At some point in every player’s career, there is a shift from prospect to known entity. When that shift happens is usually the end of a player’s 25-year-old season. At that point, the player is physically mature. The player also has likely developed about 95 percent of the skills they can utilize in games.

The player certainly has substantial professional experience to be able to anticipate plays and exploit opportunities. The question about this shift in a player’s development is where it happens. Does it happen in the NHL? If so, good for that player, he’s made it. If it happens in the minors, the dream of an NHL career may be coming to an end. This is exactly the point in time where James Hamblin is located.

The 25-year-old has 41 NHL games under his belt, however, none of those games have happened this year, as he was sent to Bakersfield at the start of the season. In Bakersfield, he only played five games when a very serious lower body injury derailed his season. Hamblin returned after Christmas having missed 21 games. The question for Hamblin is what can he do in this last half season to prove that he’s a legitimate prospect capable of contributing in the NHL. Since his return, Hamblin has sent an early message that he isn’t done trying to get to the NHL.

More on James Hamblin’s stellar return, Matthew Savoie and his defensive chops plus all your news and notes in this week’s Oilers Prospect Report.

James Hamblin has played eight games since returning from a two-month injury absence. In those eight games, he has registered five goals and four assists. More interesting to me is Hamblin has taken 23 shots for a per-game average of slightly below three shots per game. That is a career-high for Hamblin. It is also by far the highest average on the team and is in the top 20 of the entire AHL although the sample size is small.

This week Hamblin continued to build his case. In three games, Hamblin had three goals and an assist. He also was a plus-three and had eight shots on net. Hamblin is playing first-line centre for Bakersfield. He’s playing first-team powerplay and he gets heavy minutes on the penalty kill as well at the game’s end in high-leverage situations. In short, he is playing all of the critical minutes and he is performing.

There is no question that James Hamblin in the NHL is likely a 4th line player on the wing or at centre. However, he still needs to contribute to the scoresheet to ensure the fourth line outscores its competition. This week he showed some of that capability.

Here is a very high-quality assist by Hamblin who makes a great backhand pass through a tight window that led to a goal.

His goals this week were James Hamblin specials. Tight quarters battles using his very quick hands and taking punishment along the way to get the reward.

This is the rub with Hamblin. He likely needs to score like this in the NHL. However, he is a smaller player and he will take a lot of punishment for doing this in the NHL. That said, his willingness to play on the inside is noble and it is necessary for him to make the jump.

Finally, the other element to his game that is exceptional is his forecheck game. Hamblin is a very fast player with excellent transition skating. In addition, his ability to anticipate plays and interrupt the attack is very strong. Here is an example from the 3v3 overtime early this week.

Let’s be clear, the odds of Hamblin having an NHL career are not great. However, he has time and he has a lot of the facets needed to play in a role for an NHL team. He just needs to make it incredibly uncomfortable for the Oilers management team to leave him down in the AHL. He’s done a good job to start since returning. He needs to continue that work.

Savoie had a relatively quiet week on the scoresheet registering only one goal in the three games played. It was another nice goal by Savoie where he showed his offensive instincts to create space for himself to get a one-time pass from Seth Griffith.

Moreso this week, Savoie’s defensive game was on display this week. In those three games, the Condors gave up eight goals at 5v5. Savoie was on for zero of those goals against. There is one play I want to highlight from this week as an example of what Savoie’s defensive game has been for some time.

The play starts with three Condors trapped down on the wall engaged in a puck battle. Savoie smartly gets quite low in the slot because he needs to protect against the possibility of an opposition player walking off the wall with the puck. This way he blocks the lane to the net. He also needs to manage the seam player behind him. The puck comes to that player. Savoie rotates quickly, closes the gap and lays out to take away a shot.

Remember you have a player who historically has been focused on offense. Would a fourth-line player with a history of being a defensive stalwart make this play? No question. It is not a play that someone with Savoie’s credo makes often. Savoie does.

What the Bakersfield coaching staff is trying to do is deliver a player to Kris Knoblauch who can be counted on defensively. Savoie is without a doubt delivering on that goal. He will most likely need to be far more defensively conscious than the players he lines up with in Edmonton. Continued development here is nothing but a plus.

The left-shot defensive depth chart in the Bakersfield is Cam Dineen. That’s it.

One of the most lasting impacts of the Holland regime was how decimated he left the Oilers’ defensive prospect depth in the pro ranks. Quite frankly, there isn’t even much coming. There is a Russian named Nikita Yevseyev who might want to escape the KHL, but that is very uncertain. No junior players are turning professional next year for the Oilers and at the college level, there are two players: Paul Fischer and Luca Munzenberger. Fischer has time to turn professional given he is only a sophomore. Munzenberger is a senior and can turn pro at the end of the season.

Munzenberger is a 6’3″ 200-pound great skating left-shot defenceman. He also happens to be in the midst of a breakout year. In 21 games, he has 11 points. That may seem like a low total, but given that his previous season high was five points, it is a substantive increase. This week, in two games, Munzenberger added two more assists. They were not anything special in terms of playmaking, but each play happened at the end of the game with his team trying to get back into games.

In short, Munzenberger is getting counted on to help lead his team back when behind. That’s news! Here are both plays. It should be noted that while pressure was relatively light, Munzenberger continues to show some good ability to walk the blueline and create seams.

There’s not question that Munzenberger won’t be an offensive dynamo at the next level and defence will be his calling card for certain. Munzenberger leads his team in plus-minus at plus-10. This is pretty notable given the team is -1 at evens in terms of goal share. However, his development offensively this year is encouraging. This and the fact the Edmonton Oilers have very few players able to turn professional from the defence ranks makes his signing potential very interesting.

Connor Clatterburg received his second suspension of the season. He received a three game suspension for a check to the head of an opposing player. Between the two suspensions and injuries, Clattenburg has only played 30 of a possible 43 games. He still has recorded 13-11-24 in those games.

Paul Fischer and Beau Akey returned to their respective teams after the World Juniors. Fischer has played four games recording two goals and an assist. Akey has played five games and recorded only one assist.

That’s all for this week everyone. Please leave your feedback. Thanks for reading and have a great week.