Oilers final pick of the day is a Russian, meaning the organization ignored the WHL and OHL this weekend. That’s breaking news. Corey Pronman had him No. 102. He’s a December 2000. He’s also one of the best Oilers picks on the day.
Corey Pronman: He’s a versatile forward, and has the skill and hockey sense to create offense. He’s a very good passer and finisher who scores with his above-average shot but also by attacking the net hard.
The Draft Analyst: A hard-working two-way center who made an immediate impression in training camp before leading the team in scoring in the regular season, Denezhkin is a tough out who always keeps his feet moving. He is a strong skater with above-average speed who forces opponents back and exploits any shred of open ice afforded to him.
I liked the first 2 picks. The goalie was a bit of a wildcard, but those are pretty good stats from a pretty good league.
The rest of the picks, who knows?
Seems to me Gretzky likes the shotgun approach to acquiring goalies. Get a big enough spray pattern and you’re bound to hit on one of them. The good thing is this guy has a 2 year contract in the KHL,so he has a place to play. If he works out, great.
Seconded!
shoots right….woohoo….
Just want to thank our host for all the work on the draft. It is much appreciated and, as others have said, it makes the whole weekend just a lot more fun. Thank you.
Munny,
Thanks for this post. Very informative, saved me the time and effort to do the same
In a few years the Oilers are going to be a tall very fast team with skill.
Not bad.
The draft was surprising, but all of the players drafted have the right things, not like the good old days.
Now, please purge dead salary. Add a short term RD and goalie, top 6 winger as he says and good to go.
All in all the organization behaves normally, the biggest surprise of all.
Great series of posts and commentary. Thankyou LT and crew for providing me a mid winter early morning guide to the craziness of draft and cheese. For what it’s worth, I think this has been the best draft (as in, potential players) since I started taking these things seriously (when I discovered Lowetide). Now, back to my coffee and weeding.
the AVALANCHE had an epic draft …. could , might be talked about for years .. we will see
“Oilers final pick of the day is a Russian, meaning the organization ignored the WHL and OHL this weekend.”
Makes sense to avoid the 2 best development leagues? OHL is anyway ..
Also, Edmonton has been great at developing Russians and Euros …… oh wait …
In Holland we trust ..!!!!
Lavoie watch his highlights why did this kid drop in our lap. I’m calling it right here and now this kid will be a 30 plus goal scorer for years to come and he’s exactly the type you need in the playoffs Lavoie is my favourite type of player goes to the fuking net bang in rebounds speed coming in off the wing. He’s no Pisani but I’m hoping he has Glenn Anderson DNA
Excited to track these players. Last two Oiler drafts were great so interesting to see how this one ends up.
MHL is a lower level junior league than WHL. And USHS, do you have any idea what that means? And a 30-goal OHL player was available… smh.
So many missed opportunities. Sad.
Konovalov is the most interesting pick to me, probably because it was such a surprise.
It’s pretty easy to understand the thinking though… “Hockey should’ve been called Goalie” and “Goalies are voodoo” basically means make more dice rolls on goalies. Backups are easy to acquire, For-sure starters near impossible. Young starters are often a team’s best value contract.
And our GM is a former goalie. I wouldn’t be surprised if he takes one every year… or two out of every three years.
Looking at Kona’s numbers…
25-15-1 // .930SP // 10 SOs // 6’0″ 194 lbs.
He was the best goalie under age 23 In the K. There were a number of good 23 yos, but the only one that approached his 45 game workload was Ilya Sorokin, taken 78th overall by the Isles in 2014. Sorokin posted a .940 in 40 games for CSKA.
The closest starter/platooner in age to Kona was Anton Krasotkin, an undrafted 21 yo who played 32 games way out in Vladivostok and posted a .923 SP.
Comparing within the team, the principal backup was 32 yo Alexander Salak, who posted a .922 in 20 starts. Kona had 10 shutouts to Salak’s 4… 1 every 4 starts compared to 1 every 5.
45 starts is a very impressive number for a 20 year old in the K, and Kona’s 10 shutouts trailed only Sorokin’s 11. Accordingly, he was Rookie of the Year and won several weekly/monthly honours.
Yaroslavl finished second in Division Tarasov, 20 points behind division leaders CSKA, who won the K this past season.Best of the mid-pack teams basically.
Loko’s GF-GA was 159-118, compared to CSKA’s 191-75. They were knocked out in the 2nd round of the playoffs, losing to St. Pete’s in 5. Kona played in 8 out of the 11 matches, but I haven’t been able to easily suss out how he did just yet.
