Tyler Benson’s 2018-19 AHL breakout looked like the kind of season that should have opened a door in Edmonton. Instead, it turned into a reminder that a strong year in Bakersfield does not guarantee anything once the NHL starts sorting through its own chaos.
Benson had just put together the highest-scoring AHL season by an Oilers forward prospect age 20 this century, but the next step never really came. Speed was a major hurdle, and the timing couldn’t have been worse.
Edmonton’s coaching situation kept shifting, with Todd McLellan giving way to Ken Hitchcock and then Dave Tippett by the fall of 2019. For a 20-year-old prospect who wasn’t blazing fast, that meant starting from scratch over and over again.
Jay Woodcroft had found a way to get offense out of Benson at the AHL level, but the NHL was a different test entirely.
The front office was changing too. Peter Chiarelli was replaced by Keith Gretzky in 2018-19, and by the fall of 2019 Ken Holland was in charge.
Benson no longer had a clear advocate inside the organization, and the new decision-makers were looking for immediate results. Holland had said multiple times that he liked to overcook prospects, which meant patience for players such as Evan Bouchard and Philip Broberg, but not necessarily a fast track for everyone else.
That was the reality Benson ran into in 2019-20. He wasn’t a real factor for Dave Tippett, and while he did appear in seven NHL games, his AHL season did not match the promise of the year before.
Cooper Marody, Benson’s centre during that rookie run, was hurt in the 2019 AHL playoff against the Colorado Eagles and was never the same after that. Benson, in the words of the source, was “Lost in the flood, as they say.”
That history matters now because Edmonton is headed toward another coaching change, and that kind of shift can reshape everything for young players. Stan Bowman is all-in on Ike Howard, and that will affect roster construction, but Mike Babcock’s opinion will carry heavy weight in the final decisions.
There’s still plenty that can’t be pinned down. Matt Savoie is expected to remain a positive player on a skill line, and Ike Howard is projected to have a solid season with the Oilers in 2026-27.
Josh Samanski should get a chance to play this coming season, though foot speed and NHL inexperience will be factors. The bigger question is whether the Oilers can build the roster with veterans and push all the kids to Bakersfield, or whether someone like Max Jones can make a stronger impression on Babcock than Howard.
Howard, Samanski, Hutson and the rest may all have to start in the minors and earn their way back.
Benson’s case is the cautionary tale. He produced the best season by an Oilers system AHL forward age 20 in at least a quarter century, and it still didn’t mean anything when the next season arrived.
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For a team still trying to get back into Stanley Cup contention, that age profile is both an asset and a concern. The Oilers know veteran players can steady a lineup when the games matter most, but they also come with the usual risks of injury and decline, especially over a long season. Edmontons challenge is simple enough to state and hard enough to solve: keep enough of this core healthy and effective to make another serious run before the window starts to narrow. [Read more 🡒]