We are going through the list that I consider to be the Oilers’ top 10 most important prospects. This is not strictly a list of the most skilled young or unestablished players in the organization. In the first installment I explained my thought process and I’ll be including that paragraph in each one of these posts just so I don’t have to figure out 10 different ways of saying the same thing.
I plan on going over the top 10 most important prospects in the Oilers’ organization. This is a little different (though not by much) than going through what I consider are the 10 best prospects in the organization. The key difference is that their ranking is determined both by their potential as well as how much the NHL club needs them to succeed. For example, I believe Iiro Pakarinen is a better prospect than several players on this list but as another winger in an organization flush with them I don’t have him in my top 10 most important prospects.
The Oilers’ prospect pool gets significantly deeper as we enter the top half of these 10 most important players, but number 5 on the list isn’t a skater. In fact, this is the only Goaltender in the top 10. Like many observers I find goaltending prospects the most difficult to judge. They can have stellar junior careers then completely fall apart in the professional ranks. They can begin poorly in the ECHL and in short order climb up the ranks. On the whole they are the most difficult to judge, but for the Oilers right now Laurent Brossoit is the number 1 goaltending prospect in their system and on the inside track to an NHL job.
10)
Jujhar Khaira
9)
Kyle Platzer
8)
Greg Chase
7)
Anthon Slepyshev
6)
Bogdan Yakimov
5
Laurent Brossoit is the 5th most important Oiler prospect in Edmonton’s system in large part because he is being groomed to take over a spot on the NHL roster very soon. With both Scrivens’ and Nilsson’s contracts expiring this coming year the future of Edmonton’s backup position belongs to Brossoit.
The Oilers goaltending depth including the NHL club was a complete trainwreck not that long ago. The club has had extreme difficulty finding and developing netminders. Keep in mind that the most recent quality goalie brought up through their system was Dubnyk and he was mercifully shipped away after his ability to stop the puck imploded for an entire season. He bounced back, the prospect pool was still pretty bare.
Brossoit came to the Oilers via trade. He was the principle asset coming back to the Oilers in a rare trade with the Calgary Flames. Edmonton sent away Defenseman Ladi Smid as well as their own goaltending prospect Olivier Roy at a time when they desperately needed Defensemen. At the time, the NHL club suffered when it removed a veteran defender but the long term impact of the deal looks much better for the Oil. Nobody could have known that Smid would suffer a career threatening injury but even before then he was a 4D at his best. Brossoit on the other hand has risen to be a legitimate goaltending prospect.
The Oilers were extremely familiar with Brossoit already because he was the starting netminder for the Katz owned Edmonton Oil Kings of the WHL (who play out of Rexall Place). The organization knew about his character, work ethic, and had seen his ability to stop the puck up close. In many ways they probably knew him better than the Flames who had drafted him in the 6th round of the 2011 Draft. As we should be deeply aware, draft pedigree means less for goalies than any other position so the fact that he’s a former 6th rounder is meaningless compared to his ability to stop the puck.
At 6’3” and 200+ pounds Brossoit is not small, but he’s not big by NHL standards anymore (which I think is crazy). He has a reputation for using his agility in the net to recover and make the 2nd and 3rd saves when necessary. In his NHL debut last season he displayed a spectacular level of effort and concentration stopping 49 of 51 shots directed his way by Todd McLellan’s sharks. He was without question the best Oiler that night and surely deserved another game afterwards but a crowded net situation made that impossible.
Here are Brossoit’s numbers dating back to the 2008-2009 season as per HockeyDB
2008-09 Edmonton Oil Kings WHL 1GP 37 Mins, 5GA-0EN-0SO, 8.20GAA, 0W-0L-0T, 17 Sv 0.773 Sv%
2009-10 Cowichan Valley BCHL 21GP 999 Mins, 61GA-0EN-2SO, 3.66GAA, 10W-8L-0T, 552 Sv 0.901 Sv%
2009-10 Edmonton Oil Kings WHL 2GP 86 Mins, 4GA-0EN-0SO, 2.80GAA, 0W-1L-0T, 67 Sv 0.944 Sv%
2010-11 Edmonton Oil Kings WHL 34GP 1664 Mins, 92GA-2EN-2SO, 3.32GAA, 13W-12L-2T, 722 Sv 0.887 Sv%
2011-12 Edmonton Oil Kings WHL 61GP 3574 Mins, 147GA-3EN-3SO, 2.47GAA, 42W-13L-5T, 1558 Sv 0.914 Sv%
2012-13 Edmonton Oil Kings WHL 49GP 2854 Mins, 107GA-3EN-5SO, 2.25GAA, 33W-8L-6T, 1188 Sv 0.917 Sv%
2013-14 Abbotsford Heat AHL 2GP 94 Mins, 9GA-0EN-0SO, 5.72GAA, 0W-1L-0T, 42 Sv 0.824 Sv%
2013-14 Alaska Aces ECHL 3GP 126 Mins, 0GA-0EN-2SO, 0.00GAA, 2W-0L-0T, 40 Sv 1.000 Sv%
2013-14 Oklahoma City Barons AHL 8GP 416 Mins, 25GA-2EN-0EN, 3.60GAA, 2W-5L-0T, 199 Sv 0.888 Sv%
2013-14 Bakersfield Condors ECHL 35GP 2079 Mins, 74GA-1EN-6SO, 2.14GAA, 24W-9L-2T, 883 Sv 0.923 Sv%
2014-15 Oklahoma City Barons AHL 53GP 3049 Mins, 130GA-6EN-4SO, 2.56 GAA, 25W-22L-4T, 1457 Sv 0.918 Sv%
2014-15 Edmonton Oilers NHL 1GP 60 Mins, 2GA-0EN-0SO, 2.00GAA, 0W-1L-0T, 49 Sv 0.961 Sv%
Taking a few moments to peruse Brossoit’s numbers we can see that during the 3 years he was a regular WHL netminder Brossoit appeared in 144 games and won 88 of them. At his peak he appeared in over 60 games in 1 season and won 42 of them while sporting a decent though not stellar save percentage.
When Brossoit initially transitioned to the professional game as a member of the Flames he struggled in their system. That 2013-2014 season he ended up playing for 4 different clubs in 2 different leagues. It wasn’t until he took a regular job on Edmonton’s ECHL club that his save percentage started to resemble that of a real prospect.
Last year he cleared the ECHL completely and split duties with Richard Bachman on Edmonton’s AHL team. This year the club appears to have Brossoit penciled in as the 1A of their AHL affiliate although the addition of Anders Nilsson should push him. He should get a great number of starts based on both the success that he’s had and the fact that the club will want to get him those for developmental purposes.
Brossoit leapfrogs past a lot of players in this particular list because he represents such an important position. The Oilers are a team whose entire goaltending position is built on a stack of “maybes”. Maybe Talbot is the guy. Maybe Scrivens can bounce back. Maybe Nilsson has figured out the position. Maybe. The franchise needs this player to succeed. They are telegraphing an opening in 1 year’s time to the backup position that Brossoit could fill if he continues to develop as he has so far. Within a very short amount of time he could be the playing NHL games at arguably the most important position on any hockey team. That’s why Brossoit is number 5 on our 10 most important Oiler prospects.
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