Edit: Went 3-3, 1 SO with a .905 in this year’s playoffs with Loko, indicating how much they got chewed up by SKA in the Round 2 series. The year before he won the MHL Championship with Yaroslavl, playing in 16 playoff games, posting 12-2, .945 and 4 SOs, and was named Playoff MVP.
As far as goaltender prospects go, this appears to be a quality pick.
Oilers final pick of the day is a Russian, meaning the organization ignored the WHL and OHL this weekend.
Pahh, boys against boys.
I am pleased with all of these selections, and look forward to training camp and how the prospects do next season. A lot of names to get to know. I wish they had a new version of the Penticton Tournament.
Thank you for the lovely community here.
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So proud to be selected by the @EdmontonOilers in the 2019 NHL Draft! Iťs a dream come true to do it along my best friend @blumel_matej!
Pretty cool sidebar to this years draft.
Pierre LeBrunVerified account @PierreVLeBrun · 14m14 minutes ago
Poile says it basically came down to 4 teams for Subban. And it sounds like only NJ would take on the full contract.
The draft coverage and pho mai board selection was sublime. Lowetide is a draft sommelier that other fans only wish they had. Funny how a childhood hobby can become a full time dream. #theAlchemist
I’m happy with our draft selections. The only wish was that we didn’t take a goalie this year especially when there is a need for forwards in a bad way. We got size, speed and skill. Good combo for heavy hockey in the playoffs.
Cap confirmed at $81.5M
We just saw how expensive cap space became to acquire with the Marleau and Subban deals and I don’t think Holland will pay the price to dispose of anchors. Lucic is untradeable for cap space – the cost would be egregious.
There seems to be interest in Russell the player so that remains a hope for cap space.
Holland clearly has shown his paramountcy of the ultimate goal (building a cup contender) over the immediate expectation of playoffs and I think it’s clear he won’t pay the market prices for cap space.
On the other hand, I wonder if this leads him to a buyout that he was contemplating. There are a few days left. I really hope not – no one with term at least and no legit NHL players (Sekera for example).
– Kind of like last year: toolsly D that skates well with first and a F that projected a little higher.
– Thought the 3rdwas a big time waste: would rather a speedster lottery ticket than a non-stud G
– Anyway carry on: doesn’t matter for three years: need the macleod benson kailer marody Pool (or his replacement) to earn roster spots next two seasons.
– team would be in good shape if both kailer and pool were bonafide at any capacity this year.
– congrats on this LT: this is one of your strongest parts of this blog: all the work that leads up to today then a flurry of summaries. Have some wine and a nice meal this evening!
Of course,
how else are you going to find out about his quick release?
Dallas only loves one person.
They Telegraphed the Broberg pick as well as Lucic going to Van. The canucks are quietly putting together a nice team but they’re missing a brute. I really think that deal is in place come July1st. The interview with Travis Green who I like had that feel that they were a skilled team and in a week plus were bringing home the tough guy who I think would be rejuvenated and score over 13 and do all the other stuff that he used to be good at for a couple of years.
Kid is already a freak
I hear he spends hour after hour in the gym pumping dead weight
Other than Lavoie, all the forwards taken today seem to be projects. Which I suppose fits the Holland template (and their slotting). Nice emphasis on skating.
You really didn’t think Oiler Lifer Mc T would be out of the picture did you.
Munny,
Ben,
Dallas Eakins would have loved this guy
Also this Russian Casanova is already a stud prospect
Mac T did.
And when they try to enter the zone from the back end it turns into a soft dump.
In their own end the play is loose in the slot way too often.
In the other team’s end the Oilers can’t even get near the slot a lot of nights.
Thanks for all your draft coverage LT! It’s an integral part of one of the best weekends of the year.
Ben,
Agreed, I’m not upset about it. More of a conduit and should be easier to influence for more playing time.
Virgin Breakers are the new Piss Cutters
As much as this reeks of old-timey Oilerism, having MacT on some kind of retainer to report back on KHL players wouldn’t be the worst idea.
Finally! This team has been in desperate need of a virginbreaker for years.
Well done LT, your work on draft days and before is admirable
I hope our Russian scouts interviewed those virgins.
From Google translate:
“Denezhkin make third-good scoring in Norilsk second-group intramural league, playing hardly wing and substitute referee. Denezhkin carry cow water fourteen forevers and break proper virgins in all matches.”
Interesting stuff!
The second pick today that will be playing for MacT next season.
It seems like the Oilers drafted mainly for size (all except Denezhkin at or >6 feet tall) and speed this time.
Aside from not catching some of the fallers (Honka, Murray, Cajkovic, etc.), I can’t find much to quibble about from this draft.