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 Maxim Beryozkin. 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.
Beryozkin has a productive week
It’s been a big week for Maxim Beryozkin, the talented winger continuing to build on his impressive KHL season. With size, speed, scoring and playmaking talent, as well as a good enough stick to be an effective forechecker, Beryozkin brings a lot of dimensions to the ice.
Beryozkin rotates from the net front to a passing option, delivering a perfect cross crease pass.
Another deft pass from Beryozkin, once again rotating from the net front, delivering a quick no-look turnaround pass.
With his continuing production in the KHL it is quite unlikely that Beryozkin will see any AHL should he make the jump over to North America after his current contract is up.
Usually, Beryozkin is creating highlights involving higher speed, attacking laterally into dangerous ice and finding teammates with seam passes. It is good to see him apply his skills in other ways.
This and That
AHL
The Bakersfield Condors played two games this week, going 1–1–0 with Calvin Pickard starting both games, and playing quite well. Though one can hardly extrapolate NHL readiness from AHL save percentages alone, it does seem positive that both Olivier Rodrigue and Ryan Fanti have held up comparably to Pickard, a goalie with some NHL experience.
Elsewhere on the Condors, Raphael Lavoie continued his string of production. Since being united on a line with Brad Malone and Justin Bailey, Lavoie has taken off. We’ve seen booms of production from Lavoie before, but perhaps his current play will have a greater staying power.
Bailey missed most of the first half of the season with injury, but has played well enough upon his return to earn a contract with the NHL club. Placed on waivers, essentially reassigned to Bakersfield, no doubt his positive effect on Lavoie’s play is a big reason for the move.
Here we see our three musketeers with some great passing on a rush, illustrating their fast chemistry together.
Another rush chance facilitated by Bailey’s speed, Lavoie does well to clean up the ensuing mayhem in the crease.
These are not exactly jaw dropping highlights from Lavoie’s perspective, but having some touch at the net front needs to be an area that Lavoie is able to contribute in if he is to push for an NHL job.
James Hamblin returned to the AHL, failing to gain much traction with the Oilers. It is good to see him make an immediate impact for the Condors who have been reeling, quickly falling out of the playoff race. Vincent Desharnais does well to find him with the shot-pass for an easy tip in.
Noah Philp added a goal this week, showing off a good shot, scoring from the high slot. With a multitude of flashier names in the Oilers system, Philp is often forgotten by fans projecting the future.
Though he remains a long ways off from an NHL call up, Philp’s profile can continue to rise with more of this shooting talent.
WHL
Max Wanner continued his strong campaign, taking a pass from a top rated prospect in the 2023 NHL draft, Brayden Yager, and firing home a shot from the high slot. Wanner’s willingness to jump up into the play is a fantastic sign for his growing offensive toolkit.
Primarily known as a physical defensive presence, Wanner shows the outline of a greater upside with each offensive highlight. Granted, in his last WHL season Wanner should be at his most dominant, eventually headed off to the professional ranks, and his Moose Jaw Warriors team is quite strong.
Schaefer made very little contributions to the World Juniors
Reid Schaefer did not have much of an impact on the gold medal winning Canada U20 team, playing a limited role deep in the lineup. This fact should not be too concerning for his long-term outlook; if anything, gaining more championship experience and being around other top players can only be seen as a positive.
Another interesting development is that Jets prospect and fellow 2022 first round pick Brad Lambert is likely to join Schaefer’s Seattle Thunderbirds. Adding such a talented centre to the lineup will certainly help Schaefer as well. Lambert was though to have a chance at being a top five pick before his draft year, and like fellow highly rated centre with muted production in the Finnish pro league, Aatu Raty, Lambert fell way too far in his draft.
Were the duo of Schaefer and Lambert put on the same line, the combination might as well bring out the best in both players.
Known more for his shot and scoring skills, this is a fantastic saucer pass from Jake Chiasson.
Much more of the normal from Chiasson, netting a shot from the high slot on the power play.
OHL
We’ve seen something similar from Matvey Petrov before this season, opening up for a one-timer from his weak side in scoring position. Petrov has far too much quality to be left in the open like this.
Would you look at that, another similar looking finish from Petrov from a couple weeks ago.
