Last week, we featured Cameron Wright, who was playing ECHL minutes the prior season, but because he started to score with Bakersfield this year, it got him a push. This organization is desperate for players to produce offensively. While the top of the food chain in Edmonton is stacked with players who can score, the coach still needs to roll out two more lines for a period of time each game. As we all have seen, those two lines have struggled to score in the last few years.

We can get into all the theories about why in another article.  Here, we just know it doesn’t happen nearly enough and the Oilers depth chart isn’t exactly lighting it up. So when we have a young prospect who goes 2-4-6 in three games in the toughest junior league in the world, it needs to be noted. You’ll hear all about him, another OHLer from seasons past who has come back with vengeance from injury and all the news and notes from Edmonton Oilers prospect land.

As I have noted on a couple of occasions, what will get Brady Stonehouse traction in the Oilers organization, is scoring. No, he’s not going to play on Connor McDavid’s left wing. However, the Oilers already have a bucket full of wingers who play hard hockey with good defensive sense. What the Oilers do not have is a lot of scoring acumen in the prospect pool. Brady Stonehouse has a chance to be different here. He started slow this year, registering one point in his first ten games of the year. Some of this can probably be explained by him signing a deal with the Oilers. Still, it was concerning. Stonehouse has reversed that trend nicely however.

In his last 17 games, he is 10-11-21 and has added 58 shots on net. This week was another strong one with six points in three games and another 12 shots on net. What I like about Stonehouse is you cannot pidgeon hole him on how he scores. He does a lot of different things very well. Watch this shift as an example of what diverse his game is offensively. He starts on the wall on this faceoff and then immediately goes to net front looking for a screen or deflection. He then retrieves the puck and after a nice sequence of puck protection and space gathering, he goes hard to the net with it from tight quarters.

No luck, so he retreats to the neutral zone where he gets an outlet pass and turns and attacks again. This time, it is a nice saucer pass to a teammate for the tap-in goal.

This is such a great shift in terms of defining Brady Stonehouse’s offensive game. Highly versatile with enough creativity and the skill to execute it to be dangerous.

Stonehouse even scores goals in a variety ways. Here is a goal from distance off a great wrist shot. I would question the goalie on this one, except Stonehouse scored the exact same style of goal in Penticton at the prospects tournament against a professional goalie.

The shot is quite strong from him. Very accurate for certain. He will need to get the puck off quicker at the next level for it to have the same type of results however. There is a little bit of shuffle in his release.

Stonehouse also scores by going to the net without fear. He’s not a small player in that he is very sturdy, but he is only 5’10”. Yet, he never has issues going to the net and gets rewarded often for doing so. Nothing pretty here. Just hard work in moving his feet and gaining position.

Even when supporting teammates on goals, he does so in a number of ways. Watch this brilliant shot pass for the high slot tip home by his teammate. I actually thought it was his goal at the time because it was such a slight of hand play.

Then there is this very simple assist based on hustle. This is the 3v3 in overtime and at the end of the shift. Lots of tough defending going on here and Stonehouse holds his own. When the puck is turned over, he works up the ice hard to be part of the play. The puck slides to him and he makes a really quick decision to put it into the middle for the short breakaway attack. Nothing very fancy, just solid hard work.

What I like about the Stonehouse game is its versatility. He contributes offensively in a lot of different ways. I think this will have value as a professional player when the competition gets bigger, stronger and quicker. Stonehouse has worked to do skating wise at his height, but it is not a formidable challenge from what I can see. Stride lengthening will really help his top end speed. However, his balance and edges are very good and his first step is quite strong. What I do know for absolute certain is that if he keeps scoring at his current pace, Oiler fans and management will take notice.

In my early days at Oilersnation, I wrote an article about Tyler Tullio and why I thought he had a better chance to play NHL games than either Xavier Bourgault or Carter Savoie.

This is a pick from the Oilers I have always loved. He’s a multi-tool player who is so smart on the ice and plays with a mean streak. He isn’t your biggest player in the world, but there is room in the NHL on every team for a smaller player with these types of traits. So when this season came around, I was quite excited to watch him play. Then on opening night in Bakersfield, there he is during the player announcements standing on the bench in a suit with a case on his right hand. Uggghhh. He got “Oilered”. While the extent of the injury was not disclosed to my knowledge, it was enough to keep him out for six weeks of games, which fortunately due to scheduling only meant 14 games in total.

Tullio returned to action late last week and he returned with the same zest for the game he had previously. Flying around the ice hitting everything that moves, crashing net front and causing disturbances, generally being in a pest. However, for Tullio to make an impact at the NHL level, he will need to score here. I wrote that I thought he could do that in the AHL. He has a bomb for a shot. He also is an incredibly smart player. So for me, the focus for this year for Tullio is scoring. The early results are in: it looks good. He has played three games and registered a point in each going 0-3-3. Now he only has one shot on net in those three games, so perhaps the injury isn’t all the way healed or Tullio is being cautious, but that can only be viewed as encouraging. He’s getting it done in other ways. He has played a lot on the second power play unit since his return. Look at these two goals scored by Bourgault and Savoie and how Tullio creates both chances.

These are both brilliant reads combined with accurate feeds to make the scoring chance easier for each player. There will be lots to watch with Tullio, but averaging a point per game to start this season is very encouraging. The rest of his game already looks to be back in form. If the scoring piece can stick then there will be another prospect looking for bottom six time in Edmonton.

Cameron Wright continued his scoring ways adding two goals this week for the Condors. He took a puck in the mouth in the last game which slowed him down some, but the young man is still doing the hardest thing to do in hockey.

Luca Munzenberg scored his first NCAA goal this week after 70 games. I still think there is offence with this player, but his development path is a worry.

He then promptly got a five-minute major for hitting from behind and was kicked out of the game. He is big and has a mean streak. Certainly, he skates well enough. Can he score the question.

That’s it for this week folks. Send me feedback to @bcurlock on the X or right here at this fine website. See you next week.