The Edmonton Oilers offseason just keeps coming, as the team made their second trade in as many weeks Monday morning, flipping prospects Xavier Bourgault and Jake Chiasson to the Ottawa Senators for Roby Jarventie and a fourth-round pick in the 2025 draft.

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It follows the swap of Ryan McLeod and Tyler Tulio to the Sabres for top prospect Matthew Savoie, highlighting an Oilers&#8217; overhaul of their prospect system.
When it comes to Jarvenie, the Oilers are once again banking on offence, as the native of Tampere, Finland has shown an ability to produce offence. Drafted out of his native country with the 33rd overall pick in 2020, the 6&#8217;2, 214 lb. left-shot winger spent a season in the Finnish Elite League in 2020-21 scoring 14 goals and 25 points in 48 games, before making the jump to North America. There, he&#8217;s spent the last three seasons with the Senators&#8217; AHL affiliate in Belleville, scoring 38 goals and 86 points in 136 games.
Much of that production has come in the last two years where he&#8217;s battled through some injury, racking up 25 goals and 50 points in 62 games.
Daily Faceoff&#8217;s Steven Ellis <a href="https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/news/one-nhl-prospect-to-watch-on-every-ahl-affiliate">wrote ahead of last season</a> that &#8220;if he can put together a solid campaign with at least 50 points, it might be the last we see of him in the AHL.&#8221;
The Oilers have liked Jarventie for a while, Oilers colour commentator Bob Stauffer said of the winger who &#8220;has some size&#8221; and &#8220;can skate and shoot.&#8221;
What&#8217;s clear is Jarventie fits a need for the Oilers, adding a bigger-bodied player to a prospect system short of them, and the fact the team is also adding some draft capital is always a plus.
What else is clear is that the team is looking for a mulligan on a Ken Holland draft pick in Xavier Bourgault, who the team selected 22nd overall in the 2021 draft. He had returned to the QMJHL the year after he was taken by the Oilers and had a breakout campaign, racking up 36 goals and 75 points in 43 games. He helped the Shawinigan Cataractes win a league title and a berth into the Memorial Cup, adding a pair of goals and seven points in four games.
He turned pro ahead of the 2022-23 season, and showed some promise in his rookie campaign with the AHL&#8217;s Bakersfield Condors. While he didn&#8217;t score a ton of goals, just 13 in 62 games, he added 21 assists for 34 total points.
Last summer, Oilersnation&#8217;s Bruce Curlock had Bourgault as the No. 2 prospect in the Oilers system, highlighting that while he &#8220;had a tougher first pro year than many of us expected,&#8221; there were areas in his game that were encouraging to see. Ultimately, Curlock wrote, there was an expectation of a &#8220;really big improvement&#8221; for Bourgault this past season.
It never came to fruition, however, as his game actually regressed, instead of progressed. He scored just eight goals and 20 points in 55 games, in part due to a shoulder injury, but as Curlock noted in a recent <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/edmonton-oilers-prospect-report-a-glimmer-is-still-a-glimmer">prospect report</a>, it wasn&#8217;t just his offence that had regressed.
<blockquote>He finished the season with fewer points than his rookie year. He finished the season with fewer shots on the net than his rookie year. His plus/minus worse. He went from the first powerplay to the second. He went from a relied-upon penalty killer to only seeing spot duty.
There is not anyway to sugar coat it, Xavier Bourgault did not have a good second professional season. To make matters worse, he missed more than a month with a shoulder injury. It would be hard to argue with those who view this first-round pick as a bust.</blockquote>
The chances of Bourgault playing NHL games for the Oilers had begun to dwindle, and a significant season off regression is clearly something the team was no longer comfortable with. Edmonton also moved Jake Chiasson in the deal, who was a longshot to make the big club. He had just turned pro this past season, scoring nine goals and 20 points in 68 ECHL games with the Fort Wayne Komets.
All in all, the Oilers are banking on fit with this trade as they look to add pieces to build a Stanley Cup winning team.
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Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/zjlaing">@zjlaing</a>, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.
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The Edmonton Oilers offseason just keeps coming, as the team made their second trade in as many weeks Monday morning, flipping prospects Xavier Bourgault and Jake Chiasson to the Ottawa Senators for Roby Jarventie and a fourth-round pick in the 2025 draft.


