Alexandre Giroux - AHL Superstar

Our staff has completed a thorough review of the 2010-2011 Edmonton Oilers, so now it's time to turn our attention to the the Oklahoma City Barons and those players that had a cup of coffee in the NHL last season.  The first man on the stage is Alexandre Giroux, AHL superstar.

After receiving a promise of a shot at the NHL roster from Steve Tambellini himself, Giroux was livid at being demoted in training camp.  He started slowly in Oklahoma City, but eventually righted the ship (more to come on that from Neal tomorrow) and completed another outstanding AHL season for the Barons.  He was called up to Edmonton for a short, 8-game stint, a stint in which he showed well.

The majority of his ice time in Edmonton was spent with Andrew Cogliano and either Liam Reddox or Ryan Jones on the other wing.  He was a -2 in scoring chances in 8 games and though 8 games don't mean much, his chance differential would rank 8th among the Oilers.  Giroux had the best raw Corsi of any Oiler and was 6th in Relative Corsi, if he would have played enough games to qualify.  He certainly didn't play any sort of tough minutes, but he performed admirably during his time in the show.

Giroux seems to have buried the hatchet with the Oilers' organization, or at least he's acting like he no longer has issues with Steve Tambellini and showed interest in coming back to Oklahoma City in his exit interview: