There is a certain sameness about AHL prospects. All of them have talent and all of them have flaws. They repeat, year after year, with only the names changing. Few win the day. Please read this.
When the band Pere Ubu were on tour supporting their first album, they came across a complex that featured many, many apartments that looked identical. It reminded them of dub music, a repetitive sound recorded ‘on a loop’ that gave a musical feel similar to the Baltimore housing project observed by the band. Dub Housing. That’s kind of the AHL.
You can view it as dreary, and most of the kids who are AHL prospects don’t make it. And you know, it’s damned hard to identify the future successes in real time. One of the best results for the Oilers during the Bakersfield years is Vincent Desharnais. The Oilers weren’t completely convinced of him even after drafting the guy! When Desharnais turned pro, he received an AHL contract from the organization, there were no promises the NHL would be the final destination. He didn’t sign an NHL contract until March of 2022, and I’d give Jay Woodcroft some credit for helping Desharnais but most goes to the player.
OILERS GAMES PLAYED BY AHL PROSPECT SINCE 2015
- Evan Bouchard 432
- Jesse Puljujarvi 387
- Ryan McLeod 381
- Kailer Yamamoto 374
- Jujhar Khaira 337
- Ethan Bear 275
- Caleb Jones 255
- Phillip Broberg 232
- Dylan Holloway 227
- Stuart Skinner 226
- Vincent Desharnais 220
- Mike Kesselring 193
- Laurent Brossoit 141
- William Lagesson 107
Matt Savoie and Ike Howard will be next to land on the 100+ games list, but the decade or so since the Condors became the top farm club has been fruitful. Evan Bouchard didn’t belong in the AHL but spent a year there anyway. Jesse Puljujarvi and Kailer Yamamoto arrived in the NHL early and had peak seasons right away. The list of productive players lost along the way is large and painful, but the Condors develop them and the managers ignore or trade them.
There are this year’s Condors after two games. The top forwards are Quinn Hutson (total points), Daniel D’Amato (even strength points and goal share). Last season, after two games, Roby Jarventie was 2-2-4 and Jarventie and Rem Pitlick were 3-1 even-strength goals. I wish the Oilers had signed Jarventie.
Josh Brown is just being silly here, my goodness that’s an impressive start to the season. Last year he was trying to fight his way out of Bakersfield, this year it’s finesse. Also last year, Dineen-Leppanen was especially wayward in the early hours of the season. This year’s Condors have some impressive young prospects in Damien Carfagna, Tomas Cibulka and ‘the man time forgot’ Beau Akey and we’ll see how they shine.
Ungar’s first go of the season was a little rocky, but early days.
On the Lowdown today, our feature guest is Shawn Belle, plus we have the roundtable with the ‘future of radio’ trio of Declan Krueger, Josh Fenwick and Donovan Paulson attempting to insert the garlic-covered wooden stake through my heart during daylight hours. Oilers, MLB playoffs and more. Noon to 2pm, Sports 1440 and You Tube.
Oilers’ Vasily Podkolzin combining luck, skill and hard work to find another level
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7659634/2026/10/06/vasily-podkolzin-oilers-stats-2026/
just fyi, Jarventie had a good start in the Swiss league… 5 goals and 6 assists in 9 games
Nice to see Roslovic get off the Schied. I’ve always liked players that quietly create on their own. Roslovic has a shot that continues to fool NHL goalies.
and an incredible ability to be outside of the shooting lane against….
3 goals in 51 playoff games
Taylor Hall on his way 20 plus goals should have jumped on him when he was down in the dumps. Eberle-Nuge-Hall would make a pretty good line.
Woah! That’s some subtle topshelf artsie Jeopardy arcana from Lowetide! Pere Ubu the band, references Ubu Roi, a proto-surrealist/dadaist-absurdist play from the 1890s (I think) which is quite in keeping with our present day. The play was written by Alfred Jarry. That’s right, Jarry! I am picturing LT hanging out in HUB with a black turtleneck and coffees before finally heading over the Chinese Reading Room at the Rutherford Library. Maybe off to write a sports column for the Gateway but nah, that was another familiar sports media name.
whoops – looks like Melvis beat me to the punch!
RIP Eva Marie Saint
102 years old
She was wonderful in both On the Waterfront and North by Northwest
She was brilliant.
