Luypen pleasant surprise for Lauer’s Oil Kings
New Edmonton Oil Kings head coach Brad Lauer had three weeks to get to know his team and is down to one exhibition game to work out the kinks.
The Oil Kings conclude their exhibition season Friday (7 p.m.) at Servus Credit Union Place in St. Albert against the Red Deer Rebels.
“I think we’re building from week to week as far as the structure and the details of how we want our team to play,” said Lauer before practice Thursday. “It’s a process and I think we had another good week of that.”
The Oil Kings are 1-2-1 so far this exhibition season. Last weekend, they dropped a 6-5 overtime decision to the Calgary Hitmen at the Downtown Community Arena and then fell 6-2 in the rematch the following day in Carstairs.
Having been hired this off-season to replace Steve Hamilton, Lauer has been using the preseason to get acquainted with his roster and introduce new systems to the group.
On Friday, Lauer will ice an older, more experienced lineup, which is likely to resemble his team on opening night Sept. 21 against the Rebels at Rogers Place.
“We still have some extra guys here, which we’ll have all year, but we’ll have more of a veteran roster (Friday),” Lauer said. “But the biggest thing for us as coaches, we’ve been working on a lot of things as far as systems and that’s really the importance of exhibition games is gaining an understanding of what we want to do and then going out and executing and seeing who can do that.”
There have been some pleasant surprises so far for Lauer at training camp as opportunities opened up for youngsters with veterans Trey Fix-Wolansky (Columbus), Brett Kemp ( Vegas) and Wyatt McLeod (Pittsburgh) attending NHL rookie camps. Only Fix-Wolansky is still away.
Rookie Jalen Luypen leads the Oil Kings in pre-season scoring with two goals and an assist in three games.
“He’s played well for us,” Lauer said. “We’ve had him in exhibition games and he’s been on the radar every game. He’s been noticeable every game and he’s a guy, when you re-watch the game, you can see is detailed. He has some structure to his game, which is very noticeable on the ice. He’s done some good things to be noticed.”
Luypen, 16, of Kelowna, B.C., was selected by the Oil Kings in the ninth round of the 2017 WHL draft. Luypen is an outsider to make the team after scoring 18 goals and collecting 36 points in 36 games with the Okanagan Hockey Academy last season.
“I don’t know if he has been a surprise; our scouts had a lot of good things to say about him,” Lauer said. “It was nice to watch him go through camp with rookies and into main camp. I think he’s got better week to week, day to day. I think he understands some of the detail parts of the game, which takes time for some players to understand, and he seems to be getting it.”