Tuesday, July 3, 2012

OILERS Development Camp FINAL CHAPTER 2012


The Oilers 2012 Development Camp ended on Monday with applause and cheers from Oilers fans and big smiles from the prospects and coaches on the ice, especially one, Nail Yakupov. The story of this camp was of course Mr.Yakupov, but what has been transpiring within the depth of the Oilers organization is what is even more impressive.

The Oilers should be producing depth picking so early in each round of the last 3 years NHL Entry drafts,  but it's also the free agent signings of prospects from college hockey and European leagues as well. The culture being developed and the attention to detailed personal development of each player has been astounding and credit should be given to this organization for staying true to the course and putting money where it's needed most. (In the foundations of development for players)

A couple observations I noticed during todays 4 on 4 tourney. The Twin Towers, Marincin and Gernat were usually paired with one another. Taylor Fedun shows all positive signs of his leg being fully healed with no ill effects on the ice. Kyle Bigos looked impressive in his scrimmage and will be a interesting player to watch this year in his development. Klefbom looks like a well poised and smooth skater who has excellent passing skills and good positioning. Roy and Bunz show no signs in their goaltending development of being behind the 8 ball. 

And of course the team 'clown' at training camp is the Oilers very own #1 OV Draft pick Nail Yakupov. Some watching camp were not impressed with his ability to perform some drills well, but what can be forgotten is this camp is for teaching and developing not for evaluating someone on a skill they have not yet learned. When the scrimmage came on and Yakupov could control the puck, he showed he has GAME, and a sense of humour to boot. 

DAY 6 ON ICE DEVELOPMENT CAMP:

4 on 4 full ice game tourney on 

 sets up  who one times it but stopped by 

 with a chance hits post 

 misses top corner but he and  look like have chemistry 

 sets up beauty goal 

 clears puck from going in net and back to goalie.

 lays out  in corner and barely touched him

 flashes the glove with sweet top corner save on a 2on1

 3x breaks up play 

 wearing a camera on his helmet today 

 back checks  I to net smashing into back boards

 is stopped cold by 

 with breakaway in close on  is stopped , rebound he hits post 

 now with kicksave 

 nailed against boards by  

 sets up a beauty pass but  saves it 

 with nice kick save 

About 700 fans here in Sherwood Park, to watch and 4 on 4 tourney today.


 stones  on a excellent shot

 moving pretty quick today 

 stops a play that could have been a breakaway

 has breakout pass but stick breaks, crowd laughs

 doing some good back checking


 with a blast through  celebrates goal to crowd. Crowd cheers and laughs.major crowd pleaser


 with a breakaway and dekes out 

 with slapped and deflected past 

 moving puck well and creating opportunities

 with another goal and big celebration. crowd pleaser 

  and  team up for another goal by  looks to fans to hear cheers. Crowd goes nuts!!!


 is Definately a shooter , excels at quick shots in right spots

 now getting beat quite often

 High sticks  but play continues.  slaps a one times, misses net by inches. 

Probably 800 fans now in building.  has hat trick so far, how many more??? 

 stops a slapped from the point on nice kick save

 gets breakout pass and dekes out defencemen and to score back handler 

 getting rough with #74 and then back checks and throws hip check 

Play starting to get rough out on ice 

Little  blocks out big  in front of net well

 stops  point blank 

 playing good defence in this tourney as well. 

 strength appears to be sense of where to be on ice at right time 

 missing in action. Not seen almost all morning ?????

 in shoot out impressive deke 

 is over.  finishes with and celebrates for fans


SHORT VIDEO CLIP



For Oiler prospect news and the 2013 or 2014 NHL draft watch, go to

Monday, July 2, 2012

Day 5 OILERS Development Camp


Day 5 of on ice sessions at camp saw a lot of the same from the previous days with drills and exercises on agility. Today was not unlike other days where certain players stood out because of their on ice training and agility, while others stood out for other reasons..(like falling all over the ice?)


