This in from the Edmonton Oilers, news that they have signed big and hyper-aggressive winger Connor Clattenburg to a three-year entry level contract.”The 2024 fifth-round NHL Draft selection is captain of the Flint Firebirds
and has scored 10 goals with 8 assists in 22 games thus far in the OHL Hockey season.
Said Bob Stauffer of the Oilers radio network: “Clattenburg played a very aggressive game in Penticton at the Rookie Tournament. He is physical, combative, and can bring a little bit of offence as well. Could be a stealth sleeper pick for the Edmonton Oilers.”
1. Like any fifth round draft pick, Clattenburg is a major long shot to make it as an NHLer, but as we’ve seen in recent years with late round Oilers picks John Marino and Michael Kesselring, sometimes players taken in those late rounds to defy the odds.
2. Clattenburg has taken his first major step in doing so, earning an entry level contract with the Oilers, even as he’s been in and out of the Flint line-up this year due to injuries. He’s made it into 22 of the team’s 32 games, but his point scoring rate is up considerably from last year, and his nasty, hyper-aggressive style of play remains intact, as seen in his 57 penalty minutes in 22 games. The young man is a Cal Clutterbuck-style hitting machine on the ice, and as Clutterbuck demonstrated that kind of player can come out of nowhere to have a long and successful NHL career. Clutterbuck was a third round pick who played in 1064 NHL games.
3. The Oilers are dead last in the NHL in hits per 60, just 13.4 per game, with NHL leader Florida at 28 per game. Florida stocks its fourth line with rough and aggressive hitting forwards. The Oilers might well do something similar. Right now the only Oilers forwards who play much of a hitting game are Vasili Podkolzin and Evander Kane, with Kane gone for much of the season with injury. Zach Hyman, Corey Perry and Leon Draisaitl play a physical puck protection game but they’re not big hitters. There will be openings this year and in years to come for forwards with enough skill to hang in the NHL game and with the determination, guts and ferocity to hit hard and often. Clattenburg is in the running for one such job.
4. The Cult’s own sharp-eyed Bruce McCurdy kept a close watch on Clattenburg for two games at the Penticton rookie tournament. Here’s what he reported: “The banging winger completed the first [line] and proved to be a decent choice thanks to his incessant physical play. His heavy pressure caused a Vancouver d-man to hear footsteps and cough up the puck, even as Clattenburg carried on to finish the check. Twice landed a pair of crunching checks on the same shift bringing his total to at least 5 hits in the first period alone. … He was heavily boarded by 25-year-old Dylan Anhorn, survived the crash, got up mad and proceeded to fill in his opponent with some solid punches. Somehow only coincidental minors were called after the bare-knuckled set-to. Made a good play to win the puck with an aggressive forecheck and feed it to a mate in the low slot, the type of sequence that will need to become a trademark if he is to make it in the pros… To these eyes he raised those expectations with a positive first impression.”
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