‘Fantastic’: Rave review for Edmonton Oilers prospect Noah Philp sent to the AHL

October 8, 2024

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This in from Edmonton Oilers GM Stan Bowman, has rave review prospect centre Noah Philp, 26, who sat out last season due to personal reasons but played well in training camp: “He was fantastic. To me, he was the surprise of training camp, the positive surprise… His situation is maybe a little bit different in the sense that we want him playing, and we want him getting back into that rhythm. It’s really unusual for a player to be as good as he is after coming off a season when he didn’t play at all. But it’s a credit to him and his work ethic.

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Bowman continued: “He’s a fantastic kid, a great attitude. He’s the kind of guy you are pulling for. The biggest thing for us is we want him to be playing. And if he’s going to be playing here in Edmonton we have no hesitation to bring him back. What I didn’t want to do was to start the season with him as someone just standing and watching from the press box. I think he needs to play. If he’s going to be playing, whether it’s injury or performance, we have no hesitation of bringing him up and putting him in our line-up… If he does play here, he’s not going to be getting a lot of minutes so we felt that he’s going to go start the season in Bakersfield and get a big role there. He’ll probably play more there in a couple weeks there than he would in a month here just because we’re going to try to get him 20 minutes a night in Bakersfield, and get him killing penalties and getting him doing the things that he would be doing here to help us. I think that’s a great story. I’m really excited about him and I’m confident he’s going to be here this season helping us in Edmonton.”

And Bowman continued: “Noah is a great example of someone that took a different path and here he is on the doorstep of being in the NHL.”

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My take

1. Philp might well have out-performed a few veteran players in training camp and pre-season games. I suspect he’d do just fine as fourth-line centre. But I agree with Bowman’s assessment that there’s little to lose and much to gain by having Philp playing big minutes for Bakersfield in the AHL this fall. Maybe his AHL stint won’t last too long, maybe it’ll be until the New Year, but all those extra shifts in the AHL will help get him ready for his upcoming major test in the NHL.

2. The Oilers suffered a major blow losing top young forwards like Dylan Holloway, Ryan McLeod and Warren Foegele. All three good skate fast and make plays. McLeod and Foegele were useful on the PK. But the return of Philp to Edmonton’s fold has the chance to make up for some of those departures. He can take some of the minutes that would have gone to McLeod and, in time, might be as effective as a player.

3. Philp reminds me a bit of a young Kyle Brodziak, a big, useful checking centre with some skill. I’m uncertain of Philp’s ceiling, though, not having seen him play much. And it could be we all got a little too high on the player for being such a positive story out of training camp. It’s one thing to shine then, another thing to make an impact in the NHL regular season and playoffs. But Philp’s on the right path right now.