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Arrows pointing straight up for Oilers forward hopeful Xavier Bourgault

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Sep 09, 2022 • 48 minutes ago • 7 minute read • Join the conversation

Edmonton Oilers Xavier Bourgault, left, celebrates with teammate Derek Ryan, middle, a goal against the Calgary Flames during pre-season NHL hockey in Calgary on Sunday, September 26, 2021.
Edmonton Oilers Xavier Bourgault, left, celebrates with teammate Derek Ryan, middle, a goal against the Calgary Flames during pre-season NHL hockey in Calgary on Sunday, September 26, 2021. Photo by Al Charest /Postmedia

2022 Edmonton Oilers prospects
#4 Xavier Bourgault

So far so good for the Edmonton Oilers forward prospect Xavier Bourgault. One season has passed since the NHL club selected him in the first round of the 2021 NHL Draft, and it was a memorable one. Bourgault posted an outstanding farewell campaign in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and is prepared to graduate to the professional ranks after four seasons in that loop.

Is there any chance he’s ready to make the jump all the way to the NHL? I’ll give a qualified “yes”, meaning “maybe at some point during the season”.

Very unlikely it would be directly out of camp, even as the youngster checks a few boxes. He’s highly skilled, he plays a position that is a little shy on depth, and he’s on a relatively cheap contract. Leaving the door open just a crack if he blows the doors off at camp.

Bourgault certainly went out with a bang in his fourth and final season with the Shawinigan Cataracts. He had just one left after being drafted (orange line above), the result of having a “late birthday” after the NHL’s Sep 15 threshold.

After impressing in the Oilers camp, scoring a goal and an assist against the Flames in his first NHL pre-season opportunity, he was predictably sent back to Shawinigan to play out his last teenage season.

Despite missing time due to World Junior commitments and more to injury, he finished second on the Cataracts in scoring in the regular season with 36-39-75 in just 43 games, then posted an impressive 12-10-22 in 16 playoff games. Shawinigan rolled to the league title. He capped the season by finishing second in scoring at the Memorial Cup with 2-5-7 in 4 games. Add it all up and he scored 50 goals and added 54 assists for 104 points with an impressive +42 in just 63 games.

There were some disappointments:

  • After making Canada’s U-20 squad for the (second of three) World Junior in Edmonton last December, he got knocked out of the first game after taking a hit to the head, sat out the second for precautionary reasons, then never got another chance. when the tournament was abandoned due to a COVID outbreak.
  • He suffered a core body injury in early February that sidelined him for six weeks and may have left him at less than 100% thereafter.
  • After their triumph at the league level, the Cataractes got knocked out just shy of the finish line at the Memorial Cup, losing a heartbreaker in overtime to the Hamilton Bulldogs in the semifinal.
  • With his season having run right to the end of June, he then sat out Oilers Development camp to take some time to properly heal from that core muscle issue.
  • That was followed by the difficult decision to pass on the August edition of the World Junior, presumably for the same reason.

Listed as a center, Bourgault spent most of his time patrolling the right wing. I took the opportunity to watch him in action during the Memorial Cup and was largely impressed by his offensive game. He was very good in tight spaces and competed hard along the walls, winning more than his share of possessions. He distributed the puck well, often with short passes predicated on quick decisions in traffic. He also showed the shooter’s knack of materializing in “the good ice” as if from nowhere and letting fly with a quick, accurate release that produced a shooting percentage just over 20% over his last three seasons combined.

On the down side, he got lost defensively a time or two, tending to watch the puck rather than focusing on the danger man and establishing position on him. One such lapse in a 4-on-4 situation resulted in a key goal-against in the semifinal. That sort of coverage flaw will need to be ironed out of his game in the pros, most likely at the AHL level to start.

What do others see in him? Many of the same attributes I did, judging by these comments from actual experts:

Let’s finish by putting a distinctly Oilers spin on this prospect. Bourgault is the fourth player the NHL club has chosen at exactly #22 overall, including Marc Pouliot in 2003, Jordan Eberle in 2008, and Kailer Yamamoto in 2017. All of them right shot forwards, all of them selected from major junior, all of them playing four seasons at that level without stagnating. Note the steadily increasing points-per-game marks for each guy over the course of his junior career, with all four surging past a point-per-game in their second season and then ramping up from there.

Bourgault stands out for starting as the furthest back, struggling through a difficult 16-year-old campaign before turning the corner as a sophomore. With his October birthday he was relatively the youngest of the four within each of those seasons, just a month younger than Yamamoto but five months younger than Pouliot and Eberle (who were each drafted after their second year of junior rather than their third).

All three of Bourgault’s draft peers became NHLers. Pouliot, a center, had the least success at that level but still got 200 NHL regular season and playoff games before winding up in Switzerland (where he is still active at age 37). Eberle made the NHL at 20 and has been a consistent producer ever since, notching at least 16 goals and 33 points in all 12 of his NHL seasons to date and now standing on the cusp of 600 points for his career. The most contemporary player, Yamamoto, needed some AHL seasoning before making the permanent jump to the NHL midway through his second pro season. His early results are promising with miles of open highway in front of him.

Best guess here is that Yamamoto’s path is the most likely one for Xavier Bourgault. One common aspect is GM Ken Holland, who inherited Yamamoto in 2019 and “slow-played” him behind a few more experienced pros, ensuring he was good and ready before getting the call from Bakersfield in mid-season. That’s the most likely path for Bourgault, although whether it’s this Mid-season or the next one will depend on his performance coupled with the needs of the NHL team.

Expectations for 2022-23: Show up at rookie camp fully recovered from his physical issues and make his best case. Likely destined for Bakersfield, where as the projected youngest player on the team he will face plenty of competition for ice time. First goal is to establish a regular spot somewhere in the line-up, preferably the top nine, while he gets his feet wet playing against men. Work on rounding out his game away from the puck while demonstrating his skills with it to earn increased opportunities, with an NHL recall the ultimate goal.

Cult of Hockey prospect series

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