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Last month, the pipeline lacked a pulse. This month, the pipeline has a little bit of life, and that life is mostly European. Tobias Rieder told us about his move to the middle, and we looked at the impact on his numbers. A regular commenter clued us in to Daniil Zharkov's new running mate and Zharkov's offensive explosion. Neal Livingston told us about Toni Rajala's skill set and how he's a better AHL player than ECHL or Juniors player. Add in Martin Gernat's return from injury and Erik Gustaffson's strong season in Sweden, and the Oilers' pipeline is brimming with European talent bubbling under.
For a complete look at all of the Oilers' prospects and their NHL numbers, we can use Gabriel Desjardins' NHL Equivalency. Gabe's methodologies are described on his translations page:
One way to evaluate the difficulty of one league relative to another is to examine the relative performance of players who have played in both leagues. Players rarely play significant time in two leagues in the same year, but they often play in one league in one year and in another the next. As long as a player’s skill level is approximately constant over this two year period, the ratio of his performance in each league can be used to estimate the relative difficulty of the two leagues.
Below is the full list of skating prospects with their NHL Equivalency and full season projections.
| Player | League | Drafted | NHL PPG | NHL82 G | NHL82 A | NHL82 P | Δ |
| Toni Rajala | Mult. | 101 | 0.402 | 15 | 18 | 33 | +2 |
| Mark Arcobello | AHL | Und | 0.396 | 11 | 22 | 32 | -1 |
| Philippe Cornet | Mult. | 133 | 0.354 | 13 | 16 | 29 | +3 |
| Tobias Rieder | CHL | 114 | 0.296 | 13 | 11 | 24 | +2 |
| Jujhar Khaira | NCAA | 63 | 0.278 | 5 | 17 | 23 | -3 |
| John McCarron | NCAA | 153 | 0.228 | 7 | 11 | 19 | +1 |
| Daniil Zharkov | CHL | 91 | 0.199 | 10 | 7 | 16 | +3 |
| Kellen Jones | NCAA | 202 | 0.199 | 7 | 9 | 16 | - |
| Kristians Pelss | Mult. | 181 | 0.171 | 3 | 11 | 14 | +1 |
| Ryan Martindale | Mult. | 61 | 0.159 | 9 | 5 | 13 | -2 |
| Mitch Moroz | CHL | 32 | 0.143 | 4 | 8 | 12 | - |
| Travis Ewanyk | CHL | 74 | 0.123 | 4 | 6 | 10 | - |
| Anton Lander* | Mult. | 40 | 0.112 | 3 | 6 | 9 | - |
| Antti Tyrvainen | AHL | Und | 0.093 | 6 | 2 | 8 | - |
| Cameron Abney | Mult. | 82 | 0.088 | 4 | 3 | 7 | -5 |
| Tyler Pitlick* | AHL | 31 | 0.069 | 1 | 5 | 6 | - |
| Curtis Hamilton | AHL | 48 | 0.063 | 3 | 3 | 5 | +1 |
*Currently Injured
- Rajala's offensive output is interesting. Prior to this season, his highest NHLe was 26 points in in the WHL, and 25 points in the SM-Liiga. Either he's riding a heater, or his game is developing a bit late.
- Linus Omark would be the best player on this list by far, but his sideburns are clearly far too long.
- The most interesting news I've heard concerning this pipeline is Rieder's shift to centre. Rieder could make a giant leap up the organizational depth chart if he can become a regular pivot and race Jujhar Khaira to the AHL.
- John McCarron remains a very interesting prospect. He's one of the latest round of coke bottles, but he's the only one showing any offensive acumen. If he develops any sort of offensive game in college, he'll have an enormous advantage in his transition to the pro game.
| Player - League | League | Drafted | NHL PPG | NHL82 G | NHL82 A | NHL82 P | Δ |
| Joey Laleggia | NCAA | 123 | 0.320 | 12 | 15 | 26 | -2 |
| Dillon Simpson | NCAA | 92 | 0.248 | 3 | 17 | 20 | +2 |
| Brandon Davidson | Mult. | 162 | 0.232 | 8 | 11 | 19 | +13 |
| Kyle Bigos | NCAA | 99 | 0.173 | 5 | 9 | 14 | -5 |
| Martin Gernat | CHL | 122 | 0.171 | 3 | 11 | 14 | +9 |
| Erik Gustafsson | AVK | 93 | 0.170 | 4 | 10 | 14 | +4 |
| Martin Marincin | AHL | 46 | 0.169 | 3 | 11 | 14 | -1 |
| Oscar Klefbom* | SEL | 19 | 0.147 | 0 | 12 | 12 | - |
| David Musil | CHL | 31 | 0.145 | 4 | 8 | 12 | +2 |
| Taylor Fedun | AHL | Und | 0.140 | 2 | 10 | 12 | +1 |
| Colten Teubert | AHL | 13 | 0.063 | 2 | 3 | 5 | -1 |
| Alex Plante | AHL | 15 | 0.028 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -1 |
*Currently Injured
- Jayson Hajdu clued us in to Dillon Simpson's breakout after being moved to the first pairing at North Dakota. Of note: If Simpson was in the CHL with Kelowna, he would till have Juniors eligibility next season. He'll be a senior at North Dakota.
- Brandon Davidson was assigned to Stockton as part of his comeback from cancer and scored two goals in his debut game. He didn't stop there. In the six games since, Davidson has five points.
- The bottom two entries on the list are a reminder of opportunities lost.