Not surprisngly, the Edmonton Oilers were unable to sneak Taylor Chorney down to Oklahoma City via the waiver wire. The St.Louis Blues put in a claim on the 24 year old rear guard, which means he is headed to "The Show Me State", to begin the next chapter of his career.
Originally drafted by the Oilers in the second round of the 2005 entry draft, 35th overall, Chorney has had his ups and downs with the organization but had come to the point where he already had been or was in the process of being passed by other young defencemen within the organization. In his defence, the lack of a solid minor league foundation or team for that matter, did hurt the 6'1", 189 pound defender with his overall development. Much was expected out of the University of Dakota standout at both ends of the rink and to this point, that has not happened.
While Chorney has turned himself into a decent depth defenceman, he still is missing an identity. What type of player he is? He is not a defensive specialist, nor is he an offensive threat...frankly he's just there. Not doing anything well enough to flat out win a job...basically a depth guy. With the shortage of depth on nearly every NHL blueline, a player like Chorney will always get an opportunity because of his "potential" and age. For his sake, hopefully he develops an element to his game that will allow him to stick in the league full time. Heck even coach Tom Renney did not close the door on Chorney returning to Edmonton, if he was made avaiable by the Blues on waivers later this season.
"I was hoping he didn't get claimed because I think he's a good player and we needed to get him playing but I wasn't sure that was going to happen here," the coach said. "We were hoping to get him down to Oklahoma City to get him playing. If we get another crack at him - great."
As I said, defenceman are always at a premium but unfortunately for the Edmonton Oilers, the numbers game did not allow them to keep Taylor Chorney in the organization.
Blog seems good!
ReplyDeleteI'm not too upset that someone else made this decision for them. While OKC could use the help, it's not in my top 45 pro contracts the oilers possess and they can't seem to manage to get themselves into a spot where they have any wiggle room there by themselves. I hope he manages to establish himself as a legit 3 rd pairing option but at this point it's not a contract lost that I will really regret if he does manage to suceed (he wasn't likely going to in these parts)
-Maudite
I honestly can not see Chorney ever been more then a number seven in the NHL, no matter where he goes. He reminds me of Jeff Woywitka, has some skill but does nothing really well and isn't physical enough to play in the league.
ReplyDeleteGlad your enjoying the blog!