Edmonton Oilers: Tracking the 2019 NHL Draft results
By Phil Gretzky
Here’s a look at how the Edmonton Oilers 2019 NHL Draft has panned out so far
Here we are – the final blog in the draft series. In case you’re just joining me at the 11th hour, 2015 is here, 2016 is here, 2017 is here, and 2018 is here. As this is the most recent draft, with a top 3 pick, you might suspect we don’t have anyone from this draft on the roster yet. This is a more typical draft, let’s see what happens with these folks in a few years.
Round 1, 8th overall – Philip Broberg
Left D Broberg has been rated as the 2nd best defensive prospect in the system next to Evan Bouchard. We might be looking at a future top-pairing between the 2 of them. Broberg split last season between what I assume is the Swedish pro league minors – Swe-1 – for AIK, putting up 2-7-9 with 14 PIMs and a -1 in 41 games with them.
He then went up to the SEL roughly halfway through the season, putting up 1-7-8 and even with 6 PIMs in 45 games. The Swedish pros have already started (let’s try and avoid talk of COVID-19 politics between Sweden and Canada, shall we?) and short sample size of course. But it looks like Broberg is off to a good start, going 1-2-3 in 1 game with Skelleftea AIK so far with a +2 and no PIMs.
Last season’s stats weren’t exactly eye-popping for Broberg, but if he keeps going at that rate he’ll have a breakout season. I can’t project as I don’t know how many games a full season in Swedish pros is – and I don’t want to check as I have a feeling it’ll just be written in Swedish which I can’t read.
He spent some time during the play-in series earlier in the year riding the pines but as expected didn’t get into any games. Tough to say what happens with players just drafted last year, but it looks like so far so good with this player. Scouting report is here.
Going forward: IIRC the plan with Broberg was to keep him in Sweden for now and bring him over to Bakersfield when the AHL resumes play – around December at the time of this writing – so we’ll see what happens. I can’t find any information confirming that, but it’s the next logical step.
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Round 2, 38th overall – Raphael Lavoie
When I look at right center Lavoie’s numbers, it amazes me that he was actually still available in the 2nd round last year. Lavoie started out in junior with the Halifax Mooseheads, going 6-3-9 in 32 games with 26 PIMs and even in +/-, then following that up with another 1-1-2 and 6 PIMs in the QMJHL playoffs in 6 games. That’s not bad at all in a pretty small sample size.
It only took 1 more season, however, for the lightbulb to come on for Lavoie. The next season in Halifax he finished 30-33-63 in 68 games for the Mooseheads, with a +10 and 43 PIMs to boot. Then he went 3-2-5 with 5 PIMs in 9 playoff games for Halifax.
He followed that season up with an even better encore, getting to the point per game echelon for the first time. going 32-41-73 with 31 PIMs and a crazy hardcore +36, then in the playoffs piled up 20-12-32 and 22 PIMs in 23 games.
Unfortunately, the Mooseheads fell short in the QMJHL final. It looks like the Mooseheads were a much worse team last season, as Lavoie was traded to Chicoutimi midway through the season. He did great individually, though, going 18-26-34 with 36 PIMs and a +4 in 30 games before the trade, and 20-18-38 with 12 PIMs and a +3 in 25 games for Chicoutimi after the trade.
Neither team made the playoffs last season, so that was the wrap on Lavoie’s junior career. It’s a pretty good one and bodes well for his future. Scouting report is here.
Going forward: Like most of our prospects, Lavoie will be headed to Europe to start the season then come back to Bakersfield probably around December when the season starts. Whenever he makes the Oilers expect him to spend his career at RW as no one is unseating the McDrai duo.
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