Photo by Lisa McRitchie, All rights reserved.

Sam Gagner is probably one of the Oilers' more controversial players among the fanbase: he's described as everything from a future first line centre to an expendable smurf. His detractors point out that he's played four years in the league and has only just matched his rookie year's scoring rate, while his boosters remind us that he's only twenty-one years-old.

(I've adopted both positions, depending on my mood and who I was trying to antagonize, so I think I can evaluate this without bias.)

How has Sam Gagner's career path to date compared to those of other players to enter the league at eighteen? A fellow named Michael provided some food for thought over at Lowetide by comparing Gagner's rookie season to those of players who entered the league at the same age.  I'll replicate and follow up on his work after the jump.

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Photo by:  Resolute via Wikimedia Commons

I'm going to let you in on a secret: I like hockey fights.  I'm an educated, liberal, mostly pacifistic kind of guy, but a couple of hockey players throwing punches at each other gets my adrenalin pumping as much as the next guy's.

The key words there are "hockey players".  When, because of some development in the game, two hockey players - that is, men capable skating, puck-handling, and having some impact on the flow of a hockey game - drop their gloves, that's exciting.  When two goons fight each other, not because of any development in the game, but because they need to justify their respective presences in the lineup and fighting is the only way that either can even pretend to do so, that's idiotic.  I want my fights to be part of the hockey game, not a sideshow to it.  Goons don't help a team win games.

At least, that's my take.  A lot of people have contrary views.  Tom Renney is apparently one of them, which is why the Oilers are now spending a roster spot on Steve MacIntyre.  The school of thought that suggests using roster spots on non-hockey players like MacIntyre is, as I understand it, that they're there to protect the skill players: opposing players know that they'd better not mess with Ales Hemsky, or they'll have to answer to Big Steve.

After the jump, I'll start my examination of who's right, me or Tom Renney.

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