Just Who Is Tyler Vesel

Craig MacTavish and gang stated before the draft that the Edmonton Oilers were a team that wanted to get bigger, stronger and tougher to play against. Well they went off the board of that philosophy a bit when they selected center Tyler Vesel from the Omaha Lancers of the USHL in the 6^th round at 153^rd overall. Vesel, a ’94 birthday, is not a big guy by any means weighing in at 180lbs and standing 5’10”.

So why the change in philosophy you ask? Well Vesel finished 3^rd in overall scoring in the USHL last year and played only a fraction of the games compared to the others in the top 5, his boxcars look good at 33g 38a and a whopping +40. So his size might not be so bad when you compared that to his apparent offensive talents. I’m thinking that when Stu MacGregor and the rest of the scouting staff looked at the needs in the system they figured why not add a smaller forward with outstanding offense to the group of bigger bodies that are being assembled right now.

Vesel being a 4^th round pick is definitely a long shot to make the NHL but adding depth like this to the system isn’t necessarily a bad thing. He’s committed to play with the University of Nebraska – Omaha next season, where he’ll be able to hone his skills under the guidance of a pretty good NCAA program. Not to mention it’s very likely we’ll see him play at the World Junior Hockey Championships this year.

There isn’t a lot of scouting information available on Vesel but one think I can tell you is this kid is a winner. He played for Shattuck St. Mary’s, the same prep school that Sidney Crosby attended, before heading to the USHL. At St. Mary’s he was consistently among the teams top scorers and also had both regular season and playoff successes. In 2011 his midget team was runner up at the National Championships and in 2012 he played in the prep division where they won the national title.

Like I mentioned above it’s unlikely that a 4^th rounder makes an NHL team, however it appears that the Oilers scouting staff may have found a diamond in the rough here. It will be very interesting to see Vesel’s progression in the NCAA and maybe just maybe he’ll do enough to earn himself and entry level contract a few years from now. It’s never a bad thing to have depth in the system.

I’ll leave you with this highlight package featuring Vesel scoring the OT winner in the first clip. Enjoy and thanks for reading.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXEwcOihV2k]