But of late he hasn’t been the player he was in the AHL, or the player who climbed to the top of Edmonton’s depth chart in the early going. I don’t know if he’s run down from playing way more games than he’s used to, or if he’s playing through injury or what’s going on. Granted there’s a big difference between Patrick Kane and even a very good AHL’er, that was an example of a completely unforced error on Schultz’s part.
He didn’t get caught out of position very often – and a play like Chicago’s game winning goal, where Patrick Kane snuck behind him and took off for a breakaway just didn’t happen. Watching him in the AHL, it wasn’t just his offensive gifts that stood out – he was never physical defensively but he was highly intelligent. There’s a jump from that level of hockey to the NHL, but there’s very little doubt in my mind that Schultz is a better player than we’ve seen lately. He was an excellent college defenceman for three seasons before that.
Justin Schultz was the best player in a very strong lockout AHL this fall. It probably isn’t a trend worth worrying about in the long term. Since then he’s been on the ice for 165 Oilers chances, and 239 opposition chances unsurprisingly he’s also gone minus-19 over that stretch. He was on the ice for 46 even-strength Oilers scoring chances and 42 chances for the other team. In his first eight NHL games, Justin Schultz went plus-2. Including missed shots, the totals with Schultz rise to +1/-22, without him to +25/-16. With Schultz on the ice, the Oilers were +0/-14 with him off they were +17/-14. Even-strength scoring chances with Schultz off the ice: +8/-10Įven-strength shots tell a similar story.Even-strength scoring chances with Schultz on the ice: +0/-10.