{"id":481325,"date":"2026-02-17T19:29:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T19:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/481325\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T19:29:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T19:29:17","slug":"rave-review-at-2026-olympics-for-youngest-edmonton-oilers-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/481325\/","title":{"rendered":"Rave review at 2026 Olympics for youngest Edmonton Oilers centre"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Edmonton Oilers<\/a>\u2019 youngest centre, big German Josh Samanski, is getting some rave reviews at the 2026 Olympics, where Germany just beat France 5-1 to advance to the quarter final against Slovakia.<\/p>\n

Samanski had a goal and an assist in the game, while Edmonton ace Leon Draisaitl had a goal and two assists.<\/p>\n

Samanski made a great backhand feed from the side of the crease to set up Draisaitl for his deadly Executioner\u2019s Shot.<\/p>\n

Said What Chaos podcaster DJ Bean of Samanski: \u201cLot of buzz that Josh Samanski is the best young player in the tournament and who am I to argue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cult of Hockey contributor Ira Cooper pointed out Edmonton will have to find a way after the Olympics to keep Samanski on the Oilers roster despite the team\u2019s cap crunch with the expected return of Adam Henrique to the squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be egregious if Samanski is not back on the roster immediately post break. To activate Henrique someone needs to go ($100K set) \u2013 a Mangiapane trade or Mang\/Janmark waived and assigned (presuming not Matt Savoie nor Curtis Lazar)-$1.15MM will be enough to bring Samanski back up. A must!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Samanski\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Samanski<\/p>\n

My take<\/p>\n

1. The rise of Samanski, 23, has been astounding. In the 2019-20 season, Samanski\u2019s only season of major junior in Canada, he had just four goals and 20 points in 54 games for Owen Sound of the Ontario Hockey League.<\/p>\n

It was no surprise to anyone that he did not get taken in the NHL draft.<\/p>\n

Samanski went back to Germany to play for Ravensburg in the Second Division, where he had just four goals and 22 points in 41 games.<\/p>\n

But he advanced to Straubing of the top German league and by last season had turned himself into a two-way force, with 40 points in 52 games.<\/p>\n

2. Samanski became something of a hot commodity as a free agent last summer, but with the reported help of Draisaitl, the Oilers convinced him to sign here, part of GM Stan Bowman\u2019s efforts to boost Edmonton\u2019s prospect pool.<\/p>\n

And it worked. Samanski was seen as the best two-way play at Bakersfield this year before he got called up to the Oilers in January.<\/p>\n

4. With the Oilers, Samanski proved to be a capable third-line centre in a small sample size. He got two assists in five games with limited ice-time. He forechecked hard and back-checked smartly.<\/p>\n

Cooper is right in his assessment \u2014 it\u2019s a must for Bowman to now find a way to keep Samanski on the Oilers roster.<\/p>\n

At the Cult of Hockey<\/p>\n

Team Canada has three solid defence pairings, but will one of them get benched?<\/a><\/p>\n

Ice time of Edmonton\u2019s Bottom Six forwards is a distraction, not the Oilers\u2019 real sickness<\/a><\/p>\n

Team Canada to go with Binnington in net, NHL insider asserts, but should it?<\/a><\/p>\n

Tkachuk caught on hot mic with wicked chirp of Draisaitl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Edmonton Oilers\u2019 youngest centre, big German Josh Samanski, is getting some rave reviews at the 2026 Olympics,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[22975,49,48,96253,23752,453,194601,25908,194602,9885],"class_list":{"0":"post-481325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-adam-henrique","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-curtis-lazar","12":"tag-edmonton","13":"tag-edmonton-oilers","14":"tag-josh-samanski","15":"tag-leon-draisaitl","16":"tag-mangiapane","17":"tag-matt-savoie"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}