December NHLE - Injuries Are Slowing Everyone Down

by Derek Zona on Jan 1, 2012 4:45 PM MST in Prospects

December was a brutal month for the Oilers' prospect group. Injuries have hit the big club hard, but they're hitting the system even harder. I've been tracking thirty-three Oilers' prospects since October, the total includes nineteen forwards and thirteen defensemen. Of those thirty-three prospects, twelve of them missed at least three games in December due to injuries.

To get a sense of how much those injuries have impacted the prospects and their NHL numbers, we can use Gabriel Desjardins' NHL Equivalency. Gabe's methodologies are described on his translations page:

One way to evaluate the difficulty of one league relative to another is to examine the relative performance of players who have played in both leagues. Players rarely play significant time in two leagues in the same year, but they often play in one league in one year and in another the next. As long as a player’s skill level is approximately constant over this two year period, the ratio of his performance in each league can be used to estimate the relative difficulty of the two leagues.

After the jump is the full list of skating prospects with their NHL Equivalency and full season projections.

Player - League	League	DOB	Drafted	NHL82 G	NHL82 A	NHL82 P	Change
Linus Omark	AHL	2/5/87	97	5	36	41	0
Toni Rajala	SM-Liiga	3/29/91	101	22	13	35	-3
Tobias Rieder	CHL	1/10/93	114	17	11	28	-4
Kellen Jones	NCAA	8/16/90	202	9	19	28	-1
Gilbert Brule	AHL	1/1/87	6	12	14	26	-4
Phil Cornet	AHL	3/28/90	133	21	4	25	-7
Teemu Hartikainen	AHL	5/3/90	163	13	10	23	-2
Drew Czerwonka	CHL	7/1/92	166	10	10	20	-5
Milan Kytnar	ECHL	5/19/89	127	12	7	19	4
Mark Arcobello	AHL	8/12/88	Und	2	16	18	-5
Kristians Pelss	CHL	9/9/92	181	9	8	17	2
Ryan O`Marra	AHL	3/29/91	15	7	8	15	1
Ryan Martindale	ECHL	10/27/91	61	5	10	15	5
Antti Tyrvainen	AHL	4/3/89	Und	3	14	14	9
Curtis Hamilton	AHL	12/4/91	48	3	8	11	-3
Tyler Pitlick	AHL	11/1/91	31	5	6	11	-2
Chris VandeVelde	AHL	3/15/87	97	3	8	11	1
Cameron Abney	ECHL	5/23/91	82	2	3	5	-1
Travis Ewanyk	CHL	3/29/93	74	Inj	Inj	Inj	Inj

Linus Omark is due to have the cast removed in two weeks and will need at least two weeks of rehab and workouts before he can return.
Phil Cornet was dinged up as well, but is back in the lineup for the Barons.
Teemu Hartikainen returned to the lineup after Christmas and registered one assist in three games.
Antti Tyrvainen returned from injury in December after recovering from a broken arm.

Player - League	League	DOB	Drafted	NHL82 G	NHL82 A	NHL82 P	Change
Jeremie Blain	CHL	3/19/92	91	5	15	20	-1
Kyle Bigos	NCAA	5/12/89	99	2	18	20	0
Martin Gernat	CHL	4/11/93	122	5	14	19	0
Taylor Chorney	AHL	4/27/87	36	6	13	19	4
Brandon Davidson	CHL	8/21/91	162	5	13	18	-2
Dillon Simpson	NCAA	2/10/93	92	0	15	15	3
Martin Marincin	CHL	2/18/92	46	3	11	14	2
Alex Plante	AHL	5/9/89	15	1	13	14	1
Colten Teubert	AHL	3/8/90	13	4	8	12	-2
David Musil	CHL	4/9/93	31	1	10	11	0
Ryan Lowery	AHL	9/6/88	Und	1	9	10	-2
Kirill Tulupov	AHL	4/23/88	67	0	9	9	-5
Oscar Klefbom	SEL	7/20/93	19	0	0	0	0
Taylor Fedun	AHL	6/4/88	Und	Inj	Inj	Inj	Inj

Martin Gernat, Martin Marincin, David Musil and Oscar Klefbom all left their teams for the World Junior Championship.
Alex Plante was concussed during his callup and remains with the Oilers while he recovers. He lucked out, if you can call it that, in that he was injured in the NHL. Unlike Omark, Plante will collect an NHL salary while he's on IR.
Taylor Fedun took his first steps in December. Let's hope he's skating by next December.

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Re: Fedun

You bring up the fact Plante is collecting an NHL salary, I assume it would be the same for Fedun correct? I suppose that is one positive for him, to have some big paychecks as he recovers. Good to hear he is coming along alright.

Insert Witty Comment Here

by VanillaAcid on Jan 1, 2012 7:20 PM MST reply actions

Klefbom

Having been able to attend the three (semi-) competitive games between Russia, Sweden, and Slovakia, I was able to see Klefbom, Gernat and Marincin minus a camera. Without a doubt, Klefbom has been the most impressive, both offensively and defensively.

The Swede’s NHLE of 0 doesn’t do him justice as there are likely other factors for that (eg. ice time, lack of secondary assist (?), injury recovery.)

The man loves to jump into the play.. almost a little too much. But he is a smooth skater and is deliberate in decisions. I only saw him get burned once. Then again the Russia and Slovakia were really no match against the Swedes.

His 12 SOG’s leads the dmen, despite not playing the PP – not against RUS and SVK anyway. He was the first to start 4 on 4 OT against RUS though. He’s also the only dman to have a goal. A beautiful bullet from the point that upstarted SWE’s comeback.

Lastly, unlike Marincin and Gernat, he doesn’t look like one of the skinny guys in Nintendo’s Ice Hockey.

by OilPen on Jan 2, 2012 4:00 AM MST reply actions

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