from David Staples of The Cult of Hockey,

On the recent Hockey’s Future ranking of top 50 NHL prospects, the Edmonton Oilers place three candidates in the Top 15, Darnell Nurse at sixth overall, Leon Draisaitl, ninth, and Griffin Reinhart, 14th.

Of the players in the Top 15, the three Oilers are the only position players who weigh more than 200 pounds.

The list is led by plenty of smaller players like Sam Reinhart, 1st overall and 186 pounds, Nikolaj Ehlers, third overall and 163 pounds, Sam Bennett, fourth overall and 178 pounds, Dylan Larkin, fifth overall and 172 pounds, Teuvo Teravainen, ninth overall and 165 pounds, and William Nylander, 11th overall and 169 pounds.

But when it comes to big bodies with skill, the Oilers boss the list. Griffin Reinhart is listed on the Oilers website as 217-pounds, while at the recent team development camp Nurse weighed in at 213 pounds and Draisaitl, 214. It’s easy to imagine all of them playing in a few years for the Oilers in the 220-to-230 pound range.

The Oilers shift to bigger players doesn’t end with these three. On Edmonton’s American Hockey League farm team, the Bakersfield Condors, almost all of the top prospects are also more than 200 pounds. That includes Brandon Davidson, 214-pounds, Jujhar Khaira, 214-pounds, and Bogdan Yakimov, 232-pounds.

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