It’s happened before. Will it happen again? Maybe even this year?
A young unknown, unheralded, undrafted hockey prospect has come into the Edmonton Oilers rookie camp and wowed everyone from fans to players, from pundits to Connor McDavid himself, and has earned an Entry Level Contract.
Will we see the same again at the Edmonton Oilers rookie camp at Young Stars tournament this weekend in Penticton, where Edmonton’s prospect players and hopefuls will face the like from the Calgary Flames, Winnipeg Jets and Vancouver Canucks organizations.
The Edmonton Oilers just announced their roster for this weekend’s tournament. Of course, all Oil Country eyes will be on the organizations top prospects, Matthew Savoie of St. Albert, London, Ontario’s Sam O’Reilly, and highly-ranked d-men Beau Akey and Maximus Wanner.
Meanwhile fans will be wondering what to make of no-namers like Brayden Boehm, Vincent Desjardins, Jesse Heslop, Nate Corbet, Hyde Davidson, Frankie Marrelli, Rhys Pederson, Pier-Olivier Roy and Brett Brochu, undrafted players who are all long shots to stick in the American Hockey League one day, let alone earn a National Hockey League contract.
Perhaps one of them will stand out in major fashion.
Stranger things have happened, and the most wonderful of them all was the sudden rise of Braden Christoffer at the 2015 Young Guns tournament in Penticton. That Oilers rookie roster that year was studded with players who would become Edmonton Oilers players, including Darnell Nurse, Ethan Bear, Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Anton Slepyshev.
But for a few weeks at least, it was Braden Christoffer of the Regina Pats who grabbed the attention of Oilers fans and pundits. It was a fantastic story while it lasted.
Heading into the tournament, Christoffer, then 21, a small, aggressive and fast winger from Sherwood Park, had just finished his over-age year in Regina and had earned an American Hockey League contract with the Oilers that summer.
At the tournament, he scored a goal in every single game he played and earned rave reviews.
Said then Cult of Hockey writer Jonathan Willis of Christoffer after Edmonton beat the Calgary rookies: “I’ve already confessed my fondness for dark horse prospects, and for anyone with that bent this game had a lot to offer. Braden Christoffer stood out again, scoring the tying goal after several other excellent chances didn’t find the back of the net.”
The Journal’s Jim Matheson knew a story when he saw one and did a full piece on Christoffer.
“This year’s warm and fuzzy Oilers story from the Young Stars Classic might be Sherwood Park’s Braden Christoffer, the former Regina Pats’ captain, who’s always been late to the party. Never picked in the Western Hockey League’s bantam draft. Never picked in the NHL draft… Yet the left-winger scored an electrifying Connor McDavid-style goal, slicing between two Vancouver Canucks defenders and roofing a shot past their goalie Clay Witt Friday night and almost got a second one from his knees late in the 8-2 victory. On Saturday, the 21-yearold buried Leon Draisaitl’s pass to tie it 3-3 and finished things off by setting up Josh Winquist for a 5-3 empty-netter. He’s gone from ‘Who’s he?’ to ‘What a player.’
Matheson asked McDavid about Christoffer.
“Christoffer’s been great,” said McDavid. “He’s a real leader. He’ll do whatever it takes for his teammates and you love to see that. He’s a guy you want to be around and obviously his play speaks for itself. “He wasn’t drafted but a lot of guys fall through the cracks. I guess Edmonton’s got some pretty smart management to bring him to this camp.”
As for Christoffer, “I fantasized about being here,” he said, proud to wear the Oilers’ logo.
After the Young Guns, Christoffer had a great game before 14,434 fans at Rexall Place, as the Oilers rookies beat the University of Alberta Golden Bears 6-to-3. Draisaitl dazzled that game, but Christoffer held his own on Drai’s wing.
I wrote of him: “Who is this guy? Continues to impress with a gutsy and skilled north-south game. He evidently has a great desire to make it as a pro. He outplayed more heralded rookies at this camp.”
Christoffer survived the first cut at the main NHL camp. A few weeks later, he earned his prize, a full three-year Entry Level Contract with the Oilers.
It was evident he would be hard-pressed to get ice time in Bakersfield, I wrote at the time, let alone ever make the jump to the NHL, but he’d taken a huge step.
As it turns out, that was the high point of Christoffer’s time in the Oilers organization. He scored just one goal in 33 games for Bakersfield in the AHL that year. In three more Bako seasons, he never was more than a fourth liner. Eventually he moved on to pro leagues in Austria and Findland, before signing to play for Bolzano in Italy this year.
But his sudden rise shows that it can be done. Perhaps we’ll see a similar story emerge this year. I can’t recall any such player ever making the full jump from obscurity to the NHL with the Oilers, but perhaps I’ve forgotten some player who has done it, and no doubt it’s happened in some other NHL organization.
Dare to dream.
2024 Cult of Hockey prospect rankings
- Goalies: #8 Olivier Rodrique | #14 Eemil Vinni
- D-men: #3 Beau Akey | #4 Maximus Wanner | #11 Philip Kemp | #15 Nikita Yevseyev
- Wingers: #2 Sam O’Reilly |#6 Roby Jarventie | #7 Raphael Lavoie | #9 Maxim Berezhkin | #12 Shane LaChance | #13 Matvey Petrov
- Centres: #5 Noah Philp | #10 Jayden Grubbe |
- Introduction + long shots #s 26-33 | Depth prospects #21-25 | Depth prospects #16-20
- Background: Edmonton Oilers prospect pool takes a beating from NHL draft insiders