Is it just me, or do the Bakersfield forward prospects look awfully weak compared to years past? Other than Hutson and Marjala (and Clattenburg in a different way), do any of them have NHL potential? (Granted, we expected Owen Michaels to be in the Bake, so that’s a success rather than a failure.)
Thankfully the D seem much more promising. I am still in Atro Leppanen’s corner. His year-over-year progress since age 21 has been almost unprecedented in hockey history.
They could use Samanski or Michaels for sure, but I’m looking forward to watching Nicholl and where he lands. Trelmaks also an interesting player.
They are down Howard and Jarventie from the end last year (I don’t really count Hamblin nor Poulin as real prospects).
Lets not forget though, 2-4 forwards to come off the NHL roster – they could get a combo of Samanski/Howard/Michaels plus Jones.
Does anyone remember the Ryan Whitney experiment ? The only thing I can recall is a messed up ankle.
I like him better on Spittin Chicklets than I liked him as a player lol To answer yes, it was an ankle IIRC.
For a brief time, he was playing at Norris level. That foot wouldn’t hold though.
2010-11. 27 points in 35 games and +13 on a losing team with everyone in the red.
Whit was a very good Oiler for that brief pre injury amount of time.
Yup. Solid until the injury. Then not good. Whit did not accept that w grace.
It was a good signing he was a number 1-2 D-man before the injury. He loved the intensity of the fans in Edmonton especially the nasty ones.
It was a trade, and a terrible one.
We should have kept Visnovski, but was too much Barbara Ann Scott for Pat Quinn’s liking.
Thats right I thought it was a trade then I looked it up and A-I told me it was a free agent signing. History is getting rewritten before our eyes. Who knows how many years a healthy Whitney plays quality hockey kind of reminds me of Souray before Iginla slewfooted him. A healthy Souray would score 30 plus if playing in the Bouchard spot. He also would of punched out Bennett-Tkachuk lights
That’s pretty eclectic LT. Pere Abu was on Night Music – hosted by David Sanborn back in 1988. It’s on youtube.
What if Tristan Jarry is an absurdist goalie and direct descendant of Alfred Jarry who wrote the absurdist play Ubu Roi in 1896?
As Ubu was “fat, ugly, vulgar, gluttonous, grandiose, dishonest, stupid, jejune, voracious, greedy, cruel, cowardly and evil ” – this is a perfect time to reprise the play – given a certain american president.
Excellent.
Thanks.
— had never heard of this band so looked up their “hit” which was called waiting for Mary. Such a weird video. But the lyric “what are we doing here” very much what AHL players ask themselves
— glad I looked it up : seems like a SCTV skit!
— Thanks for sharing this LT
Pere Ubu is an acquired taste – but Night Music, also known as Late Night was probably one of the best two years of tv music shows ever -funny you mentioned SCTV. Lorne Michaels of SNL fame also ran Night Music
I miss Anton Lander. There, I said it.
I miss Slepyshev honorable mention to Letestu.
I miss Dan Currie.
I miss Mark Arcobello.
I miss Brandon Davidson.
Slewfooted by Tkachuk which put a damper on his career
The Anton Lander Appreciation Society (ALAS) expresses their thanks. (The Original Pouzar, who still posts here occasionally, is also well remembered for his regular chastising of MacT for pushing him too quickly.)
Bunting signs a 1 year, $1.2M deal with the Flyers.
Hey it’s that guy who was supposed to be better than Hyman.
Thank goodness Hyman has been one of the best free agent signings in our history. Kudos to Holland and Kudos to Hyman who is probably lifting the Cup after Nuge if it wasn’t for asshole Marchment unintentionally or as I see it intentionally hurting him. There was no need for the cheap shot as Marchment and the rest of the Stars knew the Oilers had them.
*in history.
Small but very important detail.
That’s what heck of a deal him and his agent finally wised up. The Bunting gang overplayed his worth I bet he had offers at 2 or 3 years for double the money or close to it. The man can score by himself in the bottom of the order he will get 15 goals.
I do think JJ Khaira made the NHL purely thanks to Woodcroft.
