NHL: Why do the Edmonton Oilers continue to trust Gaëtan Haas?

Analysis

Why the Oilers spread with Gaëtan Haas, and where he still needs to improve

Gaëtan Haas stays with Edmonton Oilers for another year. We will explain why the NHL team continues to trust the Swiss and where they can improve.

Finally, concrete news from the NHL, which has been inactive since March 12. It could not, would and would have, but a simple signature that is fixed for an entire year.

Because Gaëtan Haas has extended his contract with the Edmonton Oilers for another season. The 28-year-old will remain in North America until at least the end of the 2020/21 season. During this period, Haas will earn $ 915,000, regardless of whether it is sent to the AHL or allowed to remain in the NHL at all times. Your salary is independent of that.

But why, despite Haas’s relatively modest five goals and five assists in 58 games, did the Oilers decide to stick with him? What contributes to the team? And where can you improve? We are looking for answers.

To do this, we must first be aware of the team and the position in which the Romand plays. Haas is a trained center. He can play like a wing if necessary, but he feels much more comfortable in the middle.

Edmonton now has two absolute superstars on the central axis with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Also, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is a No. 1 draft in the same position. So even if coach Dave Tippett lets McDavid and Draisaitl play together, Haas is still at best a role in the third or fourth line.

The quality

Defensive

Due to the way the Edmonton coach uses Tippett Haas, his defensive qualities are even more evident than in Switzerland. When the Swiss is standing on the ice, not much happens, and that is absolutely positive. He manages to keep events away from his own goal.

The best way to demonstrate this is with the expected objectives. A distinction is made between the Expected Goals for (xGF) and the Expected Goals Against (xGA): the number of goals for or against a team that can be expected when a certain player is on the ice. Let’s say Connor McDavid is frozen for a whole game. In these 60 minutes, the Oilers would score an average of 2.84 goals, but they would also get 3.04 goals. If Gaëtan Haas were on the ice continuously for 60 minutes, Edmonton would only score 2.02 goals, but would also concede just 1.95 goals.

An interesting trick is also the comparison with the other Swiss in the NHL. Of the twelve regularly employed Swiss mercenaries, only Dean Kukan and Jonas Siegenthaler, two absolute defensive defenders, have comparable values. The rest, whether forward or defender, falls.

That is why Haas is an important player for the Oilers. It provides defensive stability that superstars McDavid and Draisaitl cannot offer.

Willingness

This flows a little to the top point. Haas seems to have had little trouble getting used to the more intense and physical game in the NHL. He is ready to sacrifice himself for his team. No striker blocks more enemy fire in the Oilers than the Swiss. The 28-year-old hands out checks and most of all takes a pocket: with 9.17 opposing controls for every 60 minutes of ice age, Haas is the second-most marked player in Edmonton.

Speed ​​and technology

Despite his increasingly defensive approach, Haas also benefits from his speed and technique in his game. The former allows you to launch quick counterattacks from your own third party. And thanks to its technique, it can prevail in duels, although it is not the largest and the most difficult. For example, it recovers more discs for 60 minutes than McDavid and Draisaitl.

Role player

Gaëtan Haas has been an extremely grateful player since his arrival in Edmonton. When he had to go to the AHL in the meantime, he took this as an opportunity to improve further. At Edmonton, he took on a small role without grumbling and was rarely more than ten minutes of ice age. Players like coaches because they know they can always count on them.

The potential for improvement

Offensive posting

Of course, five goals in 58 games are not particularly exciting for a striker. Haas is clearly expected to further increase its production. But it’s not that the 28-year-old is ineffective, after all, just under ten percent of his shots end up in goal.

It simply has very little ice age and often starts in the neutral or proprietary zone making it difficult for the entire storm line to develop opportunities. But who knows, maybe he can win even more ice age in North America in the second year.

Bullys

The allusion has always been a weakness for Swiss players. In the National League, most foreign players dominate statistics (exceptions are Tanner Richard and Reto Schäppi). Gaëtan Haas also had a lot of trouble with the bullies in his first NHL season. He won just 42.2 percent, or in absolute numbers: 176 games won, 236 lost.

In addition to strength, experience is also crucial for bullies. In his third year in the NHL, Nico Hischier brought his bullying rate to more than 50 percent for the first time. Haas is already 28, but he was still considered a rookie in the NHL. You may very well take some ideas from this season to increase your quota next year.

Special teams

Haas was used occasionally in Powerplay this season, but not very frequently. In total, he was only allowed to run for four minutes. At first glance, this seems strange to a good defensive striker.

The problem for French-speaking Switzerland: Edmonton’s special teams have worked extremely well in the 2019/20 season. Powerplay is the best in the league, Penalty Killing is second best. So there is almost no reason for Coach Dave Tippett to change anything. Haas’ goal should be to assert himself in these roles in training.

conclusion

As you can see, there are very good reasons why the Oilers don’t want to do without Gaëtan Haas. Such defensive stability is not natural for third and fourth line players.

At Edmonton, McDavid, Draisaitl and Co. are primarily responsible for scoring the goal. As long as you can keep the puck out of its own box, you will be satisfied with the striker. And since Haas will continue to earn less than a million a year, fans don’t expect him to score 20 goals per season. In fact, the deal is almost a bargain for the Oilers.