And that's what can be expected of Stewart this year in Oklahoma City. He's a guy that will play on the fourth line and not hurt you. For the Oilers, this seems like a waste of one of their fifty contracts. If the player doesn't have NHL potential, don't give him an NHL contract. It's a simple rule that I wish the Oilers followed with every contract instead of just most of them.
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I do not see this as a waste of a contract. The Oilers still have four contracts left and we are all hoping they add a NHL Dmen, a NHL centre, and a AHL goalies: so that is three of the four right there (please Tambo please). The Oilers are most likely going to rid themselves of one contract (in Souray or Cogs, but at least one contract is coming back).
Over all, I suport giving NHL contracts to AHL players to convince them they might have a shot at the big club. All of the AHL free agent signings (Moran, Giroux, Ondrus, Petiot, Belle, and Steward) are one year contracts which means they are off the books by next year’s Free Agent Day.
There is a lot of take about expiring contracts these days, obviously because of how important they have become in the NBA. All seven of the AHL signings are coming off the roster next year plus another 10 players have their contracts expiring next year. Hopefully both Marquardt and Pitton will not get another two way contract and be freed from the Oilers’ system. All of these NHL players will be one version of a free agent or another: Strudwick, Chorney, Smid, Vandermeer, MacIntyre, Jacques, Stortini, and Jones. That is 17 expiring contracts next year plus any of the RFAs that have not been resigned. That is a lot of expiring contracts for a total of 13.77 Million dollars and 17 contract spaces.
Why is this a problem again? The only thing I see is that it puts them close to the 50 contract limit, and might hurt them in a giant player swap in the middle of the season (because those happen so commonly post-lock out).
one of the founders and most prolific writers of Bringing Back the Glory
Expiring contracts aren’t as important in the NHL as they are in the NBA. In the NBA, you often need them to make trades since salaries are required to balance. They also have a soft cap so you can see more trades that look lopsided because teams need to have little money in order to spend in free agency. The system is quite different from the NHL.
As for this contract in particular, he’s basically an AHL fighter. It’s hard for me to believe that those aren’t available on AHL-only deals. Signing a player like this to an NHL contract means that the Oilers might not be able to sign a young player who impresses in camp or make a waiver wire pick-up to improve the NHL team. It also makes trades slightly more difficult. Starting the year with 49 or 50 contracts puts you in a box and it should be something that’s avoidable. It gets harder to avoid when you start giving two-way deals to marginal talents.
by Scott Reynolds on Jul 16, 2010 3:01 PM PDT up reply actions
While I agree that expiring contracts are not as important in the NHL, I still think they are (and will become even more) important. Having hard cap space is very important as we have seen and the only way to do that, for a cap team as oppose to a floor team, is to have contracts coming off the books.
A team like Montreal complete re-tooled their roster in free agency of 2009 because of the space they created in their expiring contracts. For a team entering into a rebuild having expiring contracts on your veterans and AHLers is important to the future flexibility of your organization. I think this is why bloggers and the media are continuing to call for their teams to sign veterans on one-year deals. It is crucial for teams to have expiring contracts so they can go white whale hunting in July, and have the space to sign their young guns. Also look at the trade dead line: it is mainly expiring contracts that are being trade, since the team wants help now (not the future) and the cap space for next year. Most people would say that the GMs are only looking for the former, but I bet many (those who’s job is not on the line) are seriously looking at both of these elements.
Maybe I’ll right a blog about this latter, but I think NHL GMs are starting seriously value expiring contracts and we will see them become a premium commodity in the future.
one of the founders and most prolific writers of Bringing Back the Glory
I agree with you that an expiring contract has some value, it’s just not built into the system in quite the same way as it is in basketball.
In the NHL, certainly trade deadline time expiring contracts are useful, because teams can exceed the “full year” cap by loading up at the end of the year, but they’ll need to unload some players to start the next season. That situation aside, I think it’s important to remember that the only time an expiring contract is helpful is when you don’t want the player at that price over the long haul. It’s a sign that the player in question isn’t all that good. In this case, I agree that Stewart having a one year deal is better than a two or three year deal, but that’s because he’s not very good. I’d much prefer a zero year deal and retain the contract flexibility.
by Scott Reynolds on Jul 16, 2010 4:07 PM PDT up reply actions
Stewart’s an interesting scrapper. Almost nothing for technique, but full marks for heart and ability to take a smack in the chops.
That Prust fight you mentioned could probably get thrown in the draw column, if the Flamer hadn’t drawn blood. Stewie gets cut, then rallies with a series of overhand rights that hit a lot harder than Prust’s jabs.
Here’s a couple that show more of Greg’s moxie:
http://www.hockeyfights.com/fights/48257 — Gotta love the diving follow-up punch.
http://www.hockeyfights.com/fights/91589 — Gets pummelled to his knees by a larger, thicker Ryan Stokes; then, stands back up and manages to get a string of solid shots in as the scrap winds down. Watch the smirk at 0:57. Good stuff.
Should be a terror when someone like Omark gets run.
by Downright Fierce on Jul 16, 2010 2:42 PM PDT reply actions
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