Edmonton Oilers Prospect Talk: “You’ll Notice Him When He Irritates the Flames.”

This is your TL/DR (too long, didn’t read) summary post where excerpts are taken from the best of the best when it comes to Edmonton Oilers blogs. BLH gives you his two cents on the latest posts being published in the Oilogosphere! Including those from Lowetide.ca, The Athletic, Oilersnation, The Cult of Hockey, Copper N Blue, Oil on Whyte, and more!

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Lowetide.ca

ROOKIE CAMP ROSTER 2021

(LT’s listed all the attendees of the 2021 Oilers rookie camp with a blurb attached to each. I’m just going to list off the ones you may not be familiar with from each position because if you’re reading a post from this site, you’ve probably got an idea of who the more notable prospects are. Please click the link above to read the whole post!)

G Ethan Kruger. Local goalie from Sherwood Park, he had a dandy season for the Brandon Wheat Kings (16, 2.30 .915) in 2020-21. He turns 20 later in September and is a solid prospect.
RD Max Wanner. He’s 18, 6.03, 185 and apparently passes the puck extremely well and can skate. This is the reason these are important. Like Kesselring when he arrived after his draft (for summer orientation) we need to get a glimpse of him. We don’t know what we don’t know.
RC Drew Englot. He’s 18, and a big forward (6.03, 190) who plays a gritty style and disrupts opponents. He scored 12 goals in the dub two years ago but was unable build on it last season with the Regina Pats. An intriguing player, you’ll notice him when he irritates the Flames.
L Devin Brosseau. He’s 24, and 6.01, 203. A skilled college man, he posted decent numbers in four seasons of ECAC hockey at Clarkson University. In 2020-21, he posted 7-14-21 in 34 games in the Austrian league, and then returned to North America to go 4-1-5 in 27 AHL games. Nothing about his resume suggests he will be an AHL 20+ goal scorer. Has AHL deal.
R Dino Kambeitz. He’s 21, and a load (6.02, 212) with some goal-scoring acumen. He has scored 22 goals in 73 games as a member of the Lethbridge Hurricanes over the last two seasons. He has an AHL contract for the coming season.

BLH’s Thoughts: By the sounds of it, Holland has brought in some tougher skaters for rookie camp. I mean, this happens every year, so we shouldn’t be all that surprised by the invites. Max Wanner and Drew Englot catch my eye from LT’s mini-scouting reports, so those two will be the ones I might be paying a bit closer attention to during those rookie games vs. Calgary next week.

The Cult of Hockey (McCurdy)

“Balance” is the watchword for Edmonton Oilers prospect pool in 2021

What’s the defining characteristic of the 2021 group of prospects? To me, it’s that most welcome of words, namely “balance”. For the first time in quite a while, the Oilers have promising youngsters at all six positions in more or less equal numbers.
As recently as 2019, the year Ken Holland took over as Oilers GM and immediately drafted yet another defenceman (Philip Broberg) in the first round, the Oilers depth chart was wonky right through the top 22, never mind the top 12.
Just two years later that imbalance has largely been addressed. The top 22 now consists of 11 attackers, 8 defenders and 3 netminders, pretty close to the 3:2:1 ratio that occurs on the ice.
The biggest shortcoming remains at centre, though fortunately the top two ranked forward prospects both play that demanding position. Bear in mind that pivot is a major position of strength on the big club and projects to remain so for years to come.
After a fallow year in which the Oilers had zero rookies who played as many as 20 games, better results are both needed and expected in 2021-22. Several of these youngsters are in line to graduate, including Bouchard, McLeod and Tyler Benson, while several others should at least get a cup of big league coffee.

BLH’s Thoughts: Two years! Two years is all it took for Ken Holland to come in and right this part of the ship and that’s WITH him trading a bunch of picks at the deadline.

It’s amazing what happens when you don’t rush prospects into the NHL, isn’t it? They get to develop on their own time frame and it allows them to tell the club when they’re ready to be promoted.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit OCD about balance in the prospect cupboard regardless of who’s on the pro roster. I like to see teams build out their development system almost as if it’s a separate team altogether.

What’s most fun about following Edmonton’s draft strategy now is that they’ll really need to do their homework on the guys they draft. Not that they don’t do that, all I’m saying is that when a club is selecting in the bottom quarter of each round, the guaranteed NHL players aren’t necessarily there like they are in the top-10.

It could behoove the club to invest a little more in its scouting staff a bit now to get that extra edge as the organization trends into a Stanley Cup contender.

Daily Goal Horn

Sharks looking to keep Hertl

In his latest blog, Elliotte Friedman notes; “word is [GM Doug Wilson] told other teams that it is San Jose’s desire to make this work, and that message will be delivered once Hertl arrives.”
Friedman also reported that the Montreal Canadiens prior to trading for Christian Dvorak spoke with the Sharks about Hertl. Since he is still with the Sharks, it would confirm for me they may want to keep him.

Rangers to name a captain

The Rangers are believed to have narrowed down their choices to Chris Kreider, Jacob Trouba, and Mika Zibanejad. Of the three, Kreider appears to be the favorite. Zibanejad’s looming UFA status will likely play into the decision.

Bridge deal for Brady Tkachuk

The Ottawa Senators and RFA Brady Tkachuk have dominated the rumor space for the last few days. As the two sides continue to work on a new contract, the good news sounds like a deal will get done.
If a long-term deal can’t be worked out, the two sides seem to be ok with getting a bridge deal done before camp.