There has been a lot to track with the Edmonton Oilers NHL club, and even more in the AHL with the Bakersfield Condors, but today we’ll be taking a look at the Oilers prospects outside of these two leagues. Notably we’ll focus in on the Oilers prospects in the OHL, including Brady Stonehouse before taking a look at some standouts across the rest of the Oilers system.
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.
Stonehouse’s well-rounded game in the OHL
Brady Stonehouse turned some heads earlier this season when he earned a contract out of development camp. In his age 19 season, it might be Stonehouse’s last in the OHL, and as such his production becomes a bit less impressive. Though he is an undrafted player, he managed to do enough to earn a deal. He did lead his OHL team in goal scoring last season but is known more for his unrelenting work ethic, stout frame, heavy play style, as well as heavy shot.
Stonehouse receives the pass at the blueline and is instantly looking to shoot. This confidence is vital, but Stonehouse shows is a bit more, curling and dragging, trying to find a lane to get his shot through. Though he misses the net, his teammates are able to score off the carom.
Stonehouse works a give and go, springing his teammate for the breakaway. As an OHLer, Stonehouse has a fairly well rounded game, there is some hockey sense to work with, though assists are not often for him.
We see the previous clips combined in this one. Stonehouse sits by the top of the far side circle ready to shoot. Instead, Stonehouse is able to find a high slot tip with a quality shot-pass.
Earlier this month Stonehouse was named Performer of the Night, after a two-goal, three-point night. These clips show us a lot more of what we should expect from Stonehouse at the next level, getting into the dirty areas. It will be these qualities that can provide Stonehouse a chance to push his way into higher quality leagues.
Other notables in the OHL
Elsewhere in the OHL, Nathaniel Day is the starting goalie for the Flint Firebirds, with 24 of a possible 31 starts so far. The Firebirds are middling, sitting at 0.500 on the season. While Day’s save percentage is hardly anything to write home about, the more important thing is that he maintains the trust of his coaches and teammates, and ultimately hangs onto his role.
Beau Akey is out for the season, having already had surgery.
KHL
Maxim Beryozkin is entering his third season with extensive KHL time, and is on a similar points pace to last season. Of course we’d like to see increased production, but his game is maturing.
Number 72, Beryozkin rotates from the net front to the side, finding space to receive a pass. Immediately Beryozkin takes the puck back to the front, showing off some puck skills in the process. While his initial shot hits the post, his linemates are eventually able to capitalise on the ensuing chaos.
Beryozkin’s play off the rush has always been notable, able to attack laterally, setting up cheeky passes thanks to his shooting threat. Still, the more transferable and sustainable skill at the next level will be seeing more of his work come at the net front.
Elsewhere Nikita Yevseyev is injured, and has bounced between the KHL and the VHL this season. After spending all of last season in the KHL this might seem disappointing, but Yevseyev has been able to show more offence to his game at the lower level. Yevseyev profiles as a far more defensively focused player, yet these signs of life are still appreciated. Yevseyev isn’t afraid to walk into the zone off the blueline, but has made his share of nice neutral zone passes, which might be the more important skill to hone.
SHL
Called up to the Allsvenskan, having appeared in three games for Karlskoga, it is a positive sign in its own right that Samuel Jonsson is in such a strong league at just 19-years-old. He’s still a long way away from being relevant to the Oilers NHL conversations, but it is a good start to his professional career.
NCAA
Copponi’s suspension
While he is having a good season in general, Matt Copponi has had a less than ideal month, including this bad hit that got him suspended.
Lachance’s impressive month
Shane Lachance was a late round pick for the Oilers, and has taken time to reach the NCAA. While a bit older, Lachance is having an impressive rookie season in the league, and his stock should start to rise across Oiler Country because of it. Broadly, Lachance has some similarities to both Raphael Lavoie and Maxim Beryozkin, a big bodied scoring winger with a vast offensive toolkit.
Lachance is ready for a shot on the two-on-one. Though his teammate elects to keep and shoot, Lachance is wise not to turn away from the net front, potting the rebound.
