The Edmonton Oilers traded for the rights to a free agent defenceman, and got him signed to a two-year deal, paying a premium for a shorter term contract. Numbers Game looks at the Oilers inking Nikita Nikitin. The Oilers Get: D Nikita Nikitin. Nikitin, 28, played a career-high 66 games last season, an indication that hes still trying to establish his place in the league. A couple of years ago, in 2011-2012, Nikitin contributed a career-best 32 points in 54 games for Columbus (after seven scoreless games with St. Louis to start the year), playing a career-high 23:12 per game for the season putting up strong relative possession numbers while facing high-quality opposition, while frequently paired with veteran Fedor Tyutin. Thats the Nikitin that the Oilers have to hope they are acquiring. In 2012-2013, Nikitins role was decreased somewhat, and while he still logged 21:12 per game, Nikitin was then surpassed on the depth chart last season by rookie Ryan Murray, leaving Nikitin to play 17:07 per game on the third pair. Playing on that third pair didnt bring ideal results, as Nikitin was a little below break-even in possession terms, but if there is reason to hold out hope for Nikitin, it may be that his with-or-without you numbers arent bad over the past three seasons. Among the 16 skaters with whom he played at least 300 5-on-5 minutes over those three seasons, Nikitin had better possession numbers apart than 11 of those skaters, but that relative effectiveness has decreased in the past two seasons, to the point that in 2013-2014, Nikitin had better possession stats apart from just three of the 13 skaters with whom he played more than 150 5-on-5 minutes. What this would seem to indicate is that Nikitin, who has good size, can skate and handle the puck a bit, isnt necessarily one to carry the play. He could be a useful complementary player and presumably Oilers Senior VP of Hockey Operations Scott Howson (who acquired Nikitin as GM in Columbus) is a fan, but there is risk in bringing in a player with falling possession numbers to a team that already ranked 28th in Fenwick Close (unblocked shot attempts during 5-on-5, score within one goal in first two periods and tied in third period). Its not as though Nikitins play in the past couple seasons indicates that he would improve the results no matter with whom he is partnered and its reasonable to wonder if the Oilers have the right personnel to get positive results with Nikitin on the ice. If the Jeff Petry and Martin Marincin pairing goes ahead, then perhaps Nikitin gets a chance alongside Andrew Ference. Maybe that somehow works out and allows the Oilers some time to develop their young defencemen. Its entirely possible that it wont work out, though, and the short-term nature of the contract suggests that both sides recognize that risk. Signed to a two-year, $9-million deal, Nikitin will be well-compensated, particularly if he cant stick in the Oilers top four, but the downside of a two-year deal is limited compared to the longer term that will be available to other free agent defencemen. The Blue Jackets Get: A fifth-round pick. Since the Blue Jackets werent going to bring Nikitin back, getting any asset in return is a plus. The fifth-round pick, 137th overall, belonged to Columbus originally and was traded to Edmonton last season to acquire D Nick Schultz. A fifth-round pick doesnt bring a lot of value, but its something. From 1990 through 2009, just under 15% of the picks between 121 and 150 played at least 100 NHL games, so there is a little better than a one-in-seven chance of netting an NHL player. While its reasonable for the Oilers to have hope Nikitin can perform in a top-four role, it could be telling that the Blue Jackets would let Nikitin depart as a free agent. Mabye they simply didnt want to pay that kind of money to a third pair defenceman, when they have younger, cheaper options (David Savard, Dalton Prout, Tim Erixon) available and thats fair, but current Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen was the Blues Director of Scouting when St. Louis picked Nikitin in the fifth round in 2004. Lots can change over time and the Blue Jackets arent likely to regret letting Nikitin go, even if he works out well for the Oilers. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. 