It is very hard for a player who must have felt supported by his club and his coaches to make the NHL but then get traded. Its hard to rebuild that same relationship, and when you are only hanging on by a thread, and then must compete with another clubs up-and-comers, its very difficult.
Todd Nelson and Gerry Fleming are the head coaches on record. Jay Woodcroft was an assistant with the Oil during his entire AHL development time. Their paths would have crossed 1 year in 2017-18 while he was an assistant with the Oil when he had a full time season.
Khaira was gone by 20-21, while Woodcroft was coach of Bakersfield by then.
Are you saying Woody was responsible for Khaira staying up with the big club when he neither developed nor knew him? Good on Woody if you know that for a fact.
Im fuzzy on exact dates.
However, I recollect Woody working extensively with Condors call ups and particular video working with JJ on skill development on Oilers ice at OIlers practice. Woody would be assistant coach at this time and he played a strong part in supporting call up players like JJ.
Woody then took on Condors full time and established relationships with the farm club which included top or even unknown players.
When Woody got the Oilers bench JJ had moved on, or was moving on, but the littlest Hobo gave Desharnais and others a shot at making the team or at least a cup of coffee.
Yes, Im giving Woodcroft credit for working with the young players, affecting head coach decisions to call them and play them. I think Woodcroft, in his support as assistant coach and Bakersfield coach was excellent in bringing along young players, much more so than McLellan, Tippet or Knoblauch
They definitely could score under Woody. I believe our scoring machine dropped 50 goals or close to it. Actually it went from 325-GF down to 292-GF then 259-GF the following year than it went up a bit to 282-GF . The first 10 games of the 292-GF season was Woodys. K.K instilled his brand of hockey which was to kill offence for defence because our goalie needed recalibration every 2 weeks and in the bullpen was a career AHL back-up playing his heart out and was loved by his teammates.
— The list of AHLers that played in NHL is interesting it seems light but I wonder since 2015 how this drafting compares to the draft and development of other teams.
— Going through our draft history it’s pretty damning that outside of 1st round since 205 there really isn’t a drafted player that you’d be like “man we really could use that guy now”. Kesserling Marino : sure bottom pair D. Skinner was ok for awhile. Mcleod was a trade asset
— pretty brutal it’s shocking how bad
Holland improved his handicap some nice courses in the Okanagan.
— since 2019 we have one player drafted after first round (Mcleod) that played a meaningful role for the oilers over multiple seasons
— there’s a bunch of “lost years” as well.
Holland is a nice guy players like signing with him because he takes care of veterans. Holland said it from the horses mouth “We don’t have time for development we are trying to win a Cup or Cups” Bowman lives for developing the bottom half of the team with big skilled fast and a threat to score come playoff time. The Howard as an energy player experiment like I mentioned on a 100 occasions since this time last year needs to end now before his value is in the gutter. Either play Howard top 6 minutes or trade Howard for some bottom 6 sandpaper than call-up Clattenburg and get the party started.
Trading Howard or not, I would suggest they let the second year pro that barely played any minutes last year the continuing opportunity to develop the the appropriate league.
He should have been test driven by K.K and now Babcock. The question is why? He’s a puck hound works his butt off yet Nuge-Savoie-Dickinson injuries Mike won’t elevate him to the spot where he’s effective. We all seen him take a pass from Leon and bury it yet they have him on mop up duty. It’s frustrating to watch just as for who with Dach at Centre Instead of Samanski.
My post was about Clattenburg’s development.
I believe Marino asked to be moved? – someone refresh my memory.
he plays 20 mins / night and had 36 points last year in Utah. 7 YEARS in the league. I would say we could use him.
McLeod was more than a trade asset. we could use him now too.
But to your point, after that their ain’t much to speak of …
Marino refueed to sign. He was a Boston guy Chiarelli knew like Stan with his Illinois guys. When he was gone, any remote chance of Marino went with him.
Peter Chairella was Marino’s path to the NHL. Peter was fired so Marino was not signing with Holland and he made the right move. Holland doesn’t like developing players he wants Vets who are supposedly surer things.
Holloway and Broberg. Ouch.
Both drafts produced some star players drafted after Broberg and Holloway.
If you think that’s light, go check out San Jose.
They make the Oilers look like drafting kings.
I haven’t checked out other clubs but it was a comparison awhile back. It’s wild.
