Oilers Goalie Prospect Recognized with League Award, Climbing Prospect Rankings
The Edmonton Oilers selected goaltender Nathaniel Day in the 6th round of the 2023 draft, clearly a long shot to the make the NHL that position, but he's having some promising success this season.
Day was recently awarded the OHL's Goalie of the Week award for an incredible stretch of play in the first week of November. Day had a record of 2-0-1, with an incredible 0.97 GAA and .969 save percentage.
That success hasn't been constant, otherwise Day may be considered the best goalie prospect in hockey. In 16 games with the Flint Firebirds this year, Day has a 2.89 GAA and .893 save percentage - stats that certainly aren't great.
Fans may remember Nathan Day from this year's Young Stars Classic Tournament. In the few games this year the Oilers prospects got rocked by much older, more experienced teams, but Nathan Day stood out as he kept the Oilers in games.
At 6'4 tall and over 200 pounds, Day fits the archetype of modern goaltenders being as large as possible to take up the entire net. Gone are the days of smaller athletic goalies like Dominik Hasek making acrobatic saves, the new emphasis is on positionally sound beasts in net.
Goaltenders famously take longer to develop because of the nature of the position, but hopefully, the Oilers have some found value in Nathaniel Day.
The Edmonton Oilers are themselves dealing with a small goaltending problem right now, with Stuart Skinner failing to find any form of consistency. If it keeps up much longer, the Oilers may need to look toward finding another goalie to play alongside him as a tandem option, and an upgrade on Calvin Pickard. Down the line, Nathan Day could be an important player for Edmonton.
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