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Custom Air Force 1 Uk . "Its way better than running gassers, thats for sure," the inside linebacker said Monday, when the Chargers started their third and final week of organized team activities, which are practices in shorts, jerseys and helmets.SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Now that the Los Angeles Kings have made it halfway to a historic comeback, the task actually seems even more difficult now that they know how close they are. Jonathan Quick made 30 saves to shut out San Jose for the fourth time in his career in the post-season and the Kings staved off elimination for a second straight game by beating the Sharks 3-0 on Saturday night in Game 5 of their first-round series. "If anything, it seems a little more daunting because we came this far to get two, now we need to take two more," defenceman Drew Doughty said. "It puts more pressure on us because we can kind of smell it. We cant get ahead of ourselves. We have a lot of work ahead of us." Tyler Toffoli, Anze Kopitar and Jeff Carter scored for the Kings, who have rebounded after losing the first three games of the series. Quick allowed 16 goals in those losses, but once again is starting to look like the goalie who stymied the Sharks in a second-round series a year ago. Antti Niemi allowed three goals on 19 shots and got pulled for the second straight game for the Sharks. Perhaps more importantly, San Jose also lost star defenceman Marc-Edouard Vlasic to an upper-body injury after he was elbowed in the head by Jarret Stoll late in the first period. "We did a lot of good things for 3 1/2 games. Tonight was red rotten," coach Todd McLellan said. "Thats simply put. When we started the series, we talked about leaving games behind, closing the book on it. Theres no doubt well look at it. We have to improve. But its put in the bank and well move on." They may have to do it without Vlasic. He is questionable for Game 6 on Monday night in Los Angeles as the Kings are looking to become just the fourth NHL team to overcome a 3-0 deficit to win a playoff series. They finally broke through in San Jose after losing five playoff games here the past two seasons and 12 of 13 games here overall. But they will need to win here again to complete the comeback as Game 7 will be in San Jose on Wednesday, if necessary. The Kings came out looking like a desperate team and dominated from the start against the listless Sharks, who were unable to feed off the energy from a frenzied crowd hoping to see a fierce rival get eliminated. "We had a good start,"; Quick said.dddddddddddd "We got a few shifts and we just tried to keep building on it. They came with a lot, too. They had a big pushback. Its not easy to win against this team. Theyre a great team for a reason." Los Angeles controlled the game on the ice, the shot clock and the scoreboard to take a 2-0 lead in the first period and mostly silence the crowd. The Kings opened the scoring when Tanner Pearson outraced Vlasic to a loose puck and fed a rushing Toffoli, who patiently skated around James Sheppard and beat Niemi with a shot from the slot to make it 1-0. The Kings made it 2-0 shortly after Joe Thornton was unable to bat a cross-ice pass from Brent Burns into an empty net. That fueled a 3-on-2 rush the other way and Kopitar knocked in a rebound of Dustin Browns shot. "Usually, we have really fast starts in this building and that wasnt the case tonight," Thornton said. "They started faster than us. Really, its a rarity around here. We just have to have better starts. Thats the bottom line." The Sharks responded to a 2-0 deficit in Game 2 that deficit with seven straight goals, but it was quickly clear that would not repeat when Carter banked a shot off Brad Stuarts skate for a power-play goal 22 seconds into the second period to end Niemis night. Alex Stalock came in and stopped 22 shots, but it was too late to save the Sharks in this game although it could make McLellan consider starting him in Game 6. "Well have to make some decisions throughout our lineup at every position because we werent obviously near good enough tonight," McLellan said. San Jose finally showed some life late in the second period, but by then Quick was on his game, robbing Brent Burns with a pad save on the power play late in the period. "I thought tonight was probably our best defensive game so far this series," Doughty said. "We dont want Quicky to have to stand on his head every night. We want to play well in front of him. We want to do things to make it a little easier for him. I thought we did that tonight but when he was called upon he was huge." NOTES: Niemi has been pulled four times in 38 playoff starts for San Jose, all against Los Angeles. ... Carter has points in nine straight playoff games dating to last season. ' ' '