Whenever you get a chance to draft a big, physical, defensive defenceman in very late rounds of the NHL draft, you simply must do it — or so goes the story with the Edmonton Oilers. This team has cornered the market on taking these types of players and turning them into very good players. Vincent Desharnais, Michael Kesselring and Max Wanner are the three most prominent of this group with a shout out to RW/D Phil Kemp who got a game this season.

So it should be no surprise the Oilers did the same in the 2024 NHL Draft. This time it was 6’4″, 198 pound left shot defenceman Bauer Berry. Berry played his rookie season in the USHL with the Muskegon Lumberjacks. He tallied 1-13-14 in 59 games with 83 penalty minutes. Berry is a smothering defenceman. He does punish attacking players sometimes, but more often he uses his length and size to extract pucks and get moving up the ice.

As a skater, Berry is just above average. When he gets a chance to build speed, he does so, and is a very powerful skater. His footwork is actually for a young player of his size. He transitions nicely from forward to backward and has decent lateral mobility. If he has an area to work on it is his posture. He can get a little straight-legged with his upper body tilting a bit and it takes him off balance sometimes. This is a fairly easy fix and will make him a very difficult player to attack physically. Here is a clip that illustrates his skating as a whole.

The other element that I do notice in Berry’s game is his composure. He has a very low panic threshold with the puck on his stick. I suspect this is one of the traits that interested the Oilers scouts. Surprising, for a player who is clearly a defence-first defenseman, he makes a lot of very good first passes under pressure into good areas. Here is a great clip of one of these plays.

Berry does a nice job of scanning the zone looking for trouble. When he gets a chance to grab a loose puck, he just doesn’t flip it to open space. He gathers himself, assesses the options and makes a great pass up ice. This is very good stuff.

Berry is an intriguing prospect to me. He has a lot of what you expect from the Oilers at the end of the draft. Good size and raw skills with a focus on defence and work ethic. However, Berry has some offensive upside in his game. It will require work, but it is there. His hockey sense is also quite good and that will serve him well. I strongly suspect that Kalle Larsson, who spent years in the USHL with Sioux City, had input on this player.

Muskegon is a strong program and Berry will likely play high-leverage minutes for a very good team. I would not be surprised to see Berry improve on his offence dramatically this coming season. If that happens, the Oilers and their seventh-round draft magic might add another name to the list.