Why the Edmonton Oilers' farmhands in AHL Bakersfield are a unique group

NHL teams use AHL affiliates to both develop prospects and store reserve talent that may be required for a recall. A strong minor-league club has a legit NHL goaltender, at least two defencemen who can be plug-and-play and several forwards who can fill complementary NHL roles like penalty killing and responsible five-on-five play.

Plus, the prospects.

This year’s Bakersfield Condors are a unique group, possibly the most unusual in the history of Oilers minor-league affiliates.

What does normal look like?

Over many years, I’ve compiled a list of things Edmonton’s AHL farm club can be expected to produce each season. This year, many of those traditional trends are heading in the other direction. Here’s the list.

Where are the goals?

This year’s AHL team, the Bakersfield Condors, is averaging 2.47 goals per game, a steep drop from last year’s 3.10 goals per game. In fact, since the Oilers began sending prospects to the minors, Bakersfield’s current total ranks among the worst:

The Oilers have been sending players to the minors since 1979-80. This edition of the team ranks No. 2 (so far) in the category of poorest offensive output, making these Condors the least threatening edition of a Bakersfield roster.

The main culprit is the power play. Currently, the team’s goal total with the man advantage (five) after 19 games is impossibly bad.

Injuries to players like Lane Pederson and James Hamblin have had an impact, but Seth Griffith has fallen to two points in 18 games. Last season, he scored 27 points in 68 games. These numbers (goals and power-play goals) should regress, but the current situation is dire. The current win-loss record (7-9-3) is surprising when considering the poor offensive output.

Top-10 picks in the AHL 

Since the 2006 draft, Edmonton secured a mountain of players in the top 10.

All of Sam Gagner (2007), Magnus Paajarvi (2009), Taylor Hall (2010), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (2011), Nail Yakupov (2012), Leon Draisaitl (2014), Connor McDavid (2015), Jesse Puljujarvi (2016) and Evan Bouchard (2018) went right to the NHL, with no minor-league time. These men often played their first NHL games just a few months after being drafted.

Only Darnell Nurse (2013) and Philip Broberg (2019) played in AHL games as pros before arriving in the NHL from 2007 through 2019.

For many of those years, Oilers managers were selling hope, so that (as an example) Gagner was elevated to the NHL to create excitement for the season to come. In many cases, going back to junior, Finland or AHL time would have benefited the names listed here.

This season, the Oilers have Matt Savoie in the AHL, playing a feature role at even strength and on the power play. This should be considered a new level of maturity for Oilers management, as Savoie is exactly where he should be (and Puljujarvi should have been in 2016) at this time.

Savoie ranks second in team scoring (4-7-11 in 19 games) and saw playing time with Pederson as his centre on Friday night. Pederson is a top-flight playmaker at the AHL level, that should push Savoie’s offence in the next few months.

It would be a mistake to view Savoie’s season so far as a disappointment. His 11 points mean he has contributed a goal or an assist on 23 percent of Bakersfield’s total goals this season. In Kailer Yamamoto’s first year of pro, he posted a point on 19 percent of all Condors goals scored in the games he played, and Yamamoto’s Condors were far more productive on the power play.

Trades!

It’s a rare item to see an Oilers general manager make a minor-league trade, but Stan Bowman did it twice in the season’s early stages.

The increased activity is unusual, but the players exchanged turned the roster into something never seen before.

On Friday night, the Condors iced a six-man defensive unit that featured five right-handers and one lefty (Cam Dineen). Exactly one decade earlier, the Oklahoma City Barons (Oilers farm team at the team) iced a team with six left-handed defencemen. The Oilers organization of that era became famous for deploying “The Leftorium” so named because there were so many lefty defenders.

The recent trades of lefty defenders Ben Gleason and Noel Hoefenmayer, with right-hander Ronnie Attard part of the return, completely reverses the handedness from a decade ago. Sticks against the boards will be impossible for Condors coach Colin Chaulk in the immediate future.

Hoefenmayer proved to be an astute AHL signing, providing the Condors with solid two-way play and a big shot from the blue line. He has yet to play in the NHL, but is building a solid resume and a recall by his new team (Montreal Canadiens) isn’t out of the question. The return is also worth discussing.

Who is Jacob Perreault? 

