Fedor Tyutin has a wide range of skills, is an established NHL player and is signed by his team (Columbus) through 2018. Why then would the Jackets trade him?

Why WOULD Columbus deal a quality defenseman like Fedor Tyutin? The same reason Rick Nash will be offloaded this summer: the club is going to rebuild and that means young players in, old and expensive players out. Tyutin has a $4.5M cap hit on a contract that kicks in next season and won’t end until 2018. Much of that contract will see the Jackets adding youth and losing hockey games–something Oiler fans have seen a lot of over the years.

Trading Tyutin should bring back quality in terms of picks, prospects and or younger and less expensive players.

HOW DO THEY USE HIM IN COLUMBUS?

ZONE STARTS

Columbus’ zone starts overall reflect a team that’s playing on a slanted field: EVERYONE has an offensive zone start below 50%. I hesitate to suggest these numbers are anything beyond random, it doesn’t look like the coach has a preference in this area. Tyutin’s in the middle of the graph but I don’t think we can regard it as a strength or weakness.  We do see that he’s used a lot at even strength (nhl.com has him 18 minutes a night at evens, which ranks him 57th in the entire league) a lot.

QUAL COMP

We see from this graph that Tyutin faces the toughest available competition available to the Jackets. The margin is pretty wide between the veteran and the rest of the group (save for Nikitin who came over during the season from St. Louis, thus making his numbers here less than pure).

I think we’re safe in assuming that Tyutin is a tough minutes defenseman relied upon heavily by his coach.

CORSI REL

This is a very nice number based on where he’s hitting in the batting order. Toughest competition, 2nd best Corsi Rel. The puck is moving in a very good direction when Tyutin is on the ice compared to what’s happening the rest of the game.

Tyutin’s boxcars (66, 5-21-26 minus 21) may give the appearance that he’s ineffective or overwhelmed. However, -21 on the Jackets–based on toughness of competition–isn’t a terrible number. Tyutin is climbing a mountain most games, and has also been healthy. On a poor hockey club that’s a recipe for a large minus number.

TOI AND OFFENSE

• EV: 18:00 a game, 4-9-13
• PP: 3:18 a game, 1-11-12
• PK: 2:49 a game, 0-1-1

This tells us Tyutin is in fact a complete defenseman, playing big minutes in all three disciplines. His offense on the PP is solid, a deeper team might cut back on that PP time and use it at even strength or the PK. Either way, these numbers suggest that Tyutin is a useful NHL player with a wide range of skills.

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

Fedor Tyutin is perhaps the most attractive option we’ve looked at so far in this series. He has good size for an NHL defenseman, is mobile and adept at moving the puck. He’s been healthy (this season aside, he broke his right hand earlier this month and is out indefinitely). He is signed to a long contract, could come into the organization and serve as a legit top pairing option and he could also mentor some of the youngsters coming along. The pricetag would be heavy, but the Oilers have picks, prospects and young NHL players in abundance.

This might be a very good match for both sides.

Previously in this series

• Dion Phaneuf
• Mike Green
• Jason Garrison
• Andrej Sekera