It’ll be the Battle of Alberta: Rookie Edition on Saturday night as the Young Stars Classic continues in Penticton.
Both Edmonton and Calgary will be seeking their first wins of the weekend in this head-to-head. The Oilers opened the annual three-game series with a 2-0 loss to the Canucks on Friday, while the Flames were dropped 4-3 in overtime by the Jets.
A pair of top prospects on the blueline highlight the Flames Rookie squad. Zayne Parekh, who the Flames selected with their first-round pick in this summer’s draft, and Hunter Brzustewicz, who Calgary acquired from the Canucks when they traded Elias Lindholm to Vancouver, finished first and second in scoring among OHL defencemen in 2023-24.
The players to watch on the Oilers Rookie team are top prospects Sam O’Reilly and Matthew Savoie, who are playing together on the first forward line. Not many Oilers made an impression in the 2-0 loss to a Canucks team with quite a bit of AHL experience, but defence prospect Max Wanner was the team’s strongest skater.
Game Information:
Location: South Okanagan Events Centre
Start Time: 8:30 PM MT
Streaming: Oilers+ and NHL.com/Flames
Oilers Rookies Line Combinations:
The Oilers are going to ice a similar lineup to the one they used on Friday against the Canucks, per Tony Brar of Oilers TV. Connor Ungar will be the starting goaltender on Saturday after Nathan Day’s excellent performance on Friday.
Connor Clattenburg – Sam O’Reilly – Matthew Savoie
Matvey Petrov – Dalyn Wakely – James Stefan
William Nicholl – Jayden Grubbe – Ethan De Jong
Jesse Heslop – Carl Berglund – Vincent Desjardins
Matvey Petrov – Dalyn Wakely – James Stefan
William Nicholl – Jayden Grubbe – Ethan De Jong
Jesse Heslop – Carl Berglund – Vincent Desjardins
Hyde Davidson – Max Wanner
Nate Corbet – Marc Lajoie
Pier-Olivier Roy – Frankie Marrelli
Nate Corbet – Marc Lajoie
Pier-Olivier Roy – Frankie Marrelli
Connor Ungar
Flames Rookies Line Combinations:
Per Flames Nation, here are projected lines from the team’s morning skate.
Samuel Honzek – Sam Morton – William Strömgren
Lucas Ciona – Luke Misa – Andrew Basha
Jacob Battaglia – Jaden Lipinski – Matvei Gridin
Parker Bell – Luke McNamara – Hunter Laing
Lucas Ciona – Luke Misa – Andrew Basha
Jacob Battaglia – Jaden Lipinski – Matvei Gridin
Parker Bell – Luke McNamara – Hunter Laing
Artem Grushnikov – Hunter Brzustewicz
Eric Jamieson – Zayne Parekh
Axel Hurtig – Henry Mews
Eric Jamieson – Zayne Parekh
Axel Hurtig – Henry Mews
Waltteri Ignatjew
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING…
Players to Watch: We have two: netminder Waltteri Ignatjew and forward Samuel Honzek. Ignatjew is an easy one; this will be his first game action of any form in North America, so it’s a chance to see what a two-time second-division goalie of the year can bring to the smaller ice. For Honzek, it’s a potential bounce-back after a pretty pedestrian first outing against the Jets on Friday evening. It’s a big season for Honzek and we don’t need to see him lighting up the scoresheet, but it’d be nice if he was a bit more noticeable than he was on Friday.
