The Edmonton Oilers’ prospects saw plenty of action this past week. With a limited amount of games across all leagues, we had to give this week’s spotlight to the mercurial Raphael Lavoie. Let’s dive right into it!
Welcome to the TOR Edmonton Oilers prospect update. Each week, we’ll take a dive into how the Oilers’ prospects have done in their respective leagues. We have defined a prospect as a skater who has played fewer than 65 NHL games, and is younger than 25 years of age. All data is from EliteProspects. We also use an NHLe calculator built by Christian Roatis (@Croatis) which is used to estimate a player’s equivalent point total in the NHL based on how they are performing in their respective league. The calculator uses the difficulty of the given league combined with the ease at which a player puts up points to determine the NHLe.
It might be a bit dramatic to say that time is running out for Raphael Lavoie, but things have not exactly gone swimmingly for the 2019 second round pick since his draft year.
A big body with speed and skill, Lavoie can shoot and protect the puck quite well. There’s a lot to like about the raw talent, but the application has been the issue. Now in his third AHL season, Lavoie has continued to produce in bunches, often going long stretches without many points in between.
Across his time in the AHL, Lavoie has maintained a pace near 0.5 points per game. Though he had a great 2020–21 season in Sweden in the Allsvenskan, the lack of production does not inspire much confidence that Lavoie is progressing towards an NHL spot. Perhaps Bakersfield does not agree with his game.
All that said, Lavoie finally put together his first explosion of production this season, scoring two goals and four points in the five games since our last prospects report. The tools will always be there, meaning if Lavoie can put together a strong and consistent stretch he will shoot up the Edmonton Oilers proverbial prospect ranking.
It’s been yet another quiet start to the season for Lavoie, who often seems lost in the shuffle during the fall. Like last season, early January has shown signs of life from Lavoie, with the talented winger scoring in bunches once more.
In this clip we see Lavoie buzzing around the outside, working a give and go, following up his shot before firing the block home.
This is a fantastic seam pass from Lavoie, delivering the puck with accuracy and pace. Carter Savoie blasts the one timer home. Both players need to produce offence to earn an NHL call up, so seeing results like this on the power play is encouraging.
Here we see Lavoie get some good speed, joining into the rush late. The pass is right on the money, but Lavoie shows a lot of skill on getting the one-knee one timer off in stride. Even with the cross ice movement from the pass, it shows a lot that Lavoie was able to beat the goalie from distance as well. These are the skills that give Lavoie a lot to work with, earning himself supporters even through his inconsistent production.
This and that
AHL
The first AHL defenceman to ten goals this season, Michael Kesselring continues to bulge the twine. The shot, skating, and instinct are all there in this clip, corralling the blocked shot, continuing his path towards the net, and beating the goalie clean.
Once again, the skating and the shooting. Kesselring has both the power and the wherewithal to take off, leading the rush out of his own zone. Without any hesitation Kesselring fires the shot, beating the goalie clean.
Olivier Rodrigue stays square, handling the multiple chances off this rush with composure, as well as securing the rebound, eventually.
Rodrigue continued his terrific play this season, flashing the leather with poise off this two-on-one chance.
Philip Kemp is not the first prospect Oilers fans go to check on, but this is a nice clapper from the defenceman. A 23-year-old right shot, Kemp has an outside shot at working his way into the NHL.
Kemp proves that his goal was no fluke. I can’t believe it’s not replay!
KHL
Nikita Yevseyev is number 49, on the third defence pair. Playing a regular role in the KHL is impressive in his draft +1 season, let alone in a key role.
OHL
We have not seen as much scoring off the rush from Matvey Petrov this season, but here we see him conduct a three-on-one nicely. After gaining the zone, Petrov dishes a nice pass on the backhand before opening up for a one timer, making no mistake with a yawning net.
Another sweet pass from Petrov, who takes the puck off the wall to middle ice before making a tight angle pass to the net front. The willingness to go to middle ice and refined playmaking skills are exactly what we should hope to see from the winger, building out from his speed and shot.
NHLe Leaderboard
NHLe is a metric used to estimate a player’s offensive output at the NHL level from their point totals in their respective league. Here are the Oilers’ current top five (bracketed numbers denote movement from the previous week).
