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Some Comments On Samorukov

May 18, 2019, 3:06 PM ET [100 Comments]
Sean Maloughney
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT

I quite enjoyed reading all of your comments and grades you gave me on my report card. While there may be some suggestions I will not be taking, I would like to thank all of you for participating.

One area that was asked to be discussed by a majority of you was to provide more details and insight on the Oilers prospects. With that, today I am going to start with one of the most surprising risers in the Oilers system and a player who may even have a chance to be on the Oilers opening night roster next season; Dmitri Samorukov.

WHO IS SAMORUKOV

Dmitri Samorukov was drafted by the Oilers, 84th overall back in 2017, originally ranked 69th of all North American skaters. In his draft year he went 4-16-20 in 67 games with the Guelph Storm. At the time he was drafted, Samorukov was projected with his ceiling being that of a second pairing defenceman. His strong 2-way play, size, physicality and decent ability to move the puck were all bonus's for the young player. At the time the biggest question marks about him were his hockey sense and whether or not he would be able to better utilize his booming shot.

When he was drafted Edmonton likely expected in a best case scenario to get a shutdown left D man who could bring things like this to the Oilers.




Jumping ahead to 2018, Samorukov continued to work on both his skating and offensive game, being praised by coach George Burnett. It's not uncommon at all to see Russian players take longer to adapt to the North American game and Dmitri was no exception. His second season in the OHL saw his offensive totals spike, nearly doubling his previous 6 goals and finishing the season 11-23-34. After being eliminated in the first round of playoffs, Samorukov enjoyed a brief stint with the Condors, recording a couple of assists in the five games that he played in.

To this point there were certainly elements that showed Samorukov could be an NHL player but overall still flew under most Oilers fans radar. At the time he still looked like a distant bell, and perhaps a player who would be a call up when he was 22 or so.

This season opened all of our eyes.

After a slow start to the year, registering only 6 points in his first 23 games, Samorukov started lighting the lamp. From the end of November through to the beginning of March, he played 34 games and recorded 37 points in that time. That year he also was an assistant captain for Russia in the World Juniors, recording four points in seven games.

Samorukov continued to showcase his skating, two-way game and offensive tendencies through the rest of this OHL season and was a key player in the Guelph Storm's playoff run. Here are some of his highlights throughout this season.



Through these playoffs the Storm obliterated the Kitchner Rangers 4 games to 0, miraculous came back from a 3-0 deficit to win against Evan Bouchard's London Knights, came back against the Saginaw Spirit including a game where Samorukov scored a hat trick.



The Guelph Storm went on to beat the Ottawa 67's and take the J. Ross Robertson Cup and are currently facing the WHL champions, the Halifax Mooseheads for the Memorial Cup. An additional note here is another Oilers prospect, Ostap Safin plays for Halifax.

Looking at Samorukov's playoff run as a whole is more impressive when you really start breaking down the numbers. In the 28 games that Samorukov had played, he has scored 10-18-28, the most by a defenceman in the OHL Playoffs since Ryan Ellis.

Evan Bouchard has also been brought up in relation to Ryan Ellis due to his point total nearly eclipsing what Ellis did back in 2008/2009. Bouchard produced 87 points on a weak London Knights team, while Ellis did so on a Memorial Cup winning team. The idea that the Oilers may one day be able to run a Samorukov-Bouchard pairing is not only enticing, but could certainly be a reality.

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WILL HE BE AN OILER NEXT SEASON?

The more I look at the needs that Edmonton has, the more I firmly believe that GM Ken Holland should make moves, focusing on improving the depth on the wing this summer, and use next season to evaluate the defence to decide what long term solutions need to be addressed.

The Condors could have three future top 4 defencemen on their roster next season in Evan Bouchard, Dmitri Samorukov, and Joel Persson who did wonderful things in the Swedish Hockey League this past year. It might not be what all fans want, but I see Holland giving players like these, along with the likes of Caleb Jones and Ethan Bear small cups of coffee in the NHL and see which of them are capable of running with it.

Samorukov is another on what is becoming a very strong group of Oilers prospects at defence. This year saw his biggest jump yet, and fans should be very excited to see what he can do next season.
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