Oilers Highly Prompted Prospect Hit With Bad News - major setback with his development

PUBLICATION

Tyler
December 12, 2022 (11:15 PM)

SHARE THIS STORY

When the Oilers selected Raphael Lavoie in the 2019 NHL Draft with the 38th overall pick, the team must have been laughing.

A 6-foot-4 sniper, who can make plays and has a great stride. Perhaps a player that could develop into an ideal linemate for one of the Oilers two superstar centres.

Lavoie played four years in the QMJHL before being selected. He split his time between the Halifax Mooseheads and the Chicoutimi Sagueneens. The big winger managed over a point-per-game pace scoring 106 goals, 121 assists for 227 points through 217 QMJHL games.

After graduating from the junior ranks to the professional game - Lavoie found himself in Sweden for the 2020-21 season and he picked up where he left off. The Chambly, QC. Native put up a respectable 23 goals, 22 assists for 45 points through 51 games for Vaxby IK in the HockeyAllsvenskan - proving he could hang with the pros.

He then stepped into the AHL with the Bakersfield Condors and has spent the last two and a half seasons with the Oilers farm team - after splitting the 2020-21 season between Vaxby IK and Bakersfield. The forward has accumulated three seasons of AHL play, suiting up for 88 games - posting 20 goals, 19 assists for 39 points over that span. While the numbers don't jump off the page, Lavoie was on the up and up and looking like he was about to hit his stride.

And unfortunately the 22-year-old has been limited to just 13 games during the 2022-23 campaign, due to injury. And the latest update suggests he will be out for one to three weeks with an upper-body injury.

Certainly, it hasn't been going the way the Oilers had hoped when they selected the sniper from the Quebec league - nor has it gone Lavoie's way.