Cult of Hockey prospect series 2025: #13, Connor Clattenburg
20 years old, 6’4″, 195 lbs., drafted #160 overall in 2024.
Most controversial Edmonton Oilers prospect just now? Big, bashing brute of a forward Connor Clattenburg qualifies.
He’s not controversial in the sense of anything he’s done but in terms of how various prospect talent experts evaluate.
Is he a solid NHL prospect? Or a dud?
There’s a wide variety of opinion on these questions.
Clattenburg
What we do know is that if Clattenburg, now 20 and heading into the first year of his three-year Entry Level Contract, does make it as a pro, it will be as a hard-charging, aggressive, non-stop hitting and harassing grinder.
The prototype in recent years for this kind of forward was Cal Clutterbuck, who retired last season after 1064 NHL regular season games from 2007 to 2024 for the Minnesota Wild and New York Islanders. The Oilers have had this kind of player in the past, the best examples being Kelly Buchberger, Kevin McClelland, Zack Stortini, Zack Kassian, Luke Gazdic and Jean-Francois Jacques.
Other NHLers who play this hard-driving, hard-hitting game, some of them throwing in decent point production as well, others not so much, include larger wingers like:Marc Gatcomb, Ross Johnston, Jonah Gadjovich, Garnet Hathaway, Samuel Helenius, Mark Kastelic, Matt Rempe, Klim Kostin, William Carrier, Jack McBain, and A.J. Greer. This is not a list of names casual fans would know but all these players are carving out NHL careers by skating hard and hitting harder.
We can see that in their final year of junior or first year of college, a number of these players did much better than Clattenburg did in his final season in the Ontario Hockey League when it came to putting up points. Mark Kastelic, Jonah Gadjovich and William Carrier all put up more than a point per game.
Clattenburg had 35 points in 46 games, but that was better than Matt Rempe or Ross Johnston did in their final year of junior. Other players of this same size and style were in other tougher leagues than major junior, making comparisons more difficult. In the American Hockey League, Kostin put up 24 points in 66 games.
toughs
As for the controversy around Clattenburg, just this week he was left off the short list of prospects, led by Matt Savoie and Ike Howard, that prospect expert Corey Pronman of The Athletic felt have a shot of making the NHL out of Edmonton’s top prospect list.
Likewise the Athletic’s Scott Wheeler did not have Clattenburg in his list of Edmonton’s top 14 prospects last January. He was also left out of Edmonton prospect expert Bruce Curlock’s Top 20 Edmonton prospects in late January 2025. Curlock did give him an honourable mention for his physical play, but noted, “His offence has been very spotty in junior.”
But this summer Bob Stauffer of Oilers Now had Clattenburg ranked seventh on his list of Oilers top prospects. And Curlock now ranks Clattenburg seventh overall as well in his most recent rankings.
Says Curlock: “When Clattenburg was selected in the 5th round, I thought the pick was a reach. He was in his third year of eligibility and had not shown much offensively. No question Clattenburg has good size and great skating ability. He’s also tough as nails. None of this added up to a 5th round pick. However, the Oilers took their shot on Clattenburg and he went back to work for his third OHL season. So what happened? Well there were hints that Connor Clattenburg might have some capability that had not previously been on display…. Clattenburg started to find his way offensively this season. Most of it came off Clattenburg’s skating ability… The puck skills are average, but he makes up for it using his size and speed to beat players on the edge of their body position.”
When he was drafted by the Oil in June 2024, Edmonton’s top scout Rick Pracey said: “He plays this game hard. He’s thick, he’s strong, he’s competitive. He was a development event player, he got traded to Flint and he just took off. He’s an exciting player for us.”
In September 2024 at the Oilers training camp after a game against the Jets rookies, the Cult’s Bruce McCurdy reported: “Physical winger met his match early when he got drilled in the corner by Liwiski, a 23-year-old who had 310 (!) PiM in the ECHL last year and another 26 in 7 AHL games. Later was heavily boarded by 25-year-old Dylan Anhorn, survived the crash, got up mad and proceeded to fill in his opponent with some solid punches. Somehow only coincidental minors were called after the bare-knuckled set-to. Made a good play to win the puck with an aggressive forecheck and feed it to a mate in the low slot, the type of sequence that will need to become a trademark if he is to make it in the pros.”
In a follow-up preseason game against the Calgary Flames, the Journal’s Rob Tychkowski said of Clattenburg: “Clattenburg was all over this game. He had more scoring chances than anyone but couldn’t find a goal.”
Next came Clattenburg’s solid final season in Flint that did so much to change Curlock’s impression of him and earned Clattenburg his contract with the Oilers.
Connor Clattenburg signs pro contract
Reasonable expectations for 2025-26: In his first pro season in the AHL, Luke Gazdic got four points in 49 games with 155 penalty minutes. As mentioned, Kostin got 24 points in 66 games with 102 penalty minutes. In Bako, Clattenburg would do well to match Kostin, as opposed to Gazdic. The key for him is to play tough but stay healthy, work on his skill and his forechecking and backchecking, and maybe just work his way up to penalty kill and play third line in Bako.
At the Cult of Hockey
STAPLES: ‘Skinner gets waived’: Hottest takes about Oilers, Leafs, Habs heading into 2025-26 season
Cult of Hockey prospect series 2025
Forwards: Maxim Berezkin (3rd), William Nicholl (8th), Connor Clattenburg (13th), Tommy Lafreniere (14th). David Lewandowski (15th)
Dmen: Paul Fischer (16th), Nikita Yevseyev (18th), Asher Barnett (19th)
Goalies: Nathaniel Day (17th), Eemil Vinni (20th)