Oilers in on Aston-Reese

Set to turn 23 years old this August, Zach Aston-Reese has made a name for himself playing for Northeastern University.

Over the course of his 145 game NCAA career, Aston-Reese has scored  goals and tallied 82 assists, for a total of 148 points. This past season, he scored 31 goals and 32 assists for 63 points in only 38 games.

He led the NCAA in goals (31), points (63), and shorthanded goals (4).

Now, it appears that the young man is looking for an NHL contract and has quite a number of teams chasing him down. According to Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News, as many as 15 teams are showing interest in the “power forward [who] puts up points [and] works hard.”

Aston-Reese has been described as a a true 200-foot player.

“He’s a complete player, a 200-foot complete player,” his coach Jim Madigan says.  “Each year he’s worked on parts of his game to get better, and a lot of it’s been on the offensive side of it with his shot and stick skills, but he works at it, and that’s why he’s gotten better. I mean he works at shooting after practice, participating in the goaltender sessions twice a week, so when you do that over the course of four years, good things are going to happen because you’ve worked on your game.”

With Aston-Reese being a NU player, he roomed last year with current Edmonton Oilers Matthew Benning. One could assume that Oilers scouts took note of Aston-Reese last year when looking at Benning.

The Oilers have had some luck signing NCAA prospects as of late, and Benning was the big steal as he has stepped into the NHL and succeeded in his rookie year.

Others such as Drake Caggiula and  Jordan Oesterle still need some work, but are well on their way to becoming regular NHL players.