It’s so crazy how we lucked out in our first few drafts with Kurri-Anderson-Messier-Lowe-Coffey-Moog-Fuhr add Linesman as well as he was just getting going at a young age as the original Rat. If we had the money back then we’re talking 8-10 Cups minimum.
Practice this morning (they fly to LA later Friday), per Stauff:
Podkolzin-McDavid-Draisatl
Frederic-Dickinson-Kapanen
Samanski/Jones-Dach-Howard
Formenton-Michaels-Joseph
Ekholm-Bouchard
Shea-Murphy
Walman-Emberson
Stastney-Muhkamadullin
Levi
Jarry
Fascinating that Samanski is rotating in on the wing, while Dach is still at center. Especially since Dach-Samanski-Howard seems like it could be a really solid bottom 6 line for the team in general.
Will be curious to see how long this Babcock obsession with Dach at centre will last???? I still remember Taylor Hall at centre…. That didn’t go well.
Why is the Dach Centre experiment so polarizing? It’s like people actually want him to fail. It could be a huge win if it materializes out that a big Centre that can skate-fight-hit-skill-win faceoffs pans out. At the very least Babcock can put Dach in his hip pocket for later use against certain teams.
I don’t think anyone wants him to fail but most are watching with their eyes.
I know mate. This may be a case of Mike feeling it. Dach will return to wing once Dickinson returns. Jason is screwing the whole order after the first line. Until Michael’s becomes a liability even if his game is vanilla as long as nobody scoring against his line when it counts. Garbage goals mean Zippo Babcock knows this but he’ll never admit it. Michael’s scored a big goal against a dialed in goalie it took a fluke goal or else Seattle probably wins in OT the way he was playing.
I bet there’s a number of games they are giving him in the role to see how it goes. Whether it be 5 or 10. They will run it and not over react to a good or bad game and see if it works.
Dach is not the winger Hall was though.
It will be mind-boggling to me if Babcock goes with the natural center, Samanski, on the wing and the clear winger, Dach, at center – in particular if they go on the same line.
Does anyone not think that Dach is more effective on the wing when he is more able to crash and bang and what not?
Dach played center his whole life until he arrived in the NHL. So I don’t think it’s really all that mind boggling. The question might be is Samanski truly a natural center and maybe he’s better suited on the wing?
This is why you have a strong willed coach that doesn’t allow social media to infiltrate-influence your decisions on who plays and where they play.
Reja ‘gainst the machine launches another chud missile across the bow! All in for the strongman!
I’m all in with Babcock If this goes south we are hooped for a decade. I don’t like Babcock because he had stacked teams in Detroit who always found a way to lose when it counted until that one time. All it takes is one Cup and you’re a hero just like Peter Chiarelli.
I’m well aware the Dach played center growing up and in junior – as did MANY wingers in the NHL. I can only provide my opinion but (1) he has struggled at center since he was put there (center mistakes leading to goals against), (2) the numbers also suggest its not working great, no points, 0-4 goals at 5 on 5 and (3) for me, his skill sets looks to be much more effective on the wing where he can used his speed and aggression to cause offensive zone chaos and get bangs in without having to worry about the extra positional responsibilities of a center in the defensive and defensive transition center.
I saw, with my own eyes, Samanski effective as a center last regular season and, even moreso, in last year’s playoffs.
Just my opinion.
Once Savoie-Nuge-Hyman is healthy the team looks pretty damn deep. It maybe looks like this if you just sub them straight in as line 2:
Podkolzin-McDavid-Draisatl
Savoie-Nuge-Hyman
Frederic-Dickinson-Kapanen
Formenton-Michaels-Joseph
Samanski/Jones-Dach-Howard (Howard is def getting squeezed eh?)
Ekholm-Bouchard
Shea-Murphy
Walman-Emberson
Stastney-Muhkamadullin
Levi
Jarry
Imagine McDrais driving their own lines.
Totally, but we seem to be going down the path of McDrai is written in stone as part of the first line.
Well it might be different on the road anywhere other than Vancouver. Playing the California teams on the road might be more challenging.
One of these lines is not like the others
In regard to the others, which line is which?
