Edmonton Oilers: Tracking the 2019 NHL Draft results
By Phil Gretzky
Round 6, 162nd overall – Tomas Mazura
There’s not much information on right center Mazura, except that he’s a project – which explains the 6th overall pick. He spent four years at a private prep high school in the US. The highlight of his career was last season when he put up 13 goals and 73 points in 35 games.
He followed that up with four games for the Omaha Lancers in the USHL, with 2 PIMs and a +4. A Czech national, it’s tough to know what we have with Mazura. I had to dig pretty deep to find this, but I discovered that Mazura is playing with the Finnish minor leagues this season, putting up 1-2-3 in 3 games and 14 PIMs so far. Next season he’s slated to go the US College route, playing for Providence College in the NCAA. Scouting report is here.
Going forward: Mazura is a bit all over the place in his development. The Oilers probably could’ve loaned him to the Czech leagues so he can play in a country he’s familiar with but I guess this guy has chosen otherwise. I guess you can’t really blame him for going the college route – seeing as how a 6th round pick is unlikely to make it to the NHL.
Scouting report says he’s a top 9 player, and on the Oilers if he makes it I guarantee you he’ll probably be a winger unless more prominent prospects like Ryan McLeod don’t work out at 3rd line C. He’s moved around a lot so far playing here there and everywhere, so with such a small sample size in the pros it’s tough to say what we have with him.
Trending: Hard to say due to inadequate sample size. There’s potential there, but right now that’s all it is. The next four years of his US College career will probably tell us more. We hold his signing rights until Aug. 24, 2024.
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Round 7, 193rd overall – Maxim Deneszhkin
When you dig deep into the story of Russian left center Deneszhkin, you see a longshot project that deserves to be a 7th round pick.
He’s been a pro player for about three seasons in the KHL but has spent much of that time being a KHL bubble player.
He’s mostly been going back and forth between the KHL and their minor league, the MHL. He can produce points in the MHL but thus far has played two KHL games over two seasons and produced no offence in either game.
It might be hasty to crucify him based on two pro games, but at this point, it looks like he’s a Linus Omark type who can put up points in the minors but not in the majors.
Is there a chance he could end up as a 4th line energy player in the NHL? Maybe. He finished -1 in both of those games, so at least he seems to have some ability without the puck at the KHL level, again albeit in a short sample size. Scouting report is here.
Going forward: He’s only 19-years-old so there’s no need to declare him a bust just yet. He’s slated to be a teammate of Konovalov’s on Lokotomiv this upcoming season. He’s a longshot to make the NHL but he could surprise you. We need to see him play more in the KHL before we know for sure, which is what’s going to happen.
Trending: On the surface, it appears he’s trending down but not enough sample size to declare that for sure.
Bottom line
As this is the most recent draft until the 2020 draft is held, we don’t know much about how most of these players are going to end up, especially the picks at the bottom. However, it appears Broberg and Lavoie will be the prize can’t-miss guys from this draft. Everyone else below them might surprise us, there’s good potential in all the picks after that.