Oilers have no players at World Juniors for first time in over a decade
For the first time in over a decade, Edmonton Oilers fans won’t have a prospect to watch at the World Juniors.
Rosters are set for pretty much all the countries that will be participating in the tournament. Even for the teams that are still deliberating, no Oilers prospects are even in the running to be considered for the final rosters.
This is the first time that the Oilers will not have a single player from their organization play in the World Juniors since 2008, ending a streak of 15 consecutive tournaments with at least one Oilers draft pick.
The #Oilers will not have any prospects playing in the 2024 World Junior Championships.
This breaks a streak of 15 straight tournaments where at least one Edmonton prospect appeared.
— Preston Hodgkinson (@NHLHodgkinson) December 19, 2023
Heading into the season, the Oilers’ best bet to have some representation at the annual holiday tournament was their 2023 second-round pick Beau Akey. The offensive defenceman was off to a great start with the OHL’s Barrie Colts and was looking like a good bet to make Team Canada. However, those hopes were dashed when he suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in November.
Outside of Akey, the prospect cabinets are pretty bare for Edmonton. Perhaps their next best chance to get someone in the tournament was undrafted forward Brady Stonehouse, but he was not even invited to Canada’s initial camp to determine the roster.
Other than that, there weren’t any other Oilers prospects even in the conversation of making their national teams. If Russia was allowed to participate, perhaps 2022 sixth-round pick Nikita Yevseyev could have made it but, alas, that will not be happening.
This is a sign that the Oilers have some work ahead of themselves when it comes to rebuilding their organizational depth. The team’s drafting has been fairly lacklustre over the last few seasons. The only players drafted by the Oilers between 2019 and 2023 to appear in NHL games with Edmonton are Philip Broberg, Dylan Holloway, and Raphael Lavoie.
In recent years, the Oilers have had players like Xavier Bourgault and Luca Munzenberger play in the tournament, but those players have yet to graduate into the NHL. Last year, 2022 first-round pick Reid Schafer played for Canada, but he has since been traded to the Nashville Predators.
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