This is much more impressive work from Lachance, once again rewarded for being in the tough ice at the net front. Lachance tips this shot, going well wide, around the goalie and to the back of the net. His size, hand-eye coordination, and nose for the net are all assets.
Flying down the wall, Lachance makes a power move towards the net from the corner. Setting up the defender with a hesitation, Lachance makes a daring and athletic cut around the defender to his backhand, shovelling a shot to the net. Though his teammate may have got a piece of it, Lachance shows us a lot to like with a good mix of skill and grit.
It’s been a great start to the month for Lachance, earning Hockey East’s Rookie of the Month honours.
Here we see Lachance working the net front to great effect, moving around looking for quiet ice, alternating between a screening position and opening up for a one timer. Eventually his teammate finds him for the quick shot, which demonstrates some of his scoring touch as he gets the puck up quickly.
Luca Munzenberger
Offence has not been easy to come by for Luca Munzenberger during his NCAA career. His teams have been lower scoring, which doesn’t help his cause, but his game is more defence oriented. We saw Munzenberger move the puck effectively in the World Juniors years ago, but an assessment of his play will require more than looking at the box score. Munzenberger does have a good blend of size and skating and might be able to make the jump from college to the AHL this spring.
Tomas Mazura
Tomas Mazura is a little discussed prospect, and his NCAA offensive totals haven’t warranted much attention until this season. With that said, Mazura has seen a big jump in his third NCAA season, enough that we should take a look at his highlights.
Mazura is noticeably tall, yet there is a degree of speed and skill that are more likely his calling cards. Number 10 on the near boards, Mazura makes a slick pass off the rush, earning the secondary assist after his team puts the rebound home.
From the near boards once more, Mazura shows more fluidity in his movement, this time scoring from a distance with a good shot. After winning possession in the board battle and sliding the puck to the middle, Mazura stick taps, ready to make his play. He uses the defender as a screen, but does well to get the puck through with velocity. We probably shouldn’t expect too many goals from this distance, especially at higher levels, but the confidence and skill are nice signs.
Speaking of skill and confidence, Mazura scores from one knee with this one timer. Once again we see him beaver tapping, calling for the puck by slapping his stick on the ice, something that Mazura will have to do without in the pros. As a sixth-round pick in 2019, there have never been huge expectations of Mazura from Oilers fans. Given his age and history he shouldn’t be thought of as a standout prospect league wide, but these signs of life are encouraging.
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 5 (bracketed numbers denote movement from the previous week)
- Matt Copponi: 34.5
- James Hamblin: 33.1
- Raphael Lavoie: 30.7
- Tyler Tullio: 29.8
- Maxim Beryozkin: 29.0
Overall regular season totals for Oilers prospects
Forwards
| Player | Team | League | GP | G | A | TP | PPG | PIM | +/- | NHLeLeague | NHLe |
| Maxim Beryozkin (RW/LW) | Lokomotiv Yaroslavl | KHL | 36 | 4 | 12 | 16 | 0.44 | 14 | 1 | KHL | 29.0 |
| Xavier Bourgault (C) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 18 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 0.44 | 10 | -1 | AHL | 17.5 |
| Drake Caggiula (C/LW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 11 | 2 | 10 | 12 | 1.09 | 4 | -1 | AHL | 43.4 |
| Jake Chiasson (C/RW) | Fort Wayne Komets | ECHL | 16 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0.19 | 8 | -3 | ECHL | #N/A |
| Matt Copponi (C) | Merrimack College | NCAA | 15 | 3 | 13 | 16 | 1.07 | 38 | 6 | Hockey East | 34.5 |
| Maxim Denezhkin (C) | totals | 11 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 0.45 | 10 | 6 | totals | #N/A | |
| Adam Erne (LW/RW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.25 | 0 | -5 | AHL | 10.0 |
| Sam Gagner (C/RW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 3 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 1.67 | 0 | 4 | AHL | 66.6 |
| Seth Griffith (C/RW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 15 | 2 | 9 | 11 | 0.73 | 12 | -9 | AHL | 29.1 |
