Oilers Prospect Will Return From Retirement

Edmonton Oilers organization will have a prospect return to professional hockey next season.

Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports - Oilers Prospect Will Return From Retirement

EDMONTON -- The Edmonton Oilers don't have the strongest prospect pipeline.

This won't be a newsflash to many observers of the NHL. Before Connor McDavid was ever a part of the team - they were bad for many years. These years of poor performance resulted in high draft picks. Those picks turned into players who joined the NHL relatively immediately.

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Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Darnell Nurse, Leon Draisaitl, Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall and Oscar Klefbom are all players who were drafted before McDavid who found their way onto the roster with minimal (or zero) time in between being drafted and playing.

Fast forward to today, and Ken Holland has spent his time restocking the prospect cupboards - while sending some of those prospects out in deals to acquire pieces to help the Oilers "win-now."

One Oilers prospect will be returning to professional hockey next year. Noah Philp announced last June that he would be stepping away to focus on things "outside the realm of hockey."

Last year he played 70 games for the American Hockey League affiliate Bakersfield Condors. The 25-year-old 6-foot-3, 200 lbs forward accumulated 37 points in that time.

Philp will be resuming his professional hockey career, as per Bob Stauffer in the above tweet. He will certainly be welcomed back into the organization with open arms.

It is never a bad thing for an organization to gain another prospect into their farm system - and hopefully Philp got what he needed from his time away.

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