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It follows the swap of Ryan McLeod and Tyler Tulio to the Sabres for top prospect Matthew Savoie, highlighting an Oilers' overhaul of their prospect system.

When it comes to Jarvenie, the Oilers are once again banking on offence, as the native of Tampere, Finland has shown an ability to produce offence. Drafted out of his native country with the 33rd overall pick in 2020, the 6'2, 214 lb. left-shot winger spent a season in the Finnish Elite League in 2020-21 scoring 14 goals and 25 points in 48 games, before making the jump to North America. There, he's spent the last three seasons with the Senators' AHL affiliate in Belleville, scoring 38 goals and 86 points in 136 games.

Much of that production has come in the last two years where he's battled through some injury, racking up 25 goals and 50 points in 62 games.

Daily Faceoff's Steven Ellis <a href="https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/news/one-nhl-prospect-to-watch-on-every-ahl-affiliate">wrote ahead of last season</a> that "if he can put together a solid campaign with at least 50 points, it might be the last we see of him in the AHL."

The Oilers have liked Jarventie for a while, Oilers colour commentator Bob Stauffer said of the winger who "has some size" and "can skate and shoot."

What's clear is Jarventie fits a need for the Oilers, adding a bigger-bodied player to a prospect system short of them, and the fact the team is also adding some draft capital is always a plus.

What else is clear is that the team is looking for a mulligan on a Ken Holland draft pick in Xavier Bourgault, who the team selected 22nd overall in the 2021 draft. He had returned to the QMJHL the year after he was taken by the Oilers and had a breakout campaign, racking up 36 goals and 75 points in 43 games. He helped the Shawinigan Cataractes win a league title and a berth into the Memorial Cup, adding a pair of goals and seven points in four games.

He turned pro ahead of the 2022-23 season, and showed some promise in his rookie campaign with the AHL's Bakersfield Condors. While he didn't score a ton of goals, just 13 in 62 games, he added 21 assists for 34 total points.

Last summer, Oilersnation's Bruce Curlock had Bourgault as the No. 2 prospect in the Oilers system, highlighting that while he "had a tougher first pro year than many of us expected," there were areas in his game that were encouraging to see. Ultimately, Curlock wrote, there was an expectation of a "really big improvement" for Bourgault this past season.

It never came to fruition, however, as his game actually regressed, instead of progressed. He scored just eight goals and 20 points in 55 games, in part due to a shoulder injury, but as Curlock noted in a recent <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/edmonton-oilers-prospect-report-a-glimmer-is-still-a-glimmer">prospect report</a>, it wasn't just his offence that had regressed.
<blockquote>He finished the season with fewer points than his rookie year. He finished the season with fewer shots on the net than his rookie year. His plus/minus worse. He went from the first powerplay to the second. He went from a relied-upon penalty killer to only seeing spot duty.

There is not anyway to sugar coat it, Xavier Bourgault did not have a good second professional season. To make matters worse, he missed more than a month with a shoulder injury. It would be hard to argue with those who view this first-round pick as a bust.</blockquote>
The chances of Bourgault playing NHL games for the Oilers had begun to dwindle, and a significant season off regression is clearly something the team was no longer comfortable with. Edmonton also moved Jake Chiasson in the deal, who was a longshot to make the big club. He had just turned pro this past season, scoring nine goals and 20 points in 68 ECHL games with the Fort Wayne Komets.

All in all, the Oilers are banking on fit with this trade as they look to add pieces to build a Stanley Cup winning team.

<hr />

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/zjlaing">@zjlaing</a>, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.

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