in the system<\/a>. He did so despite injuries to top-end AHL centres like Lane Pederson and an NHL recall for pivot Noah Philp. Pederson as his centre for a full season might have forced a recall by Christmas, so in a way, Bakersfield fans were fortunate to see Savoie for most of the season.<\/p>\nSavoie doesn\u2019t represent a typical AHL prospect. He was chosen top 10 in the 2022 draft. Desharnais wasn\u2019t a typical impact AHL player either, with little draft pedigree, turning pro much later than the average player, and climbing from an AHL-only contract to the NHL in a matter of months. No matter how the organization finds him, the Condors need another one. Now.<\/p>\n
Chaulk on the hot seat?<\/p>\n
Colin Chaulk took over the head coaching job with the Condors midway through the 2021-22 season. He coached several players who are now in the NHL, including Desharnais, Dylan Holloway, Philip Broberg and Mike Kesselring.<\/p>\n
During the last four years, the team has also seen disappointing results from names like Xavier Bourgault, Raphael Lavoie and others. Most of the prospects whom Chaulk has coached in recent seasons were not high picks, but Bourgault was a first-round selection in 2021, and Lavoie was a second-round pick two years earlier.<\/p>\n
This is an important year for Chaulk. Prospects the organization believes in must find traction.<\/p>\n
Bowman to the rescue?<\/p>\n
None of this is Oilers general manager Stan Bowman\u2019s fault, but it is his problem. His offseason moves that will directly impact the Condors include adding a veteran AHL starting goaltender (Matt Tomkins, who finished No. 20 in save percentage among starters a year ago) to the roster. Tomkins will get plenty of work this winter, with youngsters like Samuel Jonsson, Connor Ungar and Nathan Day attempting to steal playing time behind him.<\/p>\n
What Bowman and Chaulk need to avoid is the same kind of performance dive in goal witnessed after Dec. 1 a year ago. At the beginning of the season, Condors starter Olivier Rodrigue posted a .925 save percentage. After Dec. 1, the young goaltender\u2019s percentage fell to .886 for the rest of the year. Rodrigue is without a contract at this time, and the final months of last season are most certainly the culprit.<\/p>\n
The step into an elevator shaft wasn\u2019t limited to stopping shots. The team slumped badly on the power play, but did deliver the strongest even-strength scoring season over the last three years. However, all of the scoring progress at even strength was given back at the other end.<\/p>\n
Stat2022-232023-242024-25<\/p>\n
Games<\/p>\n
72<\/p>\n
72<\/p>\n
72<\/p>\n
GF<\/p>\n
212<\/p>\n
223<\/p>\n
224<\/p>\n
GA<\/p>\n
212<\/p>\n
202<\/p>\n
223<\/p>\n
EV GF<\/p>\n
160<\/p>\n
165<\/p>\n
187<\/p>\n
EV GA<\/p>\n
152<\/p>\n
145<\/p>\n
160<\/p>\n
PP GF<\/p>\n
45<\/p>\n
51<\/p>\n
36<\/p>\n
PP GA<\/p>\n
51<\/p>\n
52<\/p>\n
51<\/p>\n
All numbers via the AHL.com<\/p>\n
The numbers here show just how difficult the journey was for Bakersfield when Savoie\u2019s line was off the ice. When the rookie was deployed at even strength, Bakersfield outscored opponents 55-30 in the metric (65 percent). When he was off the ice, the Condors won the even-strength share by an eyelash, 132-130 (50 percent).<\/p>\n
In his way, Savoie had a similar impact to Desharnais, and did it as an AHL rookie at 20.<\/p>\n
Condors projected 2025-26 lineup<\/p>\n
There is no obvious Desharnais or Savoie in this group. Finding a play driver will be key for Chaulk and his coaching staff this fall.<\/p>\n
PlayerRole<\/p>\n
Matt Tomkins<\/p>\n
Starting G, could play 40 games<\/p>\n
Connor Ungar<\/p>\n
He is 23, most pro experience among backups<\/p>\n
Samuel Jonsson<\/p>\n
21, coming off an impact season in Sweden<\/p>\n
Nathan Day<\/p>\n
20, OHL grad, ECHL likely<\/p>\n
\n PlayerRole<\/p>\n
Riley Stillman<\/p>\n
Veteran LH D, big mins and may mentor Akey<\/p>\n
Cam Dineen<\/p>\n
Veteran who could play anywhere on depth chart<\/p>\n
Atro Leppanen<\/p>\n
Pure offence, chaos defence<\/p>\n
Damien Carfagna<\/p>\n
College man, plus speed, two-way acumen<\/p>\n
Mats Lindgren<\/p>\n
Recent AHL signing<\/p>\n
Alex Regula<\/p>\n
Top RH D, if healthy could make the Oilers<\/p>\n
Beau Akey<\/p>\n
Top rookie, he’ll get chances at feature minutes<\/p>\n
Josh Brown<\/p>\n
Rugged edge, tough as nails blue<\/p>\n
\n PlayerRole<\/p>\n
Noah Philp<\/p>\n
Complete player at AHL level, could play in NHL<\/p>\n
James Hamblin<\/p>\n
Burner, lacks NHL scoring but quality in AHL<\/p>\n
Jayden Grubbe<\/p>\n
Checker, enforcer<\/p>\n
Josh Samanski<\/p>\n
Huge C from Germany<\/p>\n
Rem Pitlick<\/p>\n
AHL signing could play a lot<\/p>\n
Roby Jarventie<\/p>\n
Range of skills, impressive if healthy<\/p>\n
Viljami Marjala<\/p>\n
Skill W, expert passer and assist demon<\/p>\n
Brady Stonehouse<\/p>\n
Aggressive winger looks like a tweener<\/p>\n
Connor Clattenburg<\/p>\n
Rugged winger with some skill<\/p>\n
Rhett Pitlck<\/p>\n
Another AHL signing who could eat minutes<\/p>\n
Ethan Keppen<\/p>\n
AHL signing could play in ECHL<\/p>\n
Max Jones<\/p>\n
Physical winger, solid AHL scorer<\/p>\n
Matvey Petrov<\/p>\n
Skill W can’t score consistently<\/p>\n
Quinn Hutson<\/p>\n
College grad, has scoring potential<\/p>\n
James Stefan <\/p>\n
Junior scorer has yet to launch in pro<\/p>\n
Matt Copponi<\/p>\n
AHL signing, he has real skill. Sleeper<\/p>\n
(Photo of Matt Savoie: Leila Devlin \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During the 2021-22 season, Edmonton Oilers farmhand Vincent Desharnais started to gain some traction as a real NHL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,3275,575,85],"class_list":["post-41969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-edmonton-oilers","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}