Magnus Pääjärvi: Four Autographed Cards

As is the case every other year for the Edmonton Oilers, it's time for an organizational re-haul... after replacing perennial not-winning coach Todd McLellan with Edmonton native Ken Hitchcock earlier in the season, the Oilers will (likely, hopefully) remove General Manager Peter Chiarelli from his position today.

I will still defend the Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson deal (although a first-rounder should have also went the Oilers' way in that deal), but Jordan Eberle for Ryan Strome for Ryan Spooner for, uh, waivers is unforgivable, as was never solidifying the defense or the goaltending position.

Chiarelli inherited the draft pick that became Connor McDavid, who blossomed into the best player on the planet in just his second season; one can forgive playing into McDavid's hand by foregoing the bridge deal between the rookie salary cap and the MVP-like contract he ended up getting, but there was no reason to also do so with Leon Draisaitl. Now, these two superstars account for roughly a third of the team's overall cap, which should fit 23 people. Doing so seriously limits the supporting cast you can surround your stars with, as the Pittsburgh Penguins noticed in the near-decade between their 2009 and 2016 Stanley Cups.

And one of the people under that cap is $6M Milan Lucic, he who hath scored 15 goals in the last year and a half and is under contract until 2022-23.

The three main things the Oilers have been doing wrong in the past decade have been picking some of the wrong guys in the first round, never picking up supporting pieces in the later rounds, and/or not developing their prospects into viable NHL players.

Case in point: Karl Magnus Svensson Pääjärvi, now known simply in NHL circles as Magnus Pääjärvi.

A star player in Sweden who had already medaled twice at the World Juniors (silver in 2008 and 2009) when he was drafted tenth overall (he would add a bronze medal in 2010), he was chosen ahead of the likes of Ryan Ellis (11th), Calvin De Haan (12th), Dmitri Kulikov (14th), Nick Leddy (16th), Chris Kreider (19th), Kyle Palmieri (26th), Ryan O'Reilly (33rd), Jakob Silfverberg (39th), Robin Lehner (46th), Richard Panik (52nd), Tomas Tatar (60th), Tyson Barrie (64th), Cody Eakin (85th), David Savard (94th), Craig Smith (98th), Mattias Ekholm (102nd), Marcus Foligno (104th), Sami Vatanen (106th), Mike Hoffman (130th), Gabriel Bourque (132nd), Marcus Kruger (149th), Anders Lee (152nd), and Erik Haula (182nd).

Now, at 6'3" and 206 pounds with speed and good hands, of course he's worth taking a chance on, same as Kreider. Ahead of talented defensemen like Ellis, Kulikov, Barrie and Ekholm, I'm not sure; ahead of a blue chip goalie like Lehner, perhaps; ahead of hard-working probable point-per-game players like O'Reilly and Hoffman, again, not sure.

But what you do when you land a talent like that is nurture it. That means powerplay time, offensive zone starts, not benching him at every defensive mistake; instill a discipline, a taste for physical effort, a taste for using his body - not necessarily through hard checks (although if he wants to, sure), but at least as a means to protect the puck and carry/shield it to and in the offensive zone.

It's a process that takes years. Five to seven years on someone his size.

The Oilers gave him three years before losing patience, but they still landed a valuable asset in David Perron when they traded Pääjärvi; the St. Louis Blues, on the other hand, never trusted him enough to give him the "candy" minutes, more often than not leaving him on the ice for fewer than 12 minutes per game, then crying about his lack of offensive contribution and unfit defensive zone play.

The Blues ended up waiving him, and the Ottawa Senators pounced on him. They even re-signed him to an affordable one-year, $900K deal over the summer (the type the Oilers should be looking at right now, what with their limited cap space), with GM Pierre Dorion saying:

“We’re happy to have Magnus back in Ottawa. He showed us last season that he can play the game with speed, which fits with the style of play we want our team to exhibit. Magnus is a versatile player who will be able to provide us productive minutes in many situations.”

Speed. Following the team. Productive minutes. In many situations.

Sure, he had six goals in 35 games with the Sens last year and five in 40-some games this year, but as a left winger, he's behind Ryan Dzingel, Brady Tkachuk and Mikkel Boedker at his position, on par with Zack Smith; so the Sens are giving him minutes where they can, including shorthanded, usually with Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who is shaping up to have a Sean Couturier-like career trajectory. One of his goals was a short-hander. One was on a breakaway against Jusse Saros. He even wiped out after a goal last weekend.

