Oilers Announce Young Stars Roster

Last night, the Edmonton Oilers announced the list of players that will be at the Young Stars tournament. It's an interesting mix of the signed players, unsigned draft picks, and free agents. After the jump, I'll take a brief look a the roster and make a few notes.

The Forwards

Cameron Abney; Philippe Cornet; Drew Czerwonka; Travis Ewanyk; Brett Ferguson; Curtis Hamilton; Milan Kytnar; Anton Lander; Ryan Martindale; Ryan Nugent-Hopkins; Kristians Pelss; Tyler Pitlick; Toni Rajala; Tobias Rieder; Chase Schaber; Colin Smith; Antti Tyrvainen

• Both Curtis Hamilton and Tyler Pitlick recently signed entry-level contracts, and while both players are eligible to return to the WHL, neither player is at his team's training camp, which strongly suggests that the players have been told that they won't be returning to junior. 
• Chase Schaber has been invited to the Young Stars tournament for the second year in a row despite his being a free agent. Last season, Schaber scored 45 points in 46 games with the Kamloops Blazers and led the team with a +3 rating (the next closest forward who played at least forty games was -5). His teammate in Kamloops, Colin Smith, was a ghastly -21, but did score 50 points in 72 games in what his first season of draft eligibility.
• Toni Rajala may end up back in Finland for the season, but it's good to see that he's coming to North America for at least a brief look. I'm pretty sure that his contract will count against the 50-man limit even if he is loaned to a Finnish team, so having him in camp to compete for a spot only makes sense.
• Philippe Cornet and Milan Kytnar are back for another year, probably because they were AHL rookies, which makes Teemu Hartikainen's absence a notable one. The other players who you might expect to see (Lennart Petrell, Tanner House, Hunter Tremblay, Chris Vande Velde) seem to be missing because of their age.
• I talked about Brett Ferguson earlier this month, and I'm still cheering for him. He was Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' teammate in Red Deer, but the two played on different lines. Ferguson ended up getting plenty of tough competition and led the Rebels in scoring at even strength.

The Goalies

Adam Brown, Tyler Bunz, Olivier Roy

• The new kid on the block is Brown, and like Vannieuwenhuizen, the Oilers can sign him and send him back to the WHL if they think he has potential but don't want to use up a spot on their 50-man list. He's been Kelowna's starter for two years now and has outperformed his backups in both of them. Last season, he finished third in the WHL with a .916 save percentage behind Darcy Kuemper and (note his name above) Tyler Bunz.