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When Adam Henrique was traded from Anaheim three weeks ago, he knew he was going to an Edmonton Oilers team with the best player in the world, Connor McDavid, and one of the three or four best centres, Leon Draisaitl.
But until Thursday against Los Angeles, the time on the ice with both, five-on-five, was about the same as the Zamboni driver — 42 seconds over his first 10 games. But there Henrique was, in the final minute of the second period, tie game. Before you could say McDavid to Draisaitl to Henrique, Henrique had the eventual game winner. After Draisaitl was tossed out of the face-off circle, McDavid won the draw, got it over to 29 ,and he swept around the net, lobbed a puck at Henrique’s gut, and goal.
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“Pretty good chest bump,” kidded Henrique.
While the transition pace of the Oiler game and how they play compared to the Ducks is a different animal, one thing we’re seeing from Henrique is he has the stomach offensively to go to where you have to score from, the blue paint. He has three goals in his last six games, and if you added up the distance from the shot to the net, it might be the length of said Zamboni. Two goals off Mattias Ekholm passes, the other from Draisaitl, with Henrique getting inside position on all three plays.
As he said post-game Thursday of his latest goal, while playing second-line left wing with Draisaitl, with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on left with McDavid, “I’m trying to establish a good net-front presence and I got a fortunate bounce on that one.”
Putting out Henrique in the last minute of a 1-1 game rather than, say, Zach Hyman, was as much good luck and good planning from the guy behind the bench.
Gut feel, before the gut-check goal by Henrique.
“He was under-utilized most of the game. Ice time, his shifts were shorter and with the penalty kill and very little power-play time, his ice time was down,” said Knoblauch. “I certainly feel he is a big part of this team and I want him to have those opportunities to be on the offensive side of it and have an offensive-zone faceoff.”
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McDavid liked exactly where Henrique was on the goal.
“Leo (Draisaitl) makes a great play as usual, and he (Henrique) does a great job of just being there, inside his check,” said McDavid.
Henrique, who reached the 900-game plateau this past Tuesday in Winnipeg, has three goals and an assist in his 11 Oilers games. At times, he has looked like he’s playing maybe a little too safe a game in new surroundings, also trying to get up to Oilers speed on the rush and when the puck’s turned over, but he has given GM Ken Holland and coach Kris Knoblauch options. He’s flip-flopped from third-line centre to second-line winger. Knoblauch is trying to find where he fits best with the playoffs three weeks away, and Henrique’s Ducks in town Saturday afternoon. Maybe he stays where he is currently, but Evander Kane, who had a robust, heavy game against L.A., might still play with Draisaitl on the second. Yet Kane looked very good with Ryan McLeod and Corey Perry against the Kings.
Or maybe McLeod moves up with Draisaitl.
“His (Kane) line was very good against Los Angeles and he (Kane) was the best player on that line,” said Knoblauch.
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So Kane will stay there against the Ducks, with Henrique on left wing with Draisaitl. All coach decisions on the fly, though, before the playoffs start.
Why zero in on Henrique, more than others at the deadline?
Options, especially in the playoffs.
“He plays centre, he plays the wing … he’s versatile. He’s centered the third line, he’s played left-wing on the second,” said Holland. “He kills penalties, he’s been on the ice when we’re four-on-four. Again, versatility and you can never have too many centres.”
This is a lot to digest, even for a veteran like Henrique, the son-in-law of long-time NHL winger Steve Thomas. He’s trying to fit in, all while he and wife Lauren welcomed a second daughter Sophia just nine days before the trade to the Oilers. Their other daughter, Blake, is only 16 months old.
Different system, new players. Less ice-time than with the Ducks because his PP time here is minimal. He’s played 6:29 total on the power play in 11 Oilers games, 35 seconds a game, on average, while it was 2:07 in Anaheim.
Even-strength, PP and PK, he averaged 17:35 a game in Anaheim. It’s 14:46 here.
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“I feel like I’ve been building and I need to continue to do that,” said Henrique.
“Sometimes when you go from one team to an other it’s an easy transition if the teams play a similar way. But if they don’t, the adjustment takes a little bit longer,” said Holland.
Certainly the Oilers pace is higher than the Anaheim pace. Clearly it has a lot to do with McDavid and Draisaitl’s talent level, but they have been one of the fastest teams in the league for a long while, even if they are suddenly the oldest, at 29.9 years on average.
“From a coaching perspective we want to play fast,” said Holland.
Getting traded with just six weeks to go in an NHL season, isn’t a lot of runway to figure things out for players moving to a new team. “The trade deadline is 20 games to go before playoffs start … sometimes 20 is a lot, sometimes it isn’t quite enough. As I look at the players who have moved this year at the deadline some have had a seamless transition, others are trying to find their way a bit,” said Holland.
“Depends on the style, depends on lots of things.”
Holland isn’t sure where Henrique fits best.
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“He can play centre or left wing. That’s why we wanted him, right?” he said. “If the coach wants to move McLeod up to play with Draisaitl like he has, Adam can play centre. If we want McLeod in the three-hole as centre, Adam can play left wing on the second or third line. Right now, touch wood, we haven’t had a lot of injuries but you have to be prepared for some. The more people you can move around, the better it is. You can’t just have, say, four centremen. What if two get hurt for a game or two? Adam can play centre, wing, he knows how to check, he’s got hockey sense and hands.”
Bringing in Henrique and buddy Sam Carrick in the same Anaheim deal was maybe easier than talking to two different clubs. The price was high, a first-round draft pick in 2024 and a conditional 2025 fifth-rounder which becomes a fourth in 2025 if the Oilers win the Stanley Cup in June, but Holland was looking to fill a few holes and he only had to talk to one GM, Pat Verbeek, in the negotiations to get Verbeek to eat 50 per cent on both contracts.
“We wanted a right-shot centreman, guys who can kill penalties. Depth. Just so happened it was the same team. Yeah, exactly,” said Holland.
Both are test-drive players, and Henrique, particularly, will be hard to keep on the cap next season even if it goes up from $82.5 million to $87.7 million, unless he takes a healthy haircut from his current $5.85 million salary.
But, that’s next year.
“Basically the trade deadline is a rental game, right? At the end of the day, when the season’s over, we’ll see how they play, what they think (about signing or not), the cap situation next season. You build your team for next year in June and July,” said Holland.
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