Prospects

Edmonton Oilers Prospects Roundup: Yevseyev’s season comes to an end

The Edmonton Oilers’ prospects saw plenty of action this past week. Despite some strong individual performances across all leagues, we had to give this week’s spotlight to the end of an incredible season for Nikita Yevseyev. Let’s dive in!


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.


Yevseyev finishes impressive rookie KHL season

Nikita Yevseyev and Ak Bars Kazan lost in the Gagarin Cup Finals to CSKA Moscow in Game 7. After suffering a big hit earlier in the series, Yevseyev returned to action, continuing to be a valuable contributor to Kazan as a teenage rookie.

This clip begins with Yevseyev firing a low shot from the point that is tipped wide. Kazan regains control of the puck, with eventual goal scorer Artyom Galimov working the puck up to the blueline back to Yevseyev. Yevseyev shows poise and awareness in walking the blueline laterally, hoping to open up a shooting lane. Yevseyev uses the space he gained to kick the puck back out to Galimov who has rotated up to the blueline as well. Galimov will eventually fire the puck home, but Yevseyev remains active in the play, activating down towards the net. 

This clip shows us a lot of strong offensive habits from Yevseyev. In a close game, in one of the best leagues in the world, Yevseyev is making plays well beyond his years in his first post draft season. Indisputably, Yevseyev looks to be an early candidate for late round steal of the 2022 NHL Entry Draft.

Yevseyev does not necessarily profile as a top scoring offensive defenceman, but with an awareness like he’s shown here, there is clear evidence of an effective player in this respect. Yevseyev would do well to reprise his role as a regular contributor on a strong KHL blueline next season, and should likely be considered one of the Oilers top prospects on the blueline, if not in general.

This and That

WHL

Jake Chiasson and the Saskatoon Blades lost in the WHL’s Eastern Conference Finals, falling four games to none against the Winnipeg Ice. Although the Blades loaded up at the trade deadline, the Ice are a stacked team including many top rated prospects.

The Blades showed a lot of grit in the playoffs, buoyed by some huge goals from Chiasson. The Ice will face either the Kamloops Blazers or the Seattle Thunderbirds in the WHL finals.

OHL

Matvey Petrov and the North Bay Battalion advanced to the Western Conference Finals against the Peterborough Petes, where the series is tied at two games apiece.

The Battalion break the puck up the ice with Petrov on the far wall. The breakout pass is on target, but bounces off of teammate Kyle Jackson’s stick. Petrov is there to find the loose puck, breaking in over the Pete’s blueline. Petrov initiates a clever give and go with Jackson, cutting to the middle and leaving a drop pass. Weaving inside and towards the net, Petrov does well to gain centre lane positioning, presenting his stick as an option, and making no mistake in finding the back of the net.

Petrov has the skill to collect points from the outside, but to continue to excel at higher levels he will need to be willing and able to operate in the middle of the ice as he does here. At such a crucial point in his final Junior season, this is exactly what we are hoping to see from Petrov. 

USHL

Shane Lachance and the Youngstown Phantoms won their best of three opening round series against the Cedar Rapids Roughriders. Lachance was held pointless in the two-game sweep, but will have the chance to add to his point totals in the next round against the Chicago Steel.

The Steel are the top seed in the USHL’s Eastern Conference, not to mention one of the more prolific developmental programs in all of Junior hockey, and will be the heavy favourites. 

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).

  1. Matvey Petrov 37.9 (1)
  2. Dylan Holloway 35.5 (2)
  3. Maxim Beryozkin 33.0 (3)
  4. Raphael Lavoie 31.1 (4)
  5. Patrik Puistola 24.8 (5)

Overall regular season totals for Oilers’ prospects

Forwards

PlayerTeamLeagueGPGATPPPGPIM+/-NHLeLeagueNHLe
Justin Bailey (RW/LW)Bakersfield CondorsAHL551813310.5640-5AHL22.3
Tyler Benson (LW)Bakersfield CondorsAHL40517220.5529-6AHL21.9
Carl Berglund (C)Hockey East411215270.66127Hockey East24.2
Maxim Beryozkin (RW/LW)KHL611022320.52227KHL33.0
Jake Chiasson (C/RW)WHL702038580.8326-15WHL20.6
Maxim Denezhkin (C)VHL39813210.54901VHL17.8
Seth Griffith (C/RW)Bakersfield CondorsAHL691741580.8432-12AHL33.5
James Hamblin (LW/C)Bakersfield CondorsAHL491016260.5314-1AHL21.1
Dylan Holloway (LW/C)Bakersfield CondorsAHL96280.8941AHL35.5
Mattias Janmark (C/W)Bakersfield CondorsAHL4224123AHL39.9
Klim Kostin (LW/RW)Bakersfield CondorsAHL92240.4415-4AHL17.5
Shane Lachance (LW)Youngstown PhantomsUSHL583220520.94713USHL19.9
Raphaël Lavoie (C/RW)Bakersfield CondorsAHL582419430.74419AHL29.5
Jeremias Lindewall (RW/LW)Östersunds IKHockeyAllsvenskan352460.1712-16HockeyAllsvenskan5.0
Brad Malone (C/LW)Bakersfield CondorsAHL38217190.5263AHL11.5
Tomas Mazura (C)St. Lawrence Univ.NCAA2839120.4382ECAC17.1
Greg McKegg (C/W)Bakersfield CondorsAHL65713200.31626AHL10.0
Matvei Petrov (RW/LW)North Bay BattalionOHL652766931.433231OHL37.9
Noah Philp (C)Bakersfield CondorsAHL671618340.51611AHL20.3
Patrik Puistola (RW/LW)JukuritLiiga601624400.6712-8Liiga24.8
Carter Savoie (LW)Bakersfield CondorsAHL4483110.2518-17AHL10.0
Devin Shore (C)Bakersfield CondorsAHL5235101AHL39.9
Tyler Tullio (C/RW)Bakersfield CondorsAHL601313260.43183AHL17.1
Joel Määttä (C)Univ. of VermontNCAA3677140.3918-10Hockey East12.6

Defencemen

PlayerTeamLeagueGPGATPPPGPIM+/-NHLeLeagueNHLe
Philip Broberg (D)Bakersfield CondorsAHL72240.570-2AHL22.7
Jason Demers (D)Bakersfield CondorsAHL55018180.3375-7AHL8.2
Vincent Desharnais (D)Bakersfield CondorsAHL130220.15191AHL3.7
Cam Dineen (D)AHL66641470.7114-8AHL28.3
Philip Kemp (D)Bakersfield CondorsAHL68613190.28499AHL11.2
Luca Münzenberger (D)Univ. of VermontNCAA280550.1824-9Hockey East5.8
Markus Niemeläinen (D)Bakersfield CondorsAHL282570.25161AHL10.0
Maximus Wanner (D)Moose Jaw WarriorsWHL44822300.684523WHL16.8
Nikita Yevseyev (D)Ak Bars KazanKHL485270.15117KHL9.9

Goalies

PlayerTeamLeagueGPGAASV%
Olivier RodrigueBakersfield CondorsAHL282.80.91
Calvin PickardBakersfield CondorsAHL362.80.909
Samuel JonssonRögle BK J20J20 Nationell272.650.902
Ryan Fantitotals40
Fort Wayne KometsECHL323.390.896

Photo from @hcakbars on Twitter

Gregory Babinski

twitter: @axiomsofice

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