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 36.8 (1)
- Maxim Beryozkin 31.0 (3)
- Reid Schaefer 29.0 (2)
- Tyler Benson 25.5 (4)
- James Hamblin 25.1 (5)
Overall regular season totals for Oilers’ prospects
Forwards
| Player | Team | League | GP | G | A | TP | PPG | PIM | +/- | NHLeLeague | NHLe |
| Justin Bailey (RW/LW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 17 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 0.59 | 24 | -3 | AHL | 23.5 |
| Tyler Benson (LW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 11 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 0.64 | 6 | -5 | AHL | 25.5 |
| Maxim Beryozkin (LW/RW) | KHL | 36 | 4 | 13 | 17 | 0.49 | 14 | 8 | KHL | 31.0 | |
| Xavier Bourgault (C) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 31 | 8 | 7 | 15 | 0.48 | 8 | -1 | AHL | 19.1 |
| Skyler Brind’Amour (C) | Quinnipiac Univ. | NCAA | 21 | 9 | 9 | 18 | 0.86 | 4 | 12 | ||
| Maxim Denezhkin (C) | totals | 25 | 6 | 7 | 13 | 0.52 | 76 | 0 | totals | ||
| Seth Griffith (C/RW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 31 | 9 | 18 | 27 | 0.87 | 18 | -7 | AHL | 34.7 |
| James Hamblin (LW/C) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 16 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 0.63 | 2 | 0 | AHL | 25.1 |
| 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 | 28 | 17 | 6 | 23 | 0.82 | 29 | 1 | USHL | 18.2 |
| Raphaël Lavoie (C/RW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 20 | 6 | 3 | 9 | 0.45 | 10 | -5 | ECAC | 10.3 |
| Jeremias Lindewall (RW/LW) | Östersunds IK | HockeyAllsvenskan | 20 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0.2 | 6 | -11 | HockeyAllsvenskan | |
| Brad Malone (C/LW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 18 | 1 | 9 | 10 | 0.56 | 22 | -2 | Hockey East | 18.0 |
| Tomas Mazura (C) | St. Lawrence Univ. | NCAA | 17 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 0.47 | 4 | 1 | Hockey East | 15.1 |
| Greg McKegg (C/W) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 30 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 0.2 | 40 | 0 | AHL | 8.0 |
| Joel Määttä (C) | Univ. of Vermont | NCAA | 21 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 0.33 | 16 | -2 | ||
| Matvei Petrov (RW/LW) | North Bay Battalion | OHL | 36 | 13 | 37 | 50 | 1.39 | 22 | 22 | OHL | 36.8 |
| Noah Philp (C) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 30 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 0.2 | 17 | 3 | AHL | 8.0 |
| Carter Savoie (LW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 23 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 0.3 | 8 | -5 | AHL | 12.0 |
| Reid Schaefer (LW) | Seattle Thunderbirds | WHL | 23 | 15 | 12 | 27 | 1.17 | 38 | 11 | WHL | 29.0 |
| Tyler Tullio (C/RW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 26 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 0.31 | 8 | 1 | AHL | 12.4 |
| Maximus Wanner (D) | Moose Jaw Warriors | WHL | 31 | 7 | 19 | 26 | 0.84 | 33 | 23 | WHL | 20.8 |
| Nikita Yevseyev (D) | totals | 42 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 0.14 | 13 | 8 | totals | ||
| Bars Kazan | VHL | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |||
| Ak Bars Kazan | KHL | 41 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 0.15 | 11 | 6 | KHL | 9.9 |
Defencemen
| 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 |
| Jake Chiasson (C/RW) | Brandon Wheat Kings | WHL | 37 | 10 | 17 | 27 | 0.73 | 16 | -20 | WHL | 18.1 |
| Jason Demers (D) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 28 | 0 | 11 | 11 | 0.39 | 55 | -5 | AHL | 15.5 |
| Vincent Desharnais (D) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 13 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0.15 | 19 | 1 | AHL | 6.0 |
| Philip Kemp (D) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 31 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 0.36 | 17 | 2 | AHL | 14.3 |
| 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 | 17 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0.29 | 18 | -5 | ||
| Markus Niemeläinen (D) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 10 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0.2 | 6 | 2 | AHL | 8.0 |
Goalies
| Player | Team | League | GP | GAA | SV% |
| Olivier Rodrigue | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 17 | 2.98 | 0.911 |
| Samuel Jonsson | Rögle BK J20 | J20 Nationell | 19 | 2.33 | 0.909 |
| Calvin Pickard | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 10 | 2.89 | 0.909 |
| Ryan Fanti | totals | 14 | |||
| Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 7 | 3.46 | 0.895 |
