Oilers Prospect Update: Condors early season struggles continue

It’s a power-play chance, but I love how Hutson doesn’t stand still after making his pass. The right winger stops up to put the puck on his forehand, and as soon as he lets the pass go, Hutson sprints past his check right to the open space. The sniper has always been great at offensive zone routing, and even when the puck isn’t going in, the little details remain the same.

You don’t stuff the net like Hutson without getting shots off quickly, and even if the puck is rolling, the undrafted free agent still has the confidence in his shot to let it go instantly. There isn’t a lot of unnecessary puck handling when Hutson is in a shooting position. I thought Hutson was one of the better forwards for the Condors during the weekend; even though he wasn’t scoring, he was still trying to get the puck into the right areas.

Even though the puck didn’t get cleanly through, the Condors generated a chance because somebody was willing to send the puck to the slot. While on the point of his playmaking ability, I thought his vision has opened up a bit more this year compared to last.

Unfortunately, the pass isn’t received, and the potential chance is gone. However, it was an excellent look cross-ice. Hutson won’t be in this scoring drought for much longer; he’s a natural goal scorer, and a puck will find the back of the net. Even without scoring, I have continued to be impressed by the amount of offence the American product creates.

Tomas Cibulka scores his first as a Condor

With only a goal and one assist in nine games played, you wouldn’t expect the tape to be as impressive as it is, but I can’t help but fall more in love with the Czech defenceman’s game. The skating ability is great, and Cibulka tries to use it to the best of his ability, no matter the situation. Not a lot of defencemen are willing to suck forwards in and shake them off with their feet; the left-shot (playing the right-side) defender is constantly trying to beat his man, and if he can start finishing off these plays… oh my.

Of course, his first goal would be after shaking a forward and creating a shooting lane. I hope they let the 22-year-old continue to play how he is playing; I love the confidence, and he doesn’t give up much on the defensive end either. I feel like, down the line, with a bit more weight on his frame and some extra refinement in his skills, Cibulka can get some NHL games in.

Cibulka is great at separating his lower body and his upper body. The mobile defender knows his range extremely well and can keep pucks in his hip pocket, making it hard to get possession away from him. In the first clip above, the first-year AHL player helps confuse the San Jose forwards trying to cover up top. It creates an open passing lane, and if Cibulka gets a harder pass off, there is open ice for Viljami Marjala.

I love the pairing of Damien Carfagna and Tomas Cibulka. I thought it might be time to break them up because they can both help create offence from different pairs; unfortunately, as I said earlier, Carfagna was injured in the 5-1 loss to the Canucks and didn’t dress in the San Jose game. Cibulka will continue to run the power play while the former Ohio State Buckeye is out. I haven’t seen an update on the Condors ‘ top-scoring defender, but I hope he sat as a precaution.

It was an ugly set of games this past weekend, to be honest. Samuel Jonsson has shown well in his short time as an AHL goaltender, and it will be interesting to see who gets the start on Friday. Bakersfield will play a back-to-back against the Barracuda, making it three straight games against San Jose. Let’s wait and see who is healthy and available for the game before we make any predictions. But I’m quite down on this Condors roster at the moment with all the injuries; however, once they get healthy, I think they’ll start filling the net, but will it be too late by then? Although it was a tough weekend, Hutson and Cibulka continue to try to create offence even when the well might be a little dry.