On Saturday, the Edmonton Oilers announced that the club had hired longtime Notre Dame Fighting Irish coach, Andy Slaggert to a role in the front office. His official title is 'Director of North American Recruiting'.
This is a fitting position for a man whose spent the past 33 years behind the bench of an NCAA program. Looking on the Fighting Irish website, Slaggert is referred to as 'one of the nation's top recruiters'.
His experience speaks for itself, especially as the Oilers press release states that he has been "involved in recruiting 70 future NHL Draft picks to the program and helped lead the team to three CCHA championships in 2007, 2009 and 2013, as well as two B1G championships in 2018 and 2019."
Slaggert could have a great impact on Oilers
The kind of experience and expertise that Slaggert has is something that the Oilers certainly hope to draw from. This will be especially helpful as the club continues to contend for the Stanley Cup and will require supplementing their prospect pool and their depth roles. Having somebody who has connections inside the NCAA specifically and with player recruitment can only be a positive.
The Oilers have done a great job restocking their cupboards adding players from a variety of leagues to supplement their roster and pool. The collegiate level is no different with both goaltender Connor Ungar and forward Noah Philp being signed out of Canadian USports. The Oilers connection to the NCAA is rich, currently inside their prospect pool, the team has forward Quinn Hutson and defenceman Damien Carfagna.
Hutson himself is a regarded prospect that the Oilers were able to sign to a two-year entry-level contract. He was the Oilers representative at the NHLPA rookie showcase in September.
Historically, the Oilers have been able to attract free agents from the NCAA, nabbing players like forward Drake Caggiula and defencemen Justin Schultz, Matt Benning, and Jordan Oesterle. They have had varying levels of success at the NHL level but they all had their impacts nonetheless.
If Slaggert is able to help the Oilers add college free agents like the above examples, it will be a huge help as they try to fill out their prospect pool due to a lack of draft capital.