2024 Edmonton Oilers prospects
#13 W Matvey Petrov
- Previously: #3 in 2023
- Age 21, 6’2, 195 lbs., drafted #180 overall in 2023
This summer 33 Edmonton Oilers prospects were identified for the Cult of Hockey‘s fourteenth annual summer rankings, with a 34th hopeful, d-man Paul Fischer, acquired since our rankings were finalized.
The Oilers acquired the rights to 22 of those players through the NHL Draft, the other dozen by other means including trades and free-agent signings. Among those drafted:
- 9 were selected from the CHL, including 6 players from the Ontario League, 2 from Quebec and a lonely 1 from the local WHL.
- 6 came through sources in the USA, be they high school, prep school, the USHL or direct from NCAA. 2 of those 6 were European nationals who’d already made the move stateside.
- 7 were drafted from European clubs, including 4 from Russia and 1 each from Germany, Sweden and Finland.
- So far, just 6 of those 22 draftees have been signed to NHL-class contracts, 4 from the CHL and 1 each from USA and Russia.
This observer remains weirdly fascinated by the Oilers’ weird fascination with drafting Russian prospects after many years, nay decades of underwhelming results. So far by my count the squad has drafted 33 players with connections to Russia or the former Soviet Union, by birth and/or development.
It’s not that the NHL squad hasn’t had a number of solid Russian players over the years. Boris Mirinov, Andrei Kovalenko, Igor Ulanov, Sergei Samsonov, Nikolai Khabibulin and Klim Kostin are among those who helped the team from a little to a lot, from a short time to a lengthier stay. But every one of those players was acquired as a known commodity, be it in a trade or as an unrestricted free agent.
The draft? Another story entirely:
In the early years, a lot of mature players aged 25 or older were selected as the USSR dynasty oh-so-gradually began to release some older players to pursue professional hockey on this continent. Since the late ’90s, it’s been a steady stream of younger players, of whom the most recent four (bolded) remain in the pipeline. The other 29 have either come and gone, or in many cases never came at all and simply played out their careers in Europe.
Notable that the 6 names that precede the current quartet all did sign with the Oilers, but 4 of them — Bogdan Yakimov, Ziyat Paigin, Kirill Maksimov, and Ilya Konovalov — all agreed to early termination of their contracts to go back to Russia.
Let’s now look at the much shorter list of those who actually made it to the NHL:
Just 10 players on this list, fully half of whom played 5 or fewer games. Full NHL stats on the left, contributions specifically to the Oilers on the right.
The most successful NHLer was Tony Semonov who was 27 when drafted in 1989, came over the next year and wound up playing 7 NHL seasons for 6 teams. Nail Yakupov was the only one to (barely) reach 50 goals and 100 points as an Oiler, even as the first-overall draft pick fell far short of expectations. Alexei Semenov, Anton Slepyshev and 30-year-old Ilja Byakin all got a decent NHL look but ultimately fell short.
Of the rest?
- Igor Vyazmikin was Edmonton’s first Russian selection, played all of 4 games and scored a goal.
- Alexander Kerch arrived with some fanfare in 1993, and departed a fortnight later having recorded a minus in all 5 of his NHL games.
- Alexei Mikhnov was a gigantic guy with soft hands and (it turned out) vision problems whose results belied his first-round pedigree.
- Bogdan Yakimov was called up in early October of his first North American season and thrown to the wolves vs. Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles, then buried in the AHL until his contract was terminated.
- Dmitiri Samorukov dressed just once as an Oiler and was benched after a meagre 2:27 of ice time.
Overall, Edmonton has expended 33 draft picks on a group of players whose combined NHL boxcars (1097 GP, 156-264-420) are roughly equivalent to those of a single fifth-round home run: Jason Chimera (1107 GP, 186-229-415).
Yet the Oilers keep on trying. They have 3 Russians on their reserve list, all currently playing in domestic leagues. The fourth is Matvey Petrov, who came to North America at age 18 having been picked #1 by North Bay in the CHL’s import draft, then a modest 180th by Edmonton in the 2021 NHL Draft. The Oilers wasted little time to sign him to an ELC that November.
A pretty decent bet, history notwithstanding. Petrov crushed it in his 2 OHL seasons, soaring up our summer rankings, from #22 in his draft year to #9 and then all the way to #3 last summer.
Fair to say his transition to the professional ranks did not go as smoothly as hoped. A right-shot winger who prefers playing on the left side, Petrov played in 53 games for Bakersfield Condors, largely in a fourth line role. The offensive dynamo who posted 66 assists in his final major junior season recorded a paltry 5 in minor pro, a startling decline. His game log shows a couple of modest 3-game point streaks awash in a sea of zeroes; alas, they don’t show ice time, which is shorthand for opportunity. It doesn’t seem like he got a whole lot of it.
So let’s turn to the most devoted AHL-watcher on our panel, Ira “Original Pouzar” Cooper, who provides these eyewitness observations:
- Given his shy offensive totals (9 goals and 14 points) most casual Oilers fans would be down on Petrov and perhaps even discount him as being a real prospect. That is an understandable position as, even with expectations of needing time to get used to the professional game and playing against big and strong men, Petrov never really gained offensive traction this past season. He did show his great shot and exceptional release a few times but he generally struggled to find the soft areas of the ice and the ability to get the shot off. The lack of time and space muted his ability to consistently make plays with the puck. He was generally in the bottom six with limited PP2 time and that was on merit.
Some parts of his rookie pro season were encouraging. Petrov showed an increasing ability and commitment to go to the hard areas of the ice, a noted “area of improvement” of his from junior. Additionally, as the season wore on, Petrov developed into a reasonably responsible 2-way player. There is work to do in this area but he showed commitment to the 2-way game and to be responsible in all zones – no doubt a requirement from Coach Chaulk for increased ice time.Petrov has good size and is not afraid to lean on players, however, he will need to add strength in order to create space with his body. One would expect him to show significant growth in his second year pro and the ability to make plays at the professional level.
Matvey Petrov isn’t the first nor will he be the last hotshot junior of whatever nationality who struggled to make the transition to the pro ranks, as reflected by his drop from #3 to #13 in our rankings. But he remains a legitimate prospect with real skill who is learning the ropes at the next level.
Expectations for 2024-25: Last year Petrov had to wait his turn on the wings behind second-year pros like Xavier Bourgault, Ty Tullio, and Carter Savoie. All have since departed the scene, opening up a lane of opportunity for the young Russian. A spot in the top 9 and PP2 are minimum benchmarks; top 6 and PP1 would be optimal.
A happy moment: Matvey Petrov’s first professional goal was greeted by a barrage of stuffed toys when he opened the scoring for the home side in Bakersfield’s annual Teddy Bear Toss game. Photo credit: oilers.nhl.com
2024 Cult of Hockey prospect rankings
- Introduction + long shots #s 26-33
- Depth prospects #21-25
- Depth prospects #16-20
- #15 D Nikita Yevseyev
- #14 G Eemil Vinni
- Rankings are the weighted average of those submitted by our panel of voters including the Cult of Hockey’s homegrown trio of David Staples, Bruce McCurdy and Kurt Leavins, Edmonton Journal colleague and long-time Oilers scribe Jim Matheson, and friend of the blog and AHL follower Ira Cooper.
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