Oilers: Ryan McLeod becomes the 17th Condor to make his NHL debut

Ex-Oilers

Caleb Jones

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock lately, you should know that as of yesterday Caleb Jones is now a Chicago Blackhawk thanks to the Duncan Keith trade. Jones was drafted in 2015 and after a season in which he finished with 55 points in 72 games in junior, he got a callup to Bakersfield in 2015-16, putting up no points and a -2 in three games for the Condors.

He went back to junior the next season, putting up 62 points in 63 games – now he’s ready for pro hockey early (that was only his 2nd season of junior). He made Bakersfield the next season and put up 2-15-17 with an ugly -25 in 58 games. The next season, however – 2018-29 – he cleaned up his game and put up 6-23-29 with a sparkling +16 in 50 games with Bakersfield. Quite an improvement defensively.

He was rewarded with his first callup to the Oilers, putting up 1-5-6 with a -9 in 17 games. He started the next season in Bakersfield once more, but after 11 points in 14 games proved he was ready for the next step – and fortunately, Kris Russell became injured so Jones had his signature season to date, putting up 4-5-9 in 43 games with a -1 to boot. He followed that up by regressing this past season, going 0-4-4 in 33 games as a part-time 3rd pairing D, with a -7 to boot.

Whether he can move into the top 6 at some point remains unclear. He’ll certainly have more opportunity on a weaker team in Chicago to do that.

Josh Currie

I can’t find any information to confirm this but IIRC Currie came to the Oilers as an AHL free agent, surprisingly going undrafted after putting up 104 points in 68 games in his last season of junior.

After 3 seasons in the ECHL, the Oilers organization signed him and assigned him to Bakersfield. He proceeded to increase his point totals virtually every year for his first 4 years in the AHL, then making his NHL debut with the Oilers in the 2018-19 season, in which he put up 2-3-5 with a +2 in 21 games. I assumed he’d be poised for at least a longer look next year, but he proceeded to spend the entirety of the 2019-20 season in Bakersfield, putting up 41 points in 56 games.

The organization didn’t re-sign him, so he signed with the Penguins organization for last season, playing one game for the Pens and putting up no offence and a 0. However, he did put up 23 points in 24 games for Wilkes-Barre Scranton, their AHL affiliate.

Anton Slepyshev

Back in the decade of darkness, the Oilers were pretty desperate for forwards, especially bottom-six ones. Enter Anton Slepyshev. A Russian who decided to try his hand at the NHL, Slepyshev played 11 games for the Oilers (putting up a single assist and a -5) before going down to Bakersfield. He then spent the next two seasons shuttling between the Oilers and Bakersfield before going back to Russia to play in the KHL again.

Dillon Simpson

The not-so illustrious son of former Oiler Craig Simpson, Simpson wasn’t much of an NHL player as he ended up playing only 3 NHL games, all with the Oilers. After four years of US College hockey, he spent one year in Oklahoma City with the previous farm team, then moved west when the team moved to Bakersfield. He was an OK prospect but never managed to put up more than 20 points for the Condors in a season.

Was a + player for 3 our of 4 years, though. His 3 games were in the 2016-17 season. He produced no points and was 0 in those games. However, needing to make room for better prospects, the Oilers didn’t re-sign Simpson and he signed a two way contract as a free agent with the Cleveland Monsters, Columbus’s farm team. That’s where he remained last season, and according to Puckpedia is a free agent now. Likely nothing more than an AHL veteran at this stage.