As camp continues, the players are starting to lose some of the rust and drills are really opening up and your starting to see lots of drills that include odd man rushes and defence paired up against offence. The players who I was able to observe more today were Klefbom, Simpson, Gernat and Marincin. Bigos, Rieder, Hamilton, Fedun, Roy and of course Nail Yakupov.


Here was the tweets I was able to send out LIVE from Millennium Place in Sherwood Park....

Day 5 Oilers development Camp:

Guys hit ice for 

 backward skating  pretends to body check another guy and crowd laughs. Girls are all excited 

Drill is skating forward then backward swinging stick under legs , crowd laughing hysterically at nail and others


 is excelling at these one leg skating drills on both legs. One of the best on ice  leg looking great


 at MP over  . Nail again struggles with skating agility but crowd does not care as he keeps  

 catches puck and then skates down and takes long shot on goal. Trying to impress fans he hits post and gets a ohhh! 

 with some accurate shots on net  looking good on his positioning in preparing for pass shots


 not glowing but a player like  not about precision and is more about fierce and fiesty hard work#oilersdevelopmentcamp


 defensive drills for skating/passing/ shooting being done. Standouts...   

Watching d-men working through drills right now  and  teamed up looking good on passes


 in these breakout drills shouts too corner. Hard wrist shot, quick too 

 lots of intensity being ramped up on drills, scrimmage Coming up?

 5 forwards rushing in on 2 defencemen drills


 looking solid in net standing square and calm.

 pulls player with passing option away from goalie to get view of puck  play 

 takes breakout pass on RW done ice and makes pretty pass to trailer for quality shot 

Incredible sticks by both  and  . Play strong in passing lanes 


3 on 2 full ice breakouts drills being done now

Shooters standing around goalies taking shots.   top corner.  shows his quick and accurate shot


 breakout speed gets  open for breakaway. stones  though 

Another great play by  on a pass. His passing looks sweet.

 day over  wants  to stick around to shoot.misses shot and in disgust falls on ice to cry.


Well, that was the last day of drills and exercises for the on ice sessions ....next up? 3 on 3 tourney, Monday 2012.


Will be Tweeting LIVE once again from Oilers Development camp so be sure to follow on Twitter if you do not already. 



For Oiler prospect news and the 2013 or 2014 NHL draft watch, go to

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Edmonton Oilers Free Agent Day Updates

Throughout the day I'll be posting any deals that the Oilers can make. Check back often as I update this page when news happens.

RYAN SMYTH signs a 2 year deal worth $2.25 million a year.

YANN DANIS signs a 1 year deal.

DARCY HORDICHUK signs a 1 year deal for $850,000.

Schultz Chooses Oil Country


 Leafs fans and Canucks fans are now spitting bile and venom at Justin Schultz, a kid that they, just a few moments ago, were hoping would join their respective teams. Instead of joining the self-proclaimed ‘Centre of the Universe’ or the West Coast, he chose Oil Country.
   The Edmonton Oilers pulled out all the stops to lure him to our fair city, even recruiting The Great One and Paul Coffey to phone him up personally to convince him to join their former team. Now, who can say ‘no’ to Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey?! That was an absolute brilliant play on behalf of those two, harkening back to that old familiar call by Rod Philips-
“Lowe passes it across to Coffey. Coffey, streaking across the line. Now up to Gretzky. Gretzky takes a shot-SCOOOORES”!!!!!

   Once again, it seems as if the 'old Boys on the Bus' came through for the Oilers in a BIG way and, we are now witnessing history repeat itself. Back in the early 80’s the Oilers were acquiring top-notch talent which propelled them to win 5 Stanley Cup Championships in a similar fashion, although differently. This city and Oilers fans across the nation are in jubilation today, and we now have our two guys in Yakupov & Schultz.

   Welcome to Oil Country, boys!!    

By Paul Neumann

Two Guys & Hockey Talk NHL News (CLICK PIC FOR LINK)

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