There’s a lot of gossip around the league involving New York Rangers forward Emerson Etem, and a potential departure from the team in the near future. Some of that gossip, according to two of hockey’s most influential insiders, involves the Vancouver Canucks, though nobody is quite sure to what extent the teams have talked. Let’s comb through this bit by bit.
Emerson Etem has not yet been traded by NYR. Trade could happen today. Then again, might not (insert snide remark here). NYR working at it.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) January 8, 2016
Speculation regarding today being a potential “judgement day” for Etem began early this morning when Andrew Goss of North Jersey’s “The Record” suggested that Etem was going to be involved in a transaction of some sort. An assignment to the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack was ruled out by many due to his waiver status, but that was ultimately the direction that the Rangers went, disguising it as a conditioning stint. This is a bit more peculiar than the stint that say, former Canuck Frank Corrado took with Toronto after not playing for a month; Etem’s minutes have been low, but he’s played in most of the Rangers’ games since late October.
If nothing else, it buys the Rangers a few more days to negotiate, and gives scouts a chance to give him another look.
If he’s traded by NYR, a logical landing place could be VAN. Coach Willie Desjardins had Etem in the WHL with Medicine Hat. So we’ll see.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) January 8, 2016
Certainly, the Canucks wouldn’t be a bad landing spot for him. As I mentioned in my post about Kerby Rychel a few days ago, there’s plenty of room in the Canucks lineup for a quick, playmaking bottom six winger.
Etem is a curious case in the sense that he’s been unable to put it together on the scoresheet in his NHL career; despite 75 points in his last 72 AHL games and insane 61 goal season in his last year of junior, he has just 34 points in his first 131 NHL games. With that said, he’s averaged less than 12 minutes per game over the course of his career; once you adjust for that, his production, much like his relatively average possession numbers, indicates that he’s a mid-range third line player.
Now, that’s not to say that the Canucks should be chasing average third liners to make a part of their core, but if Desjardins feels nostalgic, there are worse people to pick up. At 23 years old, Etem still has a bit of time left in him to develop, especially if he’s placed in a more offensive role. This year, for example, he’s only started 31 of 168 shifts in the offensive zone, giving him a 31.6% offensive-to-defensive zone start ratio, worse than anybody on the Rangers other than Jarret Stoll and Dominic Moore. With that considered, it’s no shock that he only picked 3 points in 19 games.
Etem’s salary also makes him an attractive risk. The Long Beach native is due just $850,500 this year and is a restricted free agent at the end of the season. This gives the Canucks a cost-controlled asset; one who is still young enough to plan ahead with, but further advanced than a drafted prospect.
Source laughing at me, saying Medicine Hat connection “overrated.” Sounds like two teams talked, nothing close there.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) January 8, 2016
To be honest, I don’t blame Elliotte’s source here. We love making connections between players and coaches, players and management, players and cities, and even players with other players. It’s easy journalism, and sometimes, it does end up being easy scouting for teams looking for new talent. In this case, though, I could see the connection being relatively meaningless.
Etem played three seasons for the Tigers, and Desjardins coached the team for eight. With that said, just one of their seasons had an overlap, back in 2009/10. Etem was a 17-year-old rookie; nearly a third of his life has passed and he’s had a wide variety of coaches since. The situation does mean that Jim Benning can get an honest opinion from someone who has coached him, but not enough of one to make it the gospel. If every former Willie-coached Tiger was a slam dunk to be a part of the Canucks core, Linden Vey and Wacey Hamilton wouldn’t be on the Comets right now.
Etem’s potential value in a trade, at this point, is anybody’s guess. He was traded to the Rangers just seven months ago, in a trade-up scenario that indicated that he was less valuable than Carl Hagelin. Given Etem’s perceived failure in New York this season, one would expect that the team would be content with a draft pick or an AHL-eligible prospect with somewhat similar upside in exchange. Somebody along the lines of Nicklas Jensen might pique New York’s interest, though that’s a spitball guess, if anything.
For now, he’ll play a few games with the Wolf Pack while Glen Sather sorts the situation out and works the phones.