Ryan Nugent-Hopkins finds balance on second line for Oilers

Several years ago Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was basically Connor McDavid.

Nugent-Hopkins came to the Oilers for the 2011-12 season as the No. 1 overall draft pick who was going to help elevate Edmonton back to prominence. While he didn’t have the same fanfare as McDavid, Nugent-Hopkins was still seen as a potential first-line center who would solidify Edmonton down the middle for years to come.

After a rookie year where he had 52 points in 62 games it appeared he was well on his way to stardom, but then saw his production drop.

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Only this season has he rediscovered his game, but not as a scorer. Instead he has transitioned into a two-way center that has given the Oilers crucial depth down the middle in their playoff run.

The Oilers are up 2-0 in their second-round series against the Anaheim Ducks heading into Sunday’s Game 3 in Edmonton.

“I think for myself to be a successful player in this league I need to keep honing that two-way game,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “Obviously I need to contribute offensively as well but do a good job on the other side of the puck too.”

When the Oilers won the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 draft, taking Nugent Hopkins was their best option. Not only was he the top prospect, he also provided a nice potential middleman to winger Taylor Hall, who was the top pick in the 2010 draft.

Though Nugent-Hopkins gave the Oilers hope that he would be a franchise center in his first year, that season his points came almost too easily and was never forced to work on his overall game. This eventually led to some struggles for him after that season.

“It’s hard for young players – the first overall picks – that come out of junior. They’re counted on to play 30 minutes a night sometimes and they get to stay on the ice as long as they want. I’m not saying Nuge did these things but the lifeline in junior goes through those dominant guys and they get to produce offensively at will and sometimes they cut corners and cheat and do things like that. Nuge has become a much more complete player,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. “I’m not insinuating Nuge was doing all those things in junior or was he doing them here in pro. But when you’re one of those top three or four picks – you don’t necessarily get cart blanche but you get to play with a much, much longer leash in junior.”

Nugent-Hopkins also never had a consistent voice telling him where to improve. In his rookie season he had Tom Renney as a head coach. In his second season Ralph Krueger was the Oilers’ bench boss. Then Dallas Eakins became the coach in Nugent-Hopkins third year in the league.

In the center’s fourth season, the Oilers fired Eakins and then Nugent-Hopkins had Craig MacTavish and Todd Nelson coaching the team at points. That season Nugent-Hopkins had 56 points in 76 games, which was fine but still not at the same pace of his rookie season. Following his first season, Nugent-Hopkins had 136 points in 196 games for 0.73 points per-game, below his 0.84 average in 2011-12.

When McLellan was hired for the 2015-16 season, he tried to work with Nugent-Hopkins to get the player to have a more complete mindset. With McDavid on the team, the Oilers didn’t need Nugent-Hopkins to drive the offense as a top line center. They just needed him to play solid two-way hockey.

Nugent-Hopkins’ first season with McLellan was a work in progress in part because of health. He missed 23 games because of a hand injury and then three games because of a concussion.

This season, Nugent-Hopkins seemed more comfortable with his new role as a shutdown guy with some offensive leanings. He drew a lot of the top defensive match-ups from the other team and averaged 1:43 per-game on the penalty kill – which was second amongst all regular forwards.

“You need to be able to play both ends, especially the way the game has transitioned to being that way and you look at every team that has won, you have to play like that so playing with him, obviously I’ve done the same thing,” said longtime teammate Jordan Eberle. “We’ve really had to change our decision making to play the right way and create offense after.”

While his 43 points in 82 games aren’t the level that was expected of him when he was drafted, his style has helped the Oilers win at a level they haven’t seen in years. After Edmonton’s first-round win over the San Jose Sharks, McLellan pointed out that Nugent-Hopkins’ line, that also includes Eberle and Milan Lucic, did its job by keeping Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Joe Pavelski in check during the series.

“Peter (DeBoer) had his plan, we had ours. Ours wasn’t about getting Connor away from (Marc-Edouard) Vlasic and (Justin) Braun, ours was getting (Nugent-Hopkins) on the ice against (Joe) Pavelski and (Joe Thornton) and Patty Marleau. For the most part, it worked in our favor,” he said.

In the Oilers’ second-round series, he has kept Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf from finding too many open opportunities. In a crucial Game 2 win by Edmonton, Nugent-Hopkins kept Getzlaf and his line off the scoreboard.

“Ryan Getzlaf is one of the best players in the game. If he isn’t in the top-10 I don’t know who is. His size, his strength, his ability to win faceoffs – he’s a big guy to haul around all night,” McLellan said after Game 2. To me Ryan Getzlaf is a very focused player right now so it makes that task even tougher for Nuge and I thought he rose to the occasion.”

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Nugent-Hopkins said he is having more fun now than before in his career. Getting a high amount of points is nice, but he prefers winning games. Nugent-Hopkins has two points in eight games this playoff, but his team is two wins from a Western Conference Final, and this is more important to him.

“Obviously I’ve been on some teams here who have definitely struggled in the past,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “This is my sixth year now and by far this is the best team I’ve been a part of and it’s a lot of fun to go out there and expect to win and have confidence in a group to be able to do that.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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