LINE 1
LINE 2-
LINE 4
LINE 4
— I think you mean they fly later Tuesday to LA for the game on Wednesday in Anaheim
— I’m always curious about the flight planning for professional teams for away games.
— it makes sense to fly out day before
— on the 13th they play LA. Given how late the game ends and off day Wednesday do they fly home that night and arrive at like 4am or do they get proper sleep that night after game and fly on 14th as they would if it was an away game?
— do teams decide? The players ? Collective bargaining for the sport , sleep specialists etc?
— anyway it’s a window that I would find interesting: for the NFL game in Australia SF flew in a week early and Rams the day before. So totally different approaches
— my gut says there isn’t much “science” behind travel choices in NHL they just do it as it’s always been done whatever that may be.
Teams almost never fly in on game day (but generally like to fly out after road games – often getting in during the middle of the night).
Whether they fly back from LA that night or the next day is likely a decision made by the coach (presumably in consultation with the players).
I think there are restrictions about flying on game day for flights longer than 3 hours (or something like that) but I haven’t looked at that in a while.
This is a weird road trip it’s bonding time fly the wives and girlfriends out for a week in the sun and surf. Levi-Jarry need to be fresh who ever plays better in his start gets the last game of the road swing. The Jarry hiccup is not going to sway sweet FA if Jarry comes up large against those competive Sharks. The game will be emotional playing against Nurse. I hope they burn him back door a few times just for old times sake nothing personal.
I’d imagine that if Dickinson isn’t able to play they would place Dach with Freddy & Kapanen then Samanski with Jones & Howard. I have no idea who would sit in the event if Dickinson plays but Dach is playing center.
They have ample wingers to play with the most logical center alignment of Conner, Leo, Dick & Mike. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t?
Condors have fought hard through two road games in Henderson.
Hutson is the top offensive talent, even though his production is highly PP reliant. He was benched after three straight stick penalties in one period.
Carfagna and Cibulka (on his off side) lead D as the top pair (even though Josh Brown has bad a major offensive impact in two games).
Nicholl/Clatt makes the fan look forward to 4th line shifts.
They told Clattenburg temper the shenanigans you need to play minutes to hone your skills. Clattenburg scored a nice bang in goal. I think Nicholl might see some action in the NHL it’ll take time yet I see the Dale Hunter effect in his game.
Nichell has a chance to play in the NHL but its likely to take a while.
His path to the NHL is elite 2-way energy 4th liner and PK guy and its going to take a while.
Give him 2 more years Nicholl needs to stay healthy. It helps that Clattenburg is his private security man just like in that movie The Bodyguard with Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner.
As fans of this franchise, we have some connection to these players. But in all honesty, there’s barely a warm body that another team would be interested in even as a ‘throw-in’ to sweeten a trade.
That’s exactly what Vincent Desharnais and MIke Kesselring looked like not long ago. Carfagna and Cibulka could be NHL players in the future. We just can’t identify the actual player from here. Progress will be made.
D-men and Goalies are a crapshoot you see so many good ones emerge deep in the draft and after they grow into their bodies. The league wants D-men big strong on the wall and can make passes there’s also room for smaller ones with dynamic in their game. Bowman did a good job scouring the planet for D-men-Goalies as we have and had from the previous administration very few draft picks in the pipeline.
I agree on the job Bowman’s done in that regard. He typically manages to extract an extra little piece in all his trades.
Before them it was Oesterle and was it Brad Hunt? Pitlick was unloved but managed games on several teams.
Pitkick-Cleary-Maltby-Chimera-Cogliano could all skate. I’ve talked to some Junior players on why they didn’t make the NHL. Same answer everytime couldn’t skate fast enough and didn’t have the edges. The Oilers are a fast team both Bowman-Babcock-D.J are on the same page. Formenton falling in our lap for minimum wage is going to be money in the bank especially the P.K
Oh LT that list is a mixed bag of sad, mad, and bad. We all have our own feelings that have been hammered here since the DoD ice age but my sad pick is Klefbom, what could’ve been, probably would still be a reliable 2nd pair to this day.
I think it’s a great list and a damnation of Holland’s work. It is a powerful list.
I would hate the list less if we hadn’t given away the only two guys that Holland drafted that were any good. If we’d kept Holloway and Broberg, we’d have significantly more age balance to the roster.
Agree completely.