Edmonton Oilers player review and 2023-24 preview: James Hamblin
By Zach Laing
9 months agoWelcome to the 2022-23 season review and 2023-24 season preview player-by-player! In this and other articles, we’ll be, well, reviewing the 2022-23 season of Edmonton Oilers players and previewing their 2023-24 season. You can read about the analytics behind my analysis here.
Welcome back, James Hamblin.
| 5×5 | NHL GP | TOI + TOI/GP | G – A – P | CF | CA | CF% | SCF | SCA | SCF% | GF | GA | GF% | xGF | xGA | xGF% | PDO |
| Individual | 10 | 80.03 | 0-0-0 | 68 | 62 | 52.31 | 36 | 30 | 54.55 | 1 | 4 | 20 | 3.15 | 2.98 | 51.4 | 0.92 |
| Per/60 | 8.00 | 50.98 | 46.48 | 26.99 | 22.49 | 0.75 | 3 | 2.36 | 2.23 | |||||||
| Per/60, RelTm% | -6.12 | -6.71 | 0.54 | -1.56 | -7.41 | 5.7 | -3.16 | 0.9 | -45 | -0.3 | -0.31 | 0.26 |
James Hamblin got his first taste of the NHL last season with a 10-game stint early on in the campaign, but didn’t do much to seize his opportunity. He averaged a nominal amount of ice time and fired a dozen shots on goal.
The good signs out of it, however, were with Hamblin on the ice, the Oilers were able to control the pace of play. For a player like Hamblin, whose ceiling as an NHL’er is likely nothing more than not as a third-to-fourth liner, that’s about all you can ask for.
Our own Bruce Curlock, who watched Hamblin lots while scoring 10 goals and 28 points in 52 AHL games this year, compared him to Yanni Gourde.
“Why am I talking about Yanni Gourde?”, Curlock wrote. “Well, it’s to counter the narrative that James Hamblin had his shot and he’s not going to make it. That might be right. He played ten games without scoring a point. No question that was not a good outcome.
“Indeed, if you wanted to see a major difference between Yanni Gourde and James Hamblin. Yanni Gourde exploded in his first full season with 25-39-64 in 82 games. Can James Hamblin do that if he makes the Oilers? Well his career stats suggest he has a chance.”
That would be a tremendous outcome for an undrafted player, but not one I’m exactly holding my breath for. The Oilers placed Hamblin on waivers Tuesday to be assigned to the Condors,
HAMBLIN’S CAREER SO FAR
| Season | Team | Lge | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | +/- | PGP | G | A | Pts | PIM |
| 2015-16 | Medicine Hat Tigers | WHL | 54 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 14 | -19 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2016-17 | Medicine Hat Tigers | WHL | 69 | 23 | 24 | 47 | 32 | 21 | 11 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
| 2017-18 | Medicine Hat Tigers | WHL | 70 | 21 | 43 | 64 | 30 | -3 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2018-19 | Medicine Hat Tigers | WHL | 67 | 33 | 44 | 77 | 18 | 18 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 6 |
| 2019-20 | Medicine Hat Tigers | WHL | 63 | 36 | 56 | 92 | 35 | 27 | |||||
| 2020-21 | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 38 | 7 | 8 | 15 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 2021-22 | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 64 | 21 | 14 | 35 | 28 | 20 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 2022-23 | Edmonton Oilers | NHL | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -3 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2022-23 | Bakersfield Condors | AHL | 52 | 10 | 18 | 28 | 14 | -1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| NHL Totals | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -3 |
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.
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