- Matvey Petrov 35.8 (2)
- Reid Schaefer 30.5 (3)
- Maxim Beryozkin 30.3 (4)
- Tyler Benson 25.5 (1)
- James Hamblin 23.9 (5)
Overall regular season totals for Oilers’ prospects
Forwards
| Player | Team | League | GP | G | A | TP | PPG | PIM | +/- | NHLeLeague | NHLe |
| Tyler Benson (LW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 11 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 0.64 | 6 | -5 | AHL | 25.5 |
| Maxim Beryozkin (LW/RW) | totals | 42 | 7 | 14 | 21 | 0.5 | 14 | 11 | totals | ||
| Lokomotiv Yaroslavl | KHL | 33 | 4 | 11 | 15 | 0.46 | 10 | 9 | KHL | 30.3 | |
| Xavier Bourgault (C) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 29 | 8 | 7 | 15 | 0.52 | 8 | -2 | ECAC | 11.9 |
| Skyler Brind’Amour (C) | Quinnipiac Univ. | NCAA | 19 | 8 | 7 | 15 | 0.79 | 4 | 8 | ||
| Jake Chiasson (C/RW) | Brandon Wheat Kings | WHL | 34 | 9 | 15 | 24 | 0.71 | 10 | -22 | WHL | 17.6 |
| Jason Demers (D) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 28 | 0 | 11 | 11 | 0.39 | 55 | -5 | AHL | 15.5 |
| Maxim Denezhkin (C) | totals | 23 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 0.52 | 74 | -2 | totals | ||
| Seth Griffith (C/RW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 29 | 9 | 17 | 26 | 0.9 | 18 | -6 | AHL | 35.9 |
| James Hamblin (LW/C) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 15 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 0.6 | 2 | -1 | AHL | 23.9 |
| Mattias Janmark (C/W) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | AHL | 39.9 |
| Klim Kostin (LW/RW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 9 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0.44 | 15 | -4 | AHL | 17.5 |
| Shane Lachance (LW) | Youngstown Phantoms | USHL | 26 | 17 | 6 | 23 | 0.89 | 29 | 2 | USHL | 19.7 |
| Raphaël Lavoie (C/RW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 18 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 0.39 | 10 | -5 | AHL | 15.5 |
| Jeremias Lindewall (RW/LW) | Östersunds IK | HockeyAllsvenskan | 19 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0.21 | 6 | -10 | ECAC | 4.8 |
| Brad Malone (C/LW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 16 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 0.5 | 20 | 0 | AHL | 19.9 |
| Tomas Mazura (C) | St. Lawrence Univ. | NCAA | 15 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 0.4 | 4 | 1 | Hockey East | 12.9 |
| Greg McKegg (C/W) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 29 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 0.21 | 38 | 0 | Hockey East | 6.8 |
| Joel Määttä (C) | Univ. of Vermont | NCAA | 20 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 0.35 | 16 | -2 | ||
| Matvei Petrov (RW/LW) | North Bay Battalion | OHL | 34 | 12 | 34 | 46 | 1.35 | 22 | 20 | OHL | 35.8 |
| Noah Philp (C) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 28 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 0.18 | 17 | 3 | AHL | 7.2 |
| Carter Savoie (LW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 22 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 0.32 | 8 | -6 | AHL | 12.8 |
| Reid Schaefer (LW) | Seattle Thunderbirds | WHL | 22 | 15 | 12 | 27 | 1.23 | 36 | 11 | WHL | 30.5 |
| Tyler Tullio (C/RW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 24 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 0.33 | 6 | 2 | AHL | 13.2 |
Defence
| Player | Team | League | GP | G | A | TP | PPG | PIM | +/- | NHLeLeague | NHLe |
| Philip Broberg (D) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 7 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0.57 | 0 | -2 | AHL | 22.7 |
| Vincent Desharnais (D) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 11 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.09 | 19 | 0 | AHL | 3.6 |
| Philip Kemp (D) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 29 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 0.38 | 17 | 3 | AHL | 15.1 |
| Michael Kesselring (D) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 29 | 10 | 3 | 13 | 0.45 | 30 | -2 | AHL | 17.9 |
| Slater Koekkoek (D) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | AHL | |
| Luca Münzenberger (D) | Univ. of Vermont | NCAA | 16 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0.31 | 18 | -5 | ||
| Markus Niemeläinen (D) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 10 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0.2 | 6 | 2 | AHL | 8.0 |
| Maximus Wanner (D) | Moose Jaw Warriors | WHL | 28 | 6 | 18 | 24 | 0.86 | 31 | 21 | WHL | 21.3 |
| Nikita Yevseyev (D) | totals | 39 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 0.15 | 13 | 9 | totals | ||
| Bars Kazan | VHL | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | VHL | 0.0 | |
| Bars Kazan | KHL | 38 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 0.16 | 11 | 7 |
Goaltending
| Player | Team | League | GP | GAA | SV% |
| Olivier Rodrigue | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 17 | 2.98 | 0.911 |
| Samuel Jonsson | Rögle BK J20 | J20 Nationell | 17 | 2.26 | 0.908 |
| Ryan Fanti | totals | 13 | |||
| Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 7 | 3.46 | 0.895 | |
| Calvin Pickard | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 8 | 3.12 | 0.899 |
Which prospects are you most excited about? Let us know below in the comments or on social media.
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