While not a great science, evaluating prospects coming into and during the playoffs can yield additional information. Typically, the competition is more challenging and the games are more engaging than a Tuesday night in North Bay in January.
Playoffs in most junior and European professional leagues are well underway. There are also plenty of new faces for the Bakersfield Condors, and the Fort Wayne Komets.
When March 21st comes around each year, people start looking towards a new season filled with sun and warmth instead of snow and cold. Focus starts to take shape at the end of school and summer holidays.
The Edmonton Oilers made a stretch of a draft selection last season with the 196th pick on William Nicholl, and now he's been named one of the top steals of the entire 2024 draft.
Another week, another William Nicholl update. No player in the history of doing this piece has gotten more time in half a season than Nicholl has. It isn’t because he’s the only prospect of the Oilers.
There are very few other organizations where the most recent first-round pick gets scrutinized day in and day out than the Edmonton Oilers. You don’t likely have to tell Sam O’Reilly because he has been living it since he made a very successful debut with the Oilers in his first training camp.
Selecting any player in the 7th round of the NHL Draft makes them an immediate long shot to ever play at the highest level, but the Oilers may have found a diamond in the rough.
On August 26, 2024, I lost my Mom. Yesterday, myself and a couple hundred family and friends got to celebrate her life. We got to share great memories.
When the Edmonton Oilers drafted William Nicholl with the 196th-overall selection in the 2024 NHL Draft, it came as somewhat of a surprise. A third-round choice of the London Knights in the 2022 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) Priority Selection, Nicholl first played a full season at the Jr.
The Edmonton Oilers may have picked up a serious steal in the seventh round of last year's draft, according to a new report. Oilers prospect expert Bruce Curlock has been banging the drum that William Nicholl could be making serious strides to becoming an NHL-level talent.
All players being sent home now were expected to be heading home early as very young junior players. Forwards William Nicholl, Connor Clattenburg, Dylan Wakely, and goalie Nathan Day were sent down to their respective CHL teams.
A note about the criteria of to be included in this countdown. The player must be 25 or younger when the season starts and he must have played less than 50 NHL games.