Oilers want their top rookies to set the tone early
There won’t be any startling revelations when Edmonton Oilers rookie camp starts Friday morning with 23 players hitting the ice at Rogers Place, unless we find out Shane Starrett’s brother Beau, signed to an AHL contract, can write country songs as well as farmhand Cooper Marody.
We know Evan Bouchard can run a power play, Tyler Benson is a clever playmaking left-winger, Kailer Yamamoto, coming off wrist surgery, still has a quick release around the net and the centre Marody, musical skills aside, had 64 points in 58 games as a rookie pro last year in Bakersfield.
Who we won’t see is defenceman Philip Broberg, the eighth player picked in the June draft. He’s playing in Skelleftea with the bigger, older boys in the Swedish Hockey League. Same with young Russian goalie Ilya Konovalov, the starter for Craig Mactavish with Yaroslavl of the KHL (they lost 5-2 to Spartak Moscow in their first game with Ty Rattie getting one of the goals).
The two fast Czech friends Matej Blumel and Tomas Mazura picked in the June draft are back in the U.S. — Blumel at the University of Connecticut as a freshman and Mazura in prep school at Kimball Union in New Hampshire. Seventh-round pick Max Denezhkin is with Yaroslavl’s hockey program, too.
“We want the players to show what got them here,” said Bakersfield head coach Jay Woodcroft, whose prospects will play Calgary’s kids Saturday in Red Deer and Tuesday in Calgary in lieu of a tournament format, which might return next fall in the Okanagan with Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Winnipeg rookies if every team is on board.
“We won’t slow them down with too much information … we want them to display their skills and give them a little bit of structure. We want them to make an impression on the new general manager (Ken Holland) and new coaching staff (led by Dave Tippett),” added Woodcroft.
“We want them establishing pro habits early, get the summer habits out of their game.”
Are they looking for, say, Benson, who had 66 points in 68 games last year in Bakersfield in his first pro season, or Bouchard, who finished his junior season in London last spring and stepped right in as a strong contributor in the playoffs for the Condors, to be in the running for NHL jobs right now, to be head and shoulders better than the other prospects?
“No. Thirty-one NHL organizations all begin on the same day: Sept. 5. That’s the first day of our hockey season and we want to establish a foundation as an organization. We want the players to bring what they can to the table. There’s no pressure on anybody to separate themselves,” said Woodcroft.
Woodcroft wouldn’t talk about the Oilers’ tournament situation in the future, but he was in Detroit with Holland when the Wings played in a tournament in Traverse City, Mich., against other NHL clubs and saw how beneficial it was. Holland will get a feel for the Oilers kids against Calgary in the two games, but most likely he’ll want to bring that tournament atmosphere back with the Oilers down the road.
“The tournament thing is better answered by Ken and Bob (Nicholson, the Oilers chairman), but whether you’re playing one team or a lot of teams you want to set these kids up for success. You want the kids to be able to compete in main camp. In a tournament, you see them competing against other organizations rather than just one, but our experience last year against Calgary was the first day we started to lay the foundation (for Bakersfield),” he said.
“It’s a good head start for the kids going to main camp.”
Obviously, they would love Broberg here, but he’s not.
“The development path he’s on is he’ll play in Sweden this year,” he said.
“There’s different ways to develop. He’s playing in a men’s league in a great organization.”
Yamamoto has performed admirably in two main camps, making the Oilers both times to start the NHL season, but has struggled to score once the real action starts. He was injured last year and is still only 20.
“This isn’t going to hurt him in any way. He made the main team last year, got sent down, got recalled, got hurt. He’s shown in the last two years he can make the Oilers out of camp. He has to make sure with the rookie camp he’s 100 per cent healthy and starts to build personal momentum to leave an impression on new management,” said Woodcroft.
“This rookie camp will be excellent for Benson, for Marody, for Yamamoto to set the tone. They’ve been through these camps before and they know the talent Calgary’s got with players like (Dillon) Dube (most likely on the Flames this season),” said Woodcroft.
Rookie camps allow the kids to take a breath before main camp.
“It allows them to get their feet wet against their peer group. When they head to main camp, there’s a week of adjusting out of their summer habits,” he said.