New Condors Defenceman Luke Prokop Says It’s Time to ‘Get in a Fight or Two’

Prokop is someone that Edmonton hockey fans are already familiar with. The 23-year-old was born in the Alberta capital and won the Western Hockey League (WHL) championship as a member of the Edmonton Oil Kings in 2022.

But the more you get to know Prokop, it’s almost impossible not to be impressed by the towering blueliner. On Wednesday (Aug. 13), Prokop appeared on Oilers NOW with Bob Stauffer and spoke with great introspection about where he’s at in hockey.

Limited Games in Milwaukee

Selected 73^rd overall in the 2020 NHL Draft by the Nashville Predators, Prokop has yet to stick in the NHL past the preseason and has played exclusively in the minors since concluding his junior career in 2023.

In 2024-25, he got into only 31 games with Nashville’s AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals, totalling four points from one goal and three assists while registering a plus/minus of plus-3.

“I kind of knew what I was going into in Milwaukee this past season,” Prokop told Stauffer. “It was going to be tough to crack the lineup every night. We had a lot of really good defencemen who are up and down with Nashville throughout the season on our team, and I thought when I got into games, I played really well. It was just a circumstance where things were a little bit out of my control in some areas, and obviously that’s frustrating, but I kind of had to realize that it was out of my control, and to focus on the stuff that I can, which was working hard in practice, working hard in the scrap skates.”

He continued, “I think I grew a lot as a person and as a player this past season, and overall just improved my mental strength on that side of things, and with the ebbs and flows of the season, not being super frustrated if I’m in the lineup, if I’m out of the lineup,” Prokop continued. “So I think I matured a lot this past season, even if I didn’t play as many games as I would have liked to.”

Opportunity With Condors

Prokop became a free agent on July 1 when the Predators did not issue a qualifying offer to their 2020 third-round selection. Though it was only just announced this week, Prokop’s deal with the Condors had been in the works for a while, according to Stauffer.

“I think I saw quite a bit of opportunity in Bakersfield with the defenceman they have there, with not having a lot of younger players,” Prokop told Stauffer. “For me, this free agency was just trying to figure out where the most opportunity is going to be, and ultimately I decided it was Bakersfield.”

Including Lindgren and Prokop, the Condors currently have three defencemen signed to an AHL contract for the 2025-26 season.

Eyes on the NHL

Prokop’s ultimate goal, of course, is making the NHL, and there is a history of players who have come to Bakersfield on an AHL contract and parlayed that into an NHL deal with the Oilers. Vincent Desharnais and James Hamblin are two recent examples.

With age and experience comes wisdom, and after suffering the indignation of effectively being told “We don’t want you anymore” by the organization that drafted him, Prokop seems to have figured out who he must become in order to reach hockey’s highest level.

“It’s always been a little bit of the same old story with me,” Prokop said on Oilers NOW. “I believe I’m a very good skater, my hockey IQ is very good, I’m a good passer, I’m probably more on the defensive end, but when given the opportunity, I can provide offence as well.

“The main part for me has always been realizing my size, how big I am, and being able to use that to my advantage when defending players against the rush or in the corners, adding a little bit of bite, adding a bit of grit to my game, which has been a little bit of an internal battle because that’s not who I am off the ice. So being able to flip that switch when I put that gear on and be nasty to play against, and maybe get in a fight or two, I think it’s just showing a bit more intimidation and being able to use my size,” Prokop continued.

“I think I’ve grown slowly over the past few seasons. I think throughout junior I progressed a little bit more and more, and then towards the end of the season this past year in Milwaukee, I was getting there, and I think that’s going to be the biggest difference for me. At pro, the difference between players is so minuscule. Everyone’s good at doing something, and you want to be able to stand out in a certain area, and so if I can add that to my game, with already being a 6-foot-5, 220-pound right shot (defenceman), I think that will open some doors for me.”

Prokop will have his first opportunity to make an impression on the Oilers when he attends their training camp next month. While he’ll almost certainly start the season in Bakersfield, the Edmonton product will be someone for Oilers fans to keep an eye on throughout 2025-26.