REAR WINDOW
By Lowetide
11 years ago
The lottery work being done by the mountain of losses at the NHL level are having the desired impact: stunning talents unavailable any other way are walking through the door for free every draft day. The "fail-fall" strategy is near an end, and the real business of developing players the traditional way comes into focus.
For most of the Edmonton Oilers NHL history, they’ve used an AHL club to develop their prospects (the CHL was their feeder league in the beginning, and the Oilers did have a working relationship with IHL teams over the years; and of course the club currently sends a few entry level kids to Stockton of the ECHL each season). NHL history owes an enormous amount to cities like Hershey, Providence and now Oklahoma City and others for developing quality NHL players.
The Oilers signed coach Todd Nelson this week and his entire staff will also return for another year. With good reason. Edmonton’s current NHL team will boast as many as a half dozen former Baron when the season begins. It’s a long process, taking teenagers and grinding their talents into useful tools, but every team in the NHL has role players who developed in AHL cities.
During the thirteen year period leading up to the OKC Barons taking to the ice, Oiler fans saw a lot of fits and starts from the club’s AHL prospects. Here’s a list of Oilers picks and minor league free agents who began their pro careers in the AHL and were good enough to play a game (or more) for the Oilers:
- C Shawn Horcoff 765 games
- R Georges Laraque 695 games
- L Jason Chimera 663 games
- C Jarret Stoll 593 games
- D Marc Andre Bergeron 465 games
- R Fernando Pisani 462 games
- D Matt Greene 461 games
- C Kyle Brodziak 419 games
- D Tom Gilbert 404 games
- R Brad Winchester 390 games
- R Zack Stortini 257 games
- G Ty Conklin 215 games
- D Alexei Semenov 211 games
- C Marc Pouliot 192 games
- L JF Jacques 166 games*
- D Theo Peckham 156 games*
- C Rob Schremp 114 games
- L Patrick Thoresen 106 games
- G Devan Dubnyk 101 games*
- L Liam Reddox 100 games
- L Tony Salmelainen 70 games
- R Jani Rita 66 games
- D Mathieu Roy 65 games
- C Tim Sestito 64 games
- G Jeff Deslauriers 62 games
- D Taylor Chorney 61 games
- D Danny Syvret 59 games
- D Ales Pisa 53 games
- G Mike Morrison 29 games
- D Bryan Young 17 games
- C Mike Bishai 14 games
- L Michel Riesen 12 games
- D Alex Plante 10 games
- R Colin McDonald 7 games
- C Peter Sarno 7 games
- D Chris Hajt 6 games
- D Doug Lynch 2 games
- L Alexei Mikhnov 2 games
- G Mike Minard 1 game
- D Johan Motin 1 game
Guys like Tom Poti, Mike Comrie, Ales Hemsky, Sam Gagner didn’t play in the AHL and Sebastien Bisaillon played all of his NHL games before he played in the AHL. I didn’t count those players.
Results
- Over those 13 seasons, the Oilers developed 1 player per year if we assume an NHL player graduates at 200 games.
- The Oilers also have several players "on track" to pass 200 games. I’d count Peckham, Jacques and Dubnyk as "on track" players..
- Total: 13 players at 200 games or more and another 3 "on track" for the 13 seasons. That works out to 1.23actual NHL players per season.
THE NEW TEMPLATE
The Oilers during last decade weren’t developing players at a rapid enough rate to fill the holes created by retirement, players lost to free agency and injury. So if 1.3 players isn’t enough, how many does an NHL team need. Since arriving in OKC, Nelson and the staff have graduated the following new pro’s to the NHL:
- D Jeff Petry 108 games*
- R Linus Omark 65 games
- L Teemu Hartikainen 29 games
- C Chris VandeVelde 17 games
- L Phil Cornet 2 games
- C Milan Kytnar 1 game
Hall, Eberle, the Nuge and now Yakupov are not included because they came right to the NHL; I’ve also excluded Magnus Paajarvi and Anton Lander because both of those players were deemed good enough to being their careers in the NHL. I think we’d need to see some exceptional evidence that Nelson and his team have performed strong work and made a clear difference before we gave them credit for those two players.
On the other hand, Jeff Petry articles that show progress are all over the internet and the young man is quick to point out the importance of learning at the AHL level.
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
We’re early days in the OKC regime and it will be at least a couple of years before we can see enough results to begin drawing conclusions. The early returns are positive–Jeff Petry looks ike a clear winner, Teemu Hartikainen has earned a long look this fall and despite being on the outside looking in Linus Omark was qualified (perhaps indicating interest from another NHL team).
If we see another regular emerge this season from the group of AHL players listed above (and the prospects already there like Pitlick, Hamilton or Roy) then I think we can begin to assert that Todd Nelson is ahead of the curve established by the previous regime.
And that’s a positive arrow for Steve Tambellini.
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