The Edmonton Oilers added a goalie to their prospect system on Thursday, signing undrafted Providence Friars stopper Nick Ellis to an entry-level contract.

Ellis spent three seasons with Providence, with his first two years in a backup role to 6’6″ Calgary Flames prospect Jon Gillies. Gillies graduated to the AHL this season, while allowed Ellis to take over the starting role; he seems to have thrived with the increased responsibility:

Not only does Ellis’ 0.936 save percentage represent a personal best, it’s also slightly better than the numbers Gillies put up in his three campaigns as starter (0.931, 0.931 and 0.930, respectively). 

Unlike Gillies, Ellis isn’t a massive goalie prospect; he’s listed at just 6’1″ and 180 pounds. He’s also nowhere near as established as Gillies was. He was listed as the 227th-best prospect in his draft year (2012) out of high school hockey by Red Line Report, then had one so-so season as a starter in the USHL before heading to college. This is the first year that he’s really looked like a player worth getting exited about. 

Chris Dilks, who is an indispensable resource for this sort of thing, had Nick Ellis ranked as the 62nd-best prospect in all of college hockey.

On Edmonton’s current goalie depth chart, Ellis obviously ranks behind Cam Talbot and Laurent Brossoit. It’s less clear how he compares to Eetu Laurikainen, who was signed out of Europe last summer and so far has posted a 0.907 save percentage with Bakersfield. Either player might fit as the backup goaltender in the AHL, but a better spot for Ellis to play next season might be as a starter in the ECHL, where he could get some serious minutes in. That’s not a shot at the player; many good goalies (including Brossoit) have spent at least some time in the ECHL as rookie pros. 

As far as signings go, this is a relatively small one (at least for now; we’ll see how Ellis performs as a pro) but it does address an organizational weakness.

After missing on two goalie picks in 2011, the Oilers skipped the position at the 2012 and 2013 drafts before selecting Zach Nagelvoort (4th round, 111th overall) and Keven Bouchard (7th round, 183rd overall) in 2014. Nagelvoort still has college eligibility but his numbers are trending in the wrong direction, while Bouchard seems unlikely to get a contract from the Oilers; the arrival of Ellis essentially fills the spot that one of those players might otherwise have been expected to take.