Last night, Cam Lewis and I hit up the Edmonton Community Rink to see what all the fuss was about regarding our Oilers prospects. All the players who skated in the rookie development camp this week took the ice one last time together to compete in the annual Billy Moores Cup. As it was open to the public, many other Oiler fans across the city showed up in their jerseys to check out the Oilers future.
It was a fairly competitive two periods of play, and Team White ended up coming out on top with a final score of 4-2. The white team definitely appeared to have more skill than the Blue, making nicer plays and scoring more goals. Blue held their own pretty well as they out shot the white team and almost made a last period comeback.
There was a lot to watch last night. From hyped up players like Yamamoto and Bouchard, to guys I’ve rarely heard of before, we got a great peek into the Oilers future. Here are Cam and I’s notes:
  • Everyone looked pretty nervous right off the hop. Can’t blame anyone, as the Oilers crowd was VERY intimidating last night. The first few shifts were pretty sloppy and it was obvious everyone was trying to get their hands and legs working again. All was well by the end of the game as the boys found their groove and were making some nice passing plays again.
  • Out of all the rookies last night, I was most impressed by Ostap Safin. The man is humoungous and is actually pretty quick with good hands. His skating needs some improvement because he looks like a giraffe on ice, but I kind of like that.
  • Evan Bouchard is just the man I imagined him to be. He’s tall, thick, has the face of a thirty-five year old, and can move the puck like no other. There is no doubt that his offensive touch will significantly improve the Oilers. He would jump up in the play every chance he got and got a few good shots on net, including a beautiful goal assisted by Kailer Yamamoto.
  • I did feel like there were times where Bouchard focussed a little too much on jumping up in the play, and not enough focus on playing defence in his own zone. It was 4 on 4 hockey and everyone was sort of all over the place. He made a couple awkward giveaways at his own blue line in the first period, but seemed to bounce back with some confidence near the end.
  • Kailer Yamamoto looked by far the best out there. You could tell this wasn’t his first time at a rookie development camp because his confidence was through the roof. He was outskating, outdangling, and outscoring nearly everyone else on the ice. He seemed untouchable. Although he’s the smallest guy out there, his speed and skating ability doesn’t make him seem as small at all.
  • Cooper Marody was one of the many who stood out as well. He appeared strong on the puck, gritty, and fast. He was involved in a few good plays and had some very good scoring opportunities.
  • Graham McPhee is someone I admittedly know nothing about. He was a 5th round pick in 2016 but really stood out to us last night. Maybe it was his hair flowing through the back of his helmet, or maybe it was his skill, but I sure noticed him nearly every time he was on the ice. I have no stats to back this up, but he definitely had the most takeaways in the night.
  • Other notables who stood out to me were Ryan McLeod, Dmitri Samorukov, Vincent Desharnais, and Kirill Maksimov.
  • Someone who we were hoping for a little more out of was Tyler Benson. He was pretty quiet in the first period and contributed a little more in the second, but overall we didn’t see a lot from him last night. Some folks on Twitter spoke about how good he looked in the camp prior to the scrimmage, so maybe he was just having an off day.
  • Obviously with only 20 minutes of play each, we couldn’t get a GREAT look at the goaltenders. Stuart Skinner, however, did look the best out there. He was the only goalie to not give up a goal in his period and made quite a few nice saves. He has great movement around the net and is always in great position to make the save.
  • Dylan Wells looked very solid as well out there. He gave up three goals, but probably faced the most shots of any of the goalies and had some good shooters coming down on him. Dylan Wells is excellent at playing the puck, and has great rebound control.
  • I didn’t get a great look at Shane Starrett and Olivier Rodrigue but they both appeared to play well. None of the four goalies gave up any real bad goals which is something we can all agree that’s a positive. Rodrigue seemed to move around great in his crease, and Starrett is a 6′ 5″ wall out there.
Overall I think you have to take the evaluations from last night with a grain of salt. When you have guys like Bouchard, Yamamoto, and Stafin on the ice at the same time together, it makes for quite a lopsided shift. Safe to say a lot of players on team blue didn’t get a chance to show what they’ve got out there while they were being dominated by white’s top players.
With that said I don’t want to discredit anyone not listed above. Just because they weren’t noticable last night doesn’t mean they will be stuck in the AHL forever. After leaving the rink, we felt pretty comfortable with the overall prospect pool that the Oilers have. There are a lot of talented kids who will get a long look in the coming years to make the Oilers squad.