Dalyn Wakely is a player who I watched a lot during the Matvey Petrov years in North Bay of the OHL. I still remain a little surprised he wasn’t drafted prior to his third season in the OHL.

He had a commendable first two years in the OHL, tallying 50-33—88 in 133 games. He is a good sized right-shot centre at 6’0″ and 200 pounds. This last year however was a real breakout year, as Wakely went 39-65—104 in 66 games., adding 71 penalty minutes.

Before we get to why the 2023-24 season happened, let’s talk about the player. My favourite part of all of this is that Wakely plays with a chip on his shoulder. He relishes trying to prove everyone wrong about him as a player. To give you an example, I am going to show you a clip of a goal last season. This is a road game in Sudbury. It’s a nice goal, but watch the reaction after the goal.

I am convinced if Dalyn Wakely was told to run through a wall to prove his toughness, he would do it. Twice. Without hesitation.

Wakely is a greasy player who doesn’t take any shortcuts in any area of the ice. He takes hits to make plays and he plays hard through the middle of the ice. He also is grating on opposition players with his high-speed motor leading to a constant forecheck. Here is an example of his impact on the opposition.

Here is another example of his motor on the backtrack and how it leads to a goal for his team.

Wakely takes no shifts off at all. He is a very responsible player who makes life hard for the opposition in all three zones.

So what happened in the 2023-24 season? This is the critical question for Wakely’s development path with the Oilers. Is he the player who averaged less than a point per game in his first two seasons in the OHL? Or is the player that averaged almost 1.6 points per game and finished third in OHL scoring?

Some of this is related to opportunity. North Bay had a very top-heavy lineup in his first two years playing the likes of Petrov heavy minutes. In his third season, Wakely ended up on the first line with Anthony Romani and Owen Van Steensel. This line combined for 138 goals and a total of 301 points as a trio. The critical eye would note that Wakely’s shooting percentage didn’t change much year over year, but his assist totals went through the roof this past season. Now the hard question is whether that was because Wakely was playing with better players and getting zoomed by them or was he helping his teammates and simply getting the benefit of his efforts?

That will be the $64,000 question for the coming season. If Wakely can prove that last season was a breakout and not an anomaly, the Oilers will have themselves a very good, very greasy right-shot center prospect.