He's fun to watch. He'd probably be a lot more fun to watch playing alongside an even faster McDavid.

Here he is wearing the Oilers' ugly practice-like uniform from after the season-long lockout, on card #78 from Upper Deck's 2011-12 Victory set:

And here he is sporting the team's classic white (now-away) uniform, on card #198 from Panini's beautiful 2013-14 Score set:

And here he is wearing Edmonton's classic blue uniform, possibly one of the ten best hockey jerseys of all time:

The card on the left is #192 from Panini's 2011-12 Score set, while the one on the right is #124 from UD's 2011-12 SP Authentic collection.

He signed them in blue sharpie in October 2018, prior to a home game against the Montréal Canadiens. These cards cement him as #91 on my Oilers Numbers Project.

Magnus Paajarvi Swatch Card

HUGE news on the RFA font today, as the St. Louis Blues have avoided arbitration by signing Magnus Pääjärvi-Svensson to a $700,000 one-way contract for next season.

Once regarded as the most skilled player outside the NHL with his shootout moves, Paajarvi has yet to translate his talent to the best league on earth, his six-goal, seven-assist, 13-point production in 65 games over parts of two seasons with the Blues resulting in the following career NHL numbers: 32 goals, 39 assists and 71 points in 228 games.

He did manage to put up 11 goals and 18 assists (29 points) in 36 games playing for St. Louis' AHL affiliate Chicago Wolves, so the 24-year-old's almost there. Maybe.

Originally the Edmonton Oilers' first-round pick (10th overall) in 2009, he was acquired by the Blues in the trade that sent David Perron to play in the tundra.

Speaking of the Oilers, here he is wearing their awful Reebok Edge post-lockout white (away) pajama/practice-like uniforms, from Panini's 2010-11 Zenith set (card #MP of the Winter Warriors sub-set):

It features an orange swatch of game-worn ''material''.

Magnus Paajarvi Autograph Card

Magnus Pääjärvi-Svensson remains an enigma for many fans and general managers, but it's easy to see why he was drafted 10th overall by the Edmonton Oilers in 2009: at barely 23 years of age, the 6'3'', 210-pound rocket has impressed at every single level he has played at, usually at a much younger age than all of his peers; he made Team Sweden's Under-16 team at just 14, enabling him to earn three World Juniors medals (silver in 2008 and 2009, bronze in 2010), and two World Championship medals (bronze in an incredible 2010 season, silver in 2011). He was the youngest Swede ever to make the team, then medal at the World Juniors.

And it's not like he was a passenger on either the Junior or Men's teams: he has 41 points (on 16 goals and 25 assists) in 30 games in Juniors, and 7 goals, 9 assists and 16 points in 18 games with the adult teams, making the 2010 Worlds All-Star team in the process.

And that's not counting Sweden's win at the 2008 Ivan Hlinka U-18 tournament. In North America, the Oilers didn't have enough players of his level on the team for him to shine, and their AHL affiliate wasn't much better, though he did accumulate 11 goals, 24 assists and 45 points in 72 games over two seasons with the Oklahoma City Barons.

He has improved his defensive play, and because of that may become relegated to third-line duties, which really shouldn't be his spot, because putting him in a long-term defensive capacity may lead him to grow tired of not using his skills and eventually to some laziness. He has all-world speed, all-world hands, and all-world moves; he loves making spectacular plays; he has size and back-checks - he belongs at least on a second line, and second-unit powerplay.

As a power forward, I expect him to enter the 20-to-25-goal stage of his career this season, and to be a threat for 35-to-40 from ages 26 to 31. Ironically, what hurt him in Edmonton - lack of able bodies to surround him - is no longer the case with the St. Louis Blues, where the team's depth may force the them to start him with less playing time than he'd require.

And so this may have been my favourite pull from Upper Deck's 2013-14 Edmonton Oilers Collection (#FI-MP of the Franchise Ink sub-set), featuring a blue-sharpied autograph (with his Oilers jersey number - 91 - tagged at the end) on a sticker:

It therefore checks #91 off my Oilers Numbers Project, and makes me 28-for-78 in collecting autographed cards of ''used'' Edmonton numbers.