Roby J\u00e4rventie was called up<\/a> and should see some NHL games while he is there. The issue is that the Condors are now missing some of their top-of-the-lineup players with only 13 games remaining. Isaac Howard and Quinn Hutson remain in Bakersfield for the time being, and if they were going to be called up I believe it would have happened with the two prior call-ups. It tells me that the Oilers want their young scoring prospects to finish the year in the AHL, barring injuries.Roby J\u00e4rventie \u2013 Winger<\/p>\nThe Finnish winger is off to the NHL to help out the big club, as he was called up on an emergency basis earlier this week. I think the call-up is well deserved, and I can\u2019t wait to see how J\u00e4rventie plays in the NHL. This will be his first stint in the NHL since the 2023-24 season, when the former Ottawa Senator suited up in seven games. J\u00e4rventie only had a goal and an assist in the four games since our last update, but as I always say, he was creating offence. An underrated attribute to the winger\u2019s game is his defensive work ethic, and in the two clips below, J\u00e4rventie\u2019s defence turns into offence instantly for the Condors.<\/p>\n
In the second clip you can see that J\u00e4rventie doesn\u2019t mind staying low and playing the \u201ccentre\u201d role defensively. The first clip highlights his stops and starts, the responsible winger doesn\u2019t loop by either player. I love when a player can close out quick and it was greatly executed by J\u00e4rventie. The powerforward scored an empty-netter as his only goal in the four games, but his assist to Samuel Poulin was a beautiful saucer pass right into the heart of the defence.<\/p>\n
Good play by Poulin to back up ever so slightly to help open the passing lane, but that pass by J\u00e4rventie is perfectly executed. As I keep saying though, what gets me excited about the Oilers\u2019 latest call-up is his ability to be a play connector. He just plays the game the right way. Below is a clip that illustrates my point.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a simple play, but J\u00e4rventie pushes the defence back and attracts two defenders to him. The winger uses his edge work to cut back against the grain and find the trailer. Our next two clips aren\u2019t as simple as the last, but it shows off the amount of skill J\u00e4rventie carries with his game.<\/p>\n
Again this is why Roby\u2019s game is really starting to grow on me. The six-foot-three winger trusts his fundamentals and awareness till it\u2019s time to use his skill. That puck pick-up in the first clip is way harder than it looks, especially with three defenders in the proximity. The second clip is J\u00e4rventie doing it himself and setting Samuel Poulin up for a decent chance on goal.<\/p>\n
I like that J\u00e4rventie is getting rewarded for his play with the Condors, I think he has been excellent for some time now and his style of play is exactly how the Oilers need to play. Strong along the wall, create offence off the cycle, and lean on the defence for an extended period of time. The question is how much ice time will J\u00e4rventie see.<\/p>\n
Quinn Hutson \u2013 Winger<\/p>\n
The former Boston University star is still having a great first full professional year with the Oilers organization as Hutson is now up to 26 goals and 50 points in 54 games played. In the past four games Hutson has a goal and two assists with 15 shots on goal, but the one thing I\u2019ve continued to notice is an uptick in penalty-killing time. If the right shot winger wants to move on up and be an everyday NHL player he will need to continue to work on his defensive game. The first clip is a good example of the continued develop in Hutson\u2019s defensive effort and awareness.<\/p>\n
Hutson doesn\u2019t have to be a stout defender he just needs to be trustworhy in his own end. The amount of creativity and his lethal shot will provide a bottom six with some secondary offence. Hutson is also feisty, he won\u2019t shy away from contact. I see a path where the young winger can get his defensive game to the point where an NHL coach can trust him in his own end. Of course the main attraction of the Americans game is the offence he can provide. In the clip below it shows how lethal Hutson can be on the power play and given an inch of space.<\/p>\n
After getting the puck back after his one-timer is blocked, Hutson creates some magic by breaking away from two defenders and finding Viljami Marjala who\u2019s shot hits Isaac Howard and goes in. I love the hip work displayed by Hutson here, he opens up his hips to fend off sticks and uses his inside edge to continue to push through. The former Terrier is able to fight through a fair amount of checks at his size and it\u2019s all because of his inside positioning, below is another example.<\/p>\n
