Scouting Report: Edmonton's OHL Contingent

Brock Otten's OHL Prospects Blog is an outstanding place for information related to anything and everything to do with the Ontario Hockey League. We've referenced his work a number of times in draft research and some of our draft profiles over the years. Otten's ambitious summer project is a capsule of each OHL player drafted by an NHL team, broken down by team. Oh yeah, and he's publishing it all in 30 days.

The Oilers have three (now two) prospects in the OHL: Darnell Nurse - Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, Kyle Platzer - London Knights, Daniil Zharkov - Belleville Bulls and Otten published his take on each one. Some highlights below:

Darnell Nurse - Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. I'm extremely happy with this pick and the scouts who watched him play think extremely highly of him, so hearing Otten reinforce those views is very satisfying:

His progression this year into a top flight OHL defenseman leads me to believe that he has top pairing potential at the NHL level.

and

I'd be very surprised if he's not one of the highest scoring defenseman in the league next year.

Kyle Platzer - London Knights. Scott identified Platzer as a miscast scorer and Otten agrees:

He may not be big, but he's effective in puck retrieval and does a good job working the boards.

and

He's got a shot to have a larger offensive role with the club next year and it'll be interesting to see how he reacts.

Daniil Zharkov - Belleville Bulls. Zharkov won the fan vote as the longshot most likely to make it, but Otten isn't thrilled with Zharkov and his reports echo some of the previously identified shortcomings in his game.

Lots of flash and dash, not a ton of substance or production.

and

This makes me question his vision and overall hockey sense.

Click here for the rest of Brock Otten's take on the Oilers' OHL prospects.