A Budding Baron

The Edmonton Oilers have developed a few players over the years, but nothing outside of Jeff Petry and the first round picks can be considered a home-run by the scouting department….Yet that is. Oscar Klefbom (a late first rounder), Martin Marincin, Anton Lander and even Curtis Hamilton down on the farm are showing signs of life, but one prospect has really caught my eyes.

He’s a new addition down in OKC, and came via trade about a year and a half ago. His name? His name is Laurent Brossoit, and he’s positioning himself to be a prospect of big time note moving forward in Edmonton.

The Oilers traded for Brossoit, dubbed LB, last season, trading D Ladislav Smid and G Olivier Roy to Calgary for the goalie and F Roman Horak, who is now in the KHL. Brossoit was sent to the ECHL, and set that league on fire.

Brossoit dominated, posting a stellar .923 SV% with a 2.14 GAA. LB also posted a really solid record, going 24-9-2 and leading the Condors to the playoffs. In the playoffs, he started all 16 games for the team.

This year, the Oilers moved LB up, placing him in the AHL with the Oklahoma City Barons as the team’s backup behind Richard Bachman. So far, so very, very good for Brossoit. He’s played in 25 games, posting a .918 SV%, a 14-7-2 record, and a 2.57 GAA. Not to mention, all those stats include a tough start to the season for the young goalie.

Brossoit has proven too good for the ECHL, and currently has proven he can handle the AHL as a back-up netminder. For the next stretch, he’ll get a look to prove he can be a starter at the AHL level, as injuries on the big club have forced Bachman to move up to Edmonton and forced LB to move up the Barons’ depth chart.

Here’s the thing, goalie prospects, they take time. In some cases, they take a long time. Even in the case of blue-chip prospects like Carey Price, a three or four year wait must be expected. Playing goal is the toughest position, in my mind, in hockey, and asking a young guy to just jump in is asking far too much.

So far for Brossoit in the organization, so good. He’s come in and gotten a year and a half of pro experience, and has dominated at times. He flew through the ECHL, and is now establishing himself as a real option at the AHL level. Next season, he likely spends the year as the stater for the Barons, and could set himself up as a true recall option.

This is a pretty damn big deal, because if LB proves he’s a high level starter in the AHL, then he could be Edmonton’s long-term answer in net. He’s handled the market before at the WHL level, and is showing the exact signs you look for from a prospect of note in the minor leagues. He’s actually developing for Edmonton, that’s something of note.

Edmonton has no real plans for goalie next season, and they badly need to fill that hole. If LB can be ready, say for the 2017-18 season, then Edmonton could be in business. That would mean only having to invest in a veteran goalie, a guy like Antti Niemi, for two, maybe three seasons this summer.

Look, Craig MacTavish must find a way to add a veteran in net this summer, no doubting that, but the long-term answer could reside south in Oklahoma City. Brossoit has emerged since that shocking trade, and has become a player we must watch with some real interest moving forward.

He won’t be ready next season, but if he keeps developing like this, well then Brossoit could be the guy we’ve been looking for down the road. This could be a major win for Edmonton if they keep moving LB along at this clip and he keeps this play up.

We wait, we watch, we hope. This budding Baron could be the answer to our calls down the road.