Hutson understands how to eliminate the hands of the defenders when they are on his backside and allows him to process even under immense pressure. It\u2019s almost his subconscious reacting now. The final video below is to show how Hutson is able to blend his skills together.<\/p>\n
I have seen Hutson shoot this puck a countless number amount of times. When I say \u201cblend\u201d this is what I mean. He sets up the move to his backhand because he\u2019s in a great spot to shoot in stride and even looks like hes loading up to do so when he starts crossing over, but he uses that to fake out the defender. The feisty and skilled winger is having a great season and he continues to improve defensively. After another off-season of training for the NHL I\u2019m interested if Hutson can win a bottom-of-the-lineup spot next season.<\/p>\n
Isaac Howard \u2013 Winger<\/p>\n
Isaac Howard started off his four-game stretch with a two point night against the Roadrunners, however he is now on a three-game pointless streak. That is not an issue at all in my opinion as the former Tampa Bay Lightning draft pick continues to create offence every shift it seems now. Howard is now at 16 goals and 35 points in 35 games played which is an incredible scoring pace for a rookie at the AHL level. Matt Savoie who is currently playing in the top-six for the Oilers had a points-per-game pace of 0.81 as a reference point. Howard has continued to impress me with his off puck play as a forechecker and even his defensive play continues to strengthen. The former first-rounder is looked at as a top-six option in the future and he will have to continue to hunt down pucks like in the video below.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a great forecheck, but the set up pass to Viljami Marjala was even better. The playmaking ability continues to be an area of growth for the top prospect. Earlier in the year Howard was noticing passing lanes a little late, but now he is starting to get a great feel for the timing of the game. There are three videos that I want to highlight below regarding the growth of his playmaking ability, we\u2019ll talk about them below.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s funny because Howard started his AHL career off super hot and has come back down to realistic expectations. but I feel like he has been playing better during the second half of the season. It\u2019s more of that I\u2019m seeing the growth that I wanted to see in his game. During the start of the year I found the former Hobey Baker award recipient more of a finisher and waiting for plays to come to him; which could be due to him just not reading the play well as a passer. The above passing plays weren\u2019t happening as consistently as they are now, especially the play with J\u00e4rventie that lead to a Riley Stillman chance in front. Now the other two videos show how Howard is recognizing the open man in the slot while under pressure and the amount of pucks he funnels to the slot area is a great sign to me. Even if he misses the odd target the more a player can get the puck into the middle of the ice the better. It will be another learning curve when he fights for a roster spot next year but at least Howard as the experience of NHL games this year to learn from. The final clip is a fun one from the evolving winger and it\u2019s a good mix of defensive play with some play connecting.<\/p>\n
It is a crazy play to make, but hey if it works out you look like a genius and this one ended up working out. It also displays the confidence Howard has in his skating and skill to beat the opposition. But once again I love how he passes the puck off and instantly finds space to get the puck back.<\/p>\n
James Hamblin deserves some more love as he is now up to 23 goals on the season and continues to be a stellar defensive centre. Viljami Marjala is sitting at 46 points on the year and he continues to be excellent on the power play. The Condors face off against the San Diego Gulls on March 20 and then play the Calgary Wranglers on the March 21. It seems as if they will be without Max Jones, Roby J\u00e4rventie, and Josh Samanski for this weekends game (as well as the foreseeable future till the Oilers get healthy), but the defensive core stays in tack and we will see what goaltender starts each game. We\u2019re getting closer to playoff hockey and I\u2019m excited to see the young players like Damien Carfagna, Beau Akey, Isaac Howard, and Quinn Hutson perform when the games get tighter.<\/p>\n
Previous prospect updatesARTICLE PRESENTED BY bet365<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oilers Prospect Update: J\u00e4rventie gets deserved recall Bakersfield continues to gear up for playoffs Heading into Friday night,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-230514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}