Diamond in the rough — have Edmonton Oilers mined another late-round gem on the blueline?

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2024 Edmonton Oilers prospects
#4 Maximus Wanner

• Previously: #4 in 2023
• age 21, 6’3, 185 lbs, drafted #212 overall in 2021

Over the past decade or so, Edmonton Oilers have had success in finding some decent defencemen in the “Hail Mary” portion of the NHL Draft beyond pick #150. In each of four consecutive drafts 2015-18, the club found a rearguard in either the sixth or seventh round who would later make it all the way to the Show, although not necessarily with the Oilers. All were right shots. All had NCAA roots.

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• John Marino was uncovered in the sixth round in 2015. He never did sign in Edmonton, but after his rights were traded to Pittsburgh he was able to make the jump directly from NCAA to the NHL where he has already logged 328 games.
• Vincent Desharnais was a seventh-round prayer in 2016 who signed two AHL contracts with the organization while gradually working his way up the depth chart. He finally made it all the way to the bigs in his Draft +7 season, playing 114 games as an Oiler before signing as a free agent in Vancouver this past off-season.
• Philip Kemp was another seventh-round selection in 2017. Now in his eighth year on the Cult of Hockey‘s prospect rankings, he currently stands as Edmonton’s most-seasoned prospect. He did manage to make his NHL debut in 2023-24, and remains a serious candidate to work his way into the mix.
• Michael Kesselring was the Oilers sixth-rounder in 2018. An up-and-comer in Bakersfield, he was eventually dealt to Arizona at the deadline in his Draft +5 season and soon thereafter made the jump to the NHL where he has now played 74 games.

Edmonton went away from drafting blueliners in the 2019 and 2020 Drafts, but in 2021 took another late-round swing on a  rearguard, this time from major junior. Maximus Wanner seemed like an afterthought, a raw-boned 18-year-old who had mustered just 22 games of WHL experience over a pair of pandemic-shortened seasons, placing him far below the radar.

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As usual, under the player’s statistical profile we present a scouting report from his draft season. This one comes from Allan “Lowetide” Mitchell, the man who literally wrote the (terrific!) book on the subject: On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Edmonton Oilers at the NHL Draft. Wanner is literally the last entry in that tome, which covers the 400 draft choices made by the Oilers between 1979-2021.

• At 6’3, 185 pounds, Wanner is a two-way defender with good speed and excellent passing ability. He didn’t get much exposure (22 games, 17 in 2020-21) due to the pandemic and should be regarded as a sleeper pick with great potential.

Mitchell’s take of Wanner as a “sleeper pick” picked up steam the following season, when the rangy right-shot rearguard started to thrive as a regular in Moose Jaw. He then took a major step forward in his final junior campaign. First he impressed at Oilers rookie camp, playing in his first NHL exhibition game. He was signed to an entry-level contract on Sep 30 before being reassigned to the Warriors, unusually early for such a low pick to ink a big-league pact. He followed up with an excellent final season, posting solid boxcars of 10-27-37, +29 in 54 regular season and playoff games. He certainly caught the eye of our panel here at the Cult of Hockey, where he soared from #21 in our rankings all the way to #4.

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Colleague David Staples wrote the equivalent post in this series a year ago, wrapping up with our standard look forward to the season to come:

• Expectations for 2023-24: Taking a regular shift in Bakersfield on the right side and a regular turn on the PK there. Getting a handful of points and holding his own in team plus-minus. Stepping us as the season goes along, starting to dominate on defence with his physical edge and maybe busting into the Top 4 by the last stretch of the year.

A very realistic set of expectations, it turned out. The 20-year-old essentially checked off every one of those boxes, earning a spot in the line-up for Game 1 and for all 67 that followed. Playing primarily with AHL vet Cam Dineen and occasionally with experienced minor-leaguer Alex Peters, he soon worked his way into the top four as well as the penalty kill unit. He produced a respectable 7-10-17, while his plus-minus of +13 didn’t merely hold his own but tied with the far more experienced Kemp for the team lead. League-wide he ranked among the top 10 rookie blueliners in both goals and plus.

As for “stepping up as the season goes along” the AHL statistical record is pretty sparse, primarily traditional boxcars, plus/minus, and shots, not exactly the best ways to measure a stay-at-home blueliner. Still, there were very clear signs of progress as the season went along:

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• 2023: 25 GP, 1-1-2, -3
• 2024: 43 GP, 6-9-15, +16

He hit the turn of the calendar on a 20-game pointless drought, but thereafter became a consistent producer of about a point every three games in each of the final four months, pretty decent for a blueliner with no powerplay time. His shots totals also continued to ramp up, averaging about 1.5 per game from February on.

As for playing with a physical edge? Here’s where an eyewitness account is needed. Once again we asked the Cult of Hockey‘s own “sleeper pick”, Ira Cooper, for a report. A diehard observer of both Oilers and Condors and a contributing member of our panel, Ira coloured between the somewhat sparse lines of the AHL’s statistical record.

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