| Jayden Grubbe (C) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 18 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0.17 | 6 | 2 | AHL | 6.8 |
| James Hamblin (LW/C) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 6 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 0.83 | 6 | 4 | AHL | 33.1 |
| Shane Lachance (LW) | Boston Univ. | NCAA | 16 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 0.69 | 0 | 0 | Hockey East | 22.2 |
| Raphaël Lavoie (C/RW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 13 | 7 | 3 | 10 | 0.77 | 25 | 2 | AHL | 30.7 |
| Jeremias Lindewall (RW/LW) | totals | 18 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0.22 | 0 | 1 | Allsvenskan | 7.1 | |
| Brad Malone (C/LW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 16 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0.25 | 6 | 2 | AHL | 10.0 |
| Tomas Mazura (C) | St. Lawrence Univ. | NCAA | 14 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 0.71 | 4 | -4 | ECAC | 16.3 |
| Greg McKegg (C/W) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 18 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 0.39 | 6 | 1 | AHL | 15.5 |
| Joel Määttä (C) | Univ. of Vermont | NCAA | 12 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0.17 | 8 | -3 | #N/A | |
| Lane Pederson (C) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 14 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 0.71 | 8 | 5 | AHL | 28.3 |
| Matvei Petrov (RW/LW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 14 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0.14 | 2 | 1 | AHL | 5.6 |
| Carter Savoie (LW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 16 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0.19 | 4 | 0 | AHL | 7.6 |
| Brady Stonehouse (RW) | Ottawa 67’s | OHL | 28 | 11 | 11 | 22 | 0.79 | 26 | 7 | OHL | 20.9 |
| Tyler Tullio (C/RW) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 4 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0.75 | 4 | 1 | AHL | 29.8 |
Defencemen
| Player | Team | League | GP | G | A | TP | PPG | PIM | +/- | NHLeLeague | NHLe |
| Beau Akey (D) | Barrie Colts | OHL | 14 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 0.64 | 12 | 4 | OHL | 17.0 |
| Carl Berglund (C) | totals | 16 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 0.56 | 8 | 0 | whl | 13.9 | |
| Fort Wayne Komets | ECHL | 13 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 0.62 | 8 | 0 | whl | 15.4 | |
| Philip Broberg (D) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 7 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0.57 | 2 | 3 | AHL | 22.7 |
| Cam Dineen (D) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 18 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 0.39 | 8 | -7 | AHL | 15.5 |
| Ben Gleason (D) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 14 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 0.64 | 11 | 5 | AHL | 25.5 |
| Noel Hoefenmayer (D) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 14 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 0.57 | 29 | 3 | AHL | 22.7 |
| Phil Kemp (D) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 18 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0.28 | 9 | 4 | AHL | 11.2 |
| Luca Münzenberger (D) | Univ. of Vermont | NCAA | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.1 | 19 | 2 | Hockey East | 3.2 |
| Markus Niemeläinen (D) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 | AHL | 0.0 |
| Maximus Wanner (D) | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 18 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0.11 | 8 | -2 | whl | 2.7 |
| Nikita Yevseyev (D) | totals | 38 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 0.24 | 19 | -2 | |||
| Ak Bars Kazan | KHL | 19 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0.16 | 6 | 2 | vhl | 5.0 | |
| Bars Kazan | VHL | 19 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 0.32 | 13 | -4 | khl | 21.1 | |
Goalies
| Player | Team | League | GP | GAA | SV% |
| Nathaniel Day | Flint Firebirds | OHL | 24 | 3.9 | 0.865 |
| Calvin Pickard | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 4 | 2.03 | 0.939 |
| Olivier Rodrigue | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 5 | 2.17 | 0.935 |
| Jack Campbell | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 9 | 3.22 | 0.894 |
| Samuel Jonsson | totals | 8 |
