23/24 Player Profile: Mattias Janmark

Last Year

Mattias Janmark began last season in a spot of bother. He was fresh off signing a one year $1.25 million contract halfway through the offseason. Janmark was excited to come join the Oilers and hopefully go deep into the playoffs with his new club. The problem however, was that the Oilers had spent too much money and Janmark’s $1.25 mil was too much for the team and could be buried in the minors to save the team money so the could be cap compliant for opening night. The Oiler’s needed someone cheaper.

Janmark was a cap casualty and was sent to the minors to start the season. He only ended up playing in 4 games for the Condors, scoring 4 points to prove that wasn’t the spot for him.

After Evander Kane went down with injury on Nov 8 vs Tampa Bay, he was placed on LTIR which opened up some cap space for Janmark to make his long awaited Oilers debut on Nov 10 vs Carolina. Janmark filled in a lot of needs for the Oilers in their bottom 6.

He immediately became one of the Oilers top penalty killers, averaging 1:57 TOI short handed, good for 1st among Oilers forwards by the end of the season. He brought some stability to the group that was struggling early on in the season to keep the puck out of the net on the PK. It was amongst the lowest in the league to start the season and Janmark helped bring the PK back to something resembling acceptable (Mattias Ekholm also helped in that regard).

Janmark ended up staying the whole season after his recall, playing in a total of 66 games, scoring 10-15-25, bang on his career averages. He was an ultimate utility guy for the Oilers filling in any where that was needed, he brought stability to the bottom 6, he helped on the PK, and added another steady veteran presence to a young Oilers team.

After the season finished, Janmark re-signed with the Oilers on a one year $1mil deal. On a team strapped for cash, that little bit of savings for the Oilers could go along way for Janmark trying to avoid being a cap casualty again to start the season.

This Season

I think we can expect more of the same from Janmark this season. He is going to be expected to play 4th line minutes, contribute on the PK and fill in when players inevitably go down with injury.

He will be turning 31 in December which is by no means over the hill for the modern day NHL player, maybe in the next two to three seasons we could expect to start seeing a decline. For now though the Oilers know exactly what they are going to get out of Janmark.

If things go right for Janmark he should once again be the Oilers top forward in shorthanded TOI, on a penalty kill that will have him and Ekholm in the mix for a full season so it should mean better results. Helping shore up a glaring need for the team last year.

Janmark might not blow anyone away with his skill, but he is dependable and reliable, which exactly why the Oilers wanted to bring him back. Points wise, he should be right back in his wheel house, though I expect him to be able to stay in the lineup for the full 82 games, which hasn’t been the case for him over the last few years, so keeping that in mind, he may be able to post a few more numbers than he did last season.