Bowman has established an early trend as Oilers general manager: He works around the roster edges. In acquiring names like Vasily Podkolzin, Ty Emberson and Kasperi Kapanen, Bowman increased the talent and depth of the NHL roster at a low cost.

In the AHL, he has added famous prospects who were in need of a second (or third) opinion. The jury is out on Attard, a big defenceman who has some chaos (and was hurt in the Friday night game).

Jacob Perreault is the return from Montreal in the Hoefenmayer trade, and his story is fascinating. Drafted late in the first round in 2020, Perreault’s scouting report raved about his puck skills and overall offensive ability. Red Line Report compared his style to Jake DeBrusk, and (due to the pandemic) Perreault played at 18 in the AHL, going 3-14-17 in 27 games in 2020-21 for the San Diego Gulls (AHL affiliate of the Anaheim Ducks).

He made his NHL debut the following season, but over the last couple of years, Perreault has stalled as a prospect. The son of former NHL player Yanic Perreault, he has played in 180 AHL games since 2020-21 and is averaging 15 goals and 42 points per 82 games in the minors.

For Oilers fans wondering about reasons for the Perreault acquisition, the lack of goals in Bakersfield is one reason. It’s also possible Bowman, Keith Gretzky (Oilers AGM and Condors GM) or an Oilers scout may have identified Perreault as a player who is capable of more than he’s delivered in the AHL. For old-timey Oilers fans, this can be classified as a Glen Sather-style “chasing draft pedigree” Hail Mary play. Those trades didn’t cash often but were game-changers when they did work out.

Two recalls over 30?

Over 50 years ago, former NHL player Brian Conacher wrote a book called “Hockey In Canada: The Way It Is” that among other things explained the AHL population at that time.

“As in other areas of modern society,” Conacher wrote, “hockey teams too have their generation gaps. This situation stood out on the Rochester team in 1965 which consisted of three groups: the veterans (had all resigned themselves to making the best of their minor-league hockey careers), the young ones (who have stars in their eyes and are in the AHL for just a little time, or so they think) and the group somewhere in between (these players kept hoping that a break would come their way and they might get their chance in the “big tent”).”

The modern AHL has deleted the “veteran” group with few exceptions. Players head to Europe for bigger paydays and less travel by their late 20s in this era. It’s rare for a player age 30 or more to start the season in the AHL and then receive a recall. This year’s Condors have two such players (Drake Caggiula and Josh Brown) and it’s possible a third (goalie Collin Delia) could see action with Edmonton during the season.

The AHL boasts 109 players 30 or older this year, or 3.4 per team. Bakersfield houses five such players. In 1965, the nine AHL teams employed 62 men 30-plus, or 6.9 per game.

The Condors can’t bring back 1965, but they are trying.

The job of an AHL team

The most important role for a farm club is to develop talent for the NHL team. The secondary role is to keep bona fide recall options playing at a high level.

The prospects in Bakersfield, led by Savoie, Noah Philp, Olivier Rodrigue, Max Wanner and Jayden Grubbe, are either holding their own or pushing for NHL time.

Established minor-league players who are ready for NHL work if called up (aside from Caggiula and Brown) include Pederson, Dellia, Dineen, Phil Kemp, Connor Carrick and others.

Injured players like Roby Jarventie and Hamblin are squeezing Chaulk’s depth chart and making life miserable, but that’s the job for an AHL coach.

Savoie is the big name, he’s 20 and emerging with strong scoring and outscoring at even strength. Philp has the look of an NHL player waiting for the call.

One of the hardest things for fans to evaluate is prospect progress. The most important intel is that players like Savoie rarely spend more than 50 games in the minors, because their skill elevates them quickly. If Savoie is still in the AHL next fall, history suggests he’s the new Tyler Benson.

NHL teams traditionally reap more benefits from the group that Philp represents. Past Oilers prospects without elite offensive skills who have played in the minors and found NHL careers over the last 25 years include Shawn Horcoff, Jason Chimera, Fernando Pisani, Kyle Brodziak, Tyler Pitlick, Tobias Rieder, Jujhar Khaira, Caleb Jones, Ethan Bear, Vincent Desharnais and Ryan McLeod.

Role players who play a dependable game. That’s the AHL graduation template. This year’s Condors are a strange brew. The prospects are developing, but there should be more of them. The age creep in Bakersfield is a worry.

(Photo of Noah Philp: Andy Devlin / NHLI via Getty Images)