Former Oiler Cody Ceci Producing Startling Results on New Team, Proving Oilers Fans Right
Former Oilers defenceman Cody Ceci is playing his first season with the rebuilding San Jose Sharks, and he's producing the worst results in the NHL by some advanced stats.
Oilers analyst Preston Hodgkinson pointed out that Cody Ceci ranks last in the NHL in high-danger chances differential.
Simply put, the San Jose Sharks are getting rocked when Ceci is on the ice. They're in their own zone more often than not surrendering quality chances against, while not getting many scoring chances of their own.
Ceci has been promoted to the Sharks top pairing this season, playing well over 20 minutes of ice each night. In 24 games, Ceci has 5 assists and a -6 on-ice rating.
In his time with the Edmonton Oilers, Cody Ceci was a divisive player for the fans and the media. Most people watching the games could see Cody Ceci and Darnell Nurse's pairing get caved in nearly every night.
There was a huge demand among the Oilers fanbase last season to upgrade the team's defence in a trade by shipping out Cody Ceci.
Many members of the Oilers media staunchly defended Ceci as a quality player and integral member to the team, which simply didn't line up with the stats or the eye test.
One of them was Jason Gregor, who claimed that Chris Tanev wasn't much of an upgrade on Cody Ceci.
Ceci's abysmal results in San Jose show that Oilers fans were really right about the negative effect he was having on the team. The improved results for Darnell Nurse this season could also simply be because of a lack of Ceci. In the last three playoffs, Ceci was by far the weakest link, and his pairing the weakest pairing.
Nobody is celebrating the fact that Ceci is struggling this year, but if it wasn't clear already, the Oilers did seem to improve their team by moving on from Ceci - and that's a good thing.
The Oilers are back in the trade market for a defenceman this season, still hoping to add a quality partner for Darnell Nurse on the second pair.
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