EDMONTON — When a team that is in urgent need of wingers steps up to the draft podium and chooses a defenceman at No. 8 overall, it is the definition of a patient build. That, of course, is something the Edmonton Oilers have seldom been accused of.
Watching Philip Broberg skate, however, is like listening to Michael Buble crooning a ballad.
Smooth? Efficient?
If my investments guy was this gifted, the place line on this piece would read "BAHAMAS."
"The very first drill when (skating coach and former Olympic figure skating gold medalist) David Pelletier was on the ice with him, some of the stuff he was doing, he was doing with ease," said V.P. of Development Scott Howson. "While other kids were struggling.
"He was drafted on his high-end skating, and it is there."
Broberg, a typically polite and well-spoken Swede, deflected: "I have actually done exactly these exercises back in Sweden with a different skating coach," he said. "It was not the first time I have done that. This is probably why."
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Broberg is six-foot-four and 197 pounds. He was judged by many to be the best skating defenceman available at the recent 2019 draft.
Evan Bouchard, last year’s No. 10 overall, is six-foot-three, 193 pounds. He has a right-shot cannon, and recently notched eight points in his first eight pro games in a call-up to join AHL Bakersfield for their playoffs.
Dmitri Samorukov is six-foot-three, 192 pounds. He quarterbacked the Russian powerplay at the 2019 World Juniors in Vancouver, and led his Guelph Storm to the Memorial Cup with 28 points in a 24-game playoff run.
You don’t need rose coloured glasses to look at this trio and think about how they’ll look on Edmonton’s blue line a few years from now.
Perhaps 3-D glasses instead.
"You look at any successful team. They usually start on the back end," Howson said, as development camp wrapped up this week in Edmonton. "What we’ve done here is we’ve accumulated (defencemen). People like William Lagesson, Caleb Jones, Ethan Bear, Joel Persson… We just think that we have a really good young stable of defencemen. And these three in particular are big, strong, very good skaters and good with the puck. It’s really promising, what we have coming on defence."
For all the No. 1 overall picks in Edmonton, none have ever been a Rasmus Dahlin or Aaron Ekblad. Even when they chose Nail Yakupov first overall in 2012, the consensus "best overall defenceman" was Ryan Murray — a nice player, but nowhere near a franchise defenceman.
You can argue over whether Ken Holland should be taking a different tact to make the playoffs right away, or whether they’ll begin to maximize Connor McDavid in 2020, or beyond that point. But the current Oilers — or Toronto Maple Leafs — prove that a mediocre blue line takes a team only so far. Not very far, in the case of the Oilers and Leafs.
"You don’t really think that far ahead. You focus on what’s coming up, and that’s main camp," said Bouchard, who is earmarked for a season in Bakersfield in 2019-20, alongside Samorukov. "I’m just finishing the summer off, getting stronger, faster, the coming into main camp. Everyone’s goal here is to stay with the team. That is for sure a goal of mine."
Rushing young players has always been a forte of past management groups in Edmonton. It’s another change in philosophy promised by Holland, who picked Broberg when many thought he should be providing immediate help up front for McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. That, of course, would mean putting an 18-year-old into the NHL lineup right away — a habit that has not served Edmonton well.
Broberg’s initial appearance in Edmonton drew raves, even from his Development Camp roommate Bouchard.
"He’s a special player," Bouchard said. "You can see his skating is top notch and his smarts are good. He’s going to be a phenomenal player."
They say, when you have three good young prospects, you can count on one of them becoming as good in the NHL as he was in his teenage career. If two pan out, then you’re really lucky. This 3-D group couldn’t look better, as two make their way into the pro ranks, while Broberg decides where to spend next season — in the Swedish Hockey League with Skelleftea, or in the OHL with Steve Staios’ Hamilton Bulldogs.
It’s a foundation that you can build on for the long-term, something they’ve been trying to figure out in Edmonton for a long, long time.
"It’s three good prospects, and (they are) two good guys," said Broberg, who turned 18 only this past week. "I have been around them a lot this week, and they are really good guys off the ice as well.
"We shall see what happens in time."
