EDMONTON — Dear hockey fan: Just so you know.
Troy Stecher doesn’t give a rip what you think about him, and he certainly doesn’t care if Oilers fans are talking about him this fall.
“I don’t really care if they are if they’re not,” said the 30-year-old journeyman. “People have a predetermined opinion on what I am, and that’s fine. At the end of the day, I know what I bring.
“That’s a player who provides energy for a team, winning battles that I probably shouldn’t. I think I have good feet and I break the puck out. Can move the puck well.”
This is the story of a small (five-foot-10, 185 lbs.) 494-game veteran defenceman with a big chip on his shoulder, who is being handed the ham sandwich in the battle for a job on the Edmonton blue line. He showed up in Edmonton to find himself behind newbie Ty Emberson, who has played a grand total of 30 NHL games.
Emberson is the shiny new toy, and he gets the first training camp reps with Darnell Nurse on the second pairing. Meanwhile, Stecher is coming off of late-season ankle surgery; last year’s Christmas present that’s been busted and shoved in a drawer.
“Just another day for me,” Stecher said of being overlooked. “I’ve experienced it before in different organizations.”
He’s actually been on both sides of the coin, breaking in with the 2016-17 Vancouver Canucks after going undrafted in the NHL Entry Draft.
“My first year in Vancouver. I probably was given way more opportunity than I deserved coming out of college as an undrafted guy. They kind of gifted me the power play with Hank and Danny (Sedin), and that was the only time I ever played the power play in the NHL.”
Eight seasons later, Stecher arrived at Oilers camp to see Emberson installed as Nurse’s partner on the second pair. The decision isn’t final, but for now, six-foot-two, 195-pound Emberson gets the nod, and it’s likely his job to lose.
“I’m coming off ankle surgery, and I’m sure there’s a lot of question marks behind that,” Stecher said. “Throughout my career, there’s probably been a lot of question marks about myself as a player, being a smaller defenceman that’s not strictly offensive.
“So my mindset is to come in and earn a job, earn a roster spot. Just like it has been the past eight years.”
It’s a small club, that group of defencemen who are Stecher’s size but don’t light it up offensively. He’s a 10-point guy who has managed to play almost 500 games, somehow.
“I don’t care,” Stecher said. “People are going to have their opinion and I’m going to have the belief in myself and the confidence of my ability. I’ll do my job.”
And how, exactly, would he describe that process?
“I’m not a big bruiser, so sometimes I might not engage in a physical one-on-one battle, knowing I’m going to lose it. But I’m going to have full inside position and wait for support to come.
“Over the years, I’ve had to develop a higher I.Q. on the ice.”
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Emberson arrived from San Jose in the deal that saw Cody Ceci head to Northern California. He grew up in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, 90 minutes east of Minneapolis, the son of a marine power sports dealer.
“(His father) sells boats, jet skis, four-wheelers, four-by-fours… He likes to say he sells toys for adults in northern Wisconsin,” the 24-year-old said. “I grew up on the lakes, grew up playing hockey, grew up on the backyard rinks with all my friends.”
Somehow in just 30 games last season, Emberson posted a minus-4 on a Sharks team that was dead last in the league with a goals differential of minus-150.
He knows he landed in the right place: “It’s an unreal opportunity for me here,” Emberson said.
“I’m just a solid two-way defender. I think I can skate well, and I think I use my physicality as an asset of mine, but I can help out on the PK. I can move pucks to the forwards and just be a consistent defender that people can count on.”
The job is his to lose. But Stecher won’t be far away if Emberson falters, not to mention an expected pick-up at the March deadline that could well send one of these two to the press box thereafter.
Emberson feels like he belongs. “Just being able to step into this season and know that I have played in this league before, and I’m not the new guy.”
Stecher, meanwhile, has seen this movie before.
“Obviously, based on the pairings throughout camp, I have my work cut out for me to prove to the coaching staff that I deserve to play.”
Let the drama unfold.
