Monday, November 24, 2008

Talk is Cheap

Despite numerous positive comments from Kevin Lowe, Kelly Buchberger, Ethan and Chad Moreau, and even the curly haired one himself this past off season in regards to Rob Schremp, it's the same old song and dance this season.

Lowe and Tambellini both said that he needed to get some games in this year, well..... WHEN? The Oilers have had Steve MacIntyre play for them and then get hurt, Fernando Pisani get hurt, Jesse Boulerice got in 2 games, Liam Reddox has gotten in some games and been given a steady shift, Ladislav Smid gets bumped to LW from D, and now Tim Sestito gets the call to the big show.

While all of these players are in bottom 6 roles, the top 6 forwards haven't been cutting the mustard, and God forbid one of them gets dropped down a line or 2 for Schremp to get some NHL experience under his resume. Not happening ladies and gentlemen, maybe if a top 6 forward gets injured? Well considering that the last time it happened Marty Reasoner and Jaret Stoll got promoted, and this season we see Ethan Moreau on the top line, don't get your hopes up.

Rob Schremp is not a gritty player, he doesn't openly look for hits except when it seems like the coaching staff instructs him to do so. He is a guy that makes things happen when the puck is on his stick. He would be a superb line mate for a guy like Dustin Penner or Erik Cole. A guy that will dig the puck out and let Schremp make the plays. Carrying the puck and making plays is his game, a game that Craig Mactavish obviously isn't much of a fan of.

So my next question is this, why keep the kid around? You won't give him a chance, you don't like his game, you'll go to the other end of the earth to keep him from playing, why is he around? The Oilers should just trade the kid, because unless there is a coaching change, there will never be a spot on this team for Rob Schremp.

This kid is Dustin Penner in MacT's eyes, minus the huge guaranteed contract and "more jam". I'm sure that somewhere some team could use a PP QB and an excellent passer at the NHL level. Do the kid a favor and trade him if you won't give him a shot.

This is how valuable Rob was to the Falcons last year (before the offseason training regime that I'm sure that the Oilers wanted him to attend)

Schremp was the 8th leading scorer in the AHL despite being on the 20th lowest scoring team in the league (9th from last) and every player that had more points played for a team that had more team GF. From 11GF more (player that had same # of points but less games) to 86GF more.

Out of everyone in the league Schremp had the 4th highest % of his teams points only behind...

1) Krog (Chicago) 112pts. 300 team goals = 37.33%
2) Stevenson (Quad City) 73pts. 203 team goals = 35.96%
3) St. Pierre (Rockford) 88pts. 247 team goals = 35.63%
4) Schremp (Springfield) 76pts. 214 team goals = 35.51%
5) Locke (Hamilton) 72pts. 208 team goals = 34.62%


This season he has 16 points in his 15 games with Springfield this season and the team has scored 42 goals in those 15 games. This season he has figured in 38.10% of his teams scoring.
Add to this that he has upped his ES production from 0.4359 ES pts/game last year to 0.8 ES pts/game this season. He has also been a +6 this season compared to a -15 last season.

Schremp's biggest knock this season has been his reluctance to shoot the puck. It was apparent from the NHL preseason that he wasn't looking for his shot. If he can get the same amount of shots on net as last season as well as get some better support on the PP, the stats will grow in a hurry. However I highly doubt that his lack of goalscoring has much to do with his exclusion from being a call up.

Time is ticking away on Rob's first pro contract, at this point why would he consider re-signing with the Oilers? They have shown no confidence in him while they have shown confidence in many other young players. Unless this changes and he gets some legit NHL time this season, I would be surprised if he didn't do everything in his power to never play for this organization again. Could you blame him?

5 comments:

oilerdago said...

Have to agree - a trade is going to eventually happen here. But let me ask you, if MacT is let go (say he does not get the team moving in the next 30 days), does Schremp finally get the call up then or do you think he's just done with it all?

At least he's been a professional about his situation I've not heard him complain once.

Bryanbryoil said...

I doubt that he'd get a call right away, however if the new coach was more offensive minded he could look to add more skill by bringing in Schremp and even possibly Brule to play a 3 scoring line game.

I would assume that a coach like that would have little use for all 5 of Sestito, Reddox, Stortini, MacIntyre, and Smid in the bottom 6.

oilerdago said...

It's dumb how you bring up Sestito and leave Stortini on the team. And it's dumber putting Smid @ forward.

Last act of a desparate man?

Bryanbryoil said...

If anyone told you that we'd have Smid, Stortini, Reddox, and Sestito as our bottom 4 forwards at this point in the season before the season started you probably would've looked at them as if they were crazier than a shithouse rat.

Desperate indeed. Last act? I sure as hell hope so!

hunter1909 said...

I want one of the top 6 players to break his leg so Schremp has to play whether MacTool likes it or not. Other than Hemsky, Cogliano or Gagner, lol. Any of the others could get hit by a truck for all I care.

No point in bringing him up to rot on the bench or on the 4th line.

What worries me is, is that Schremp might be losing his confidence under the Oilers management by 'lets fuck up all our first round picks" style that's done so well with Niinnimaki, Mikhnov, Rita, etc etc..

I'd like to see him play 40 games then decide what his future is.