Isaac Howard Expected To Be A Full Time Oiler Next Season
Isaac Howard's first professional season gets packaged as a success story, and, to a point, it kinda is. Howard averaged better than a point per game with the Bakersfield Condors, tallied 50 points in 47 games, and earned a spot on the AHL's All-Rookie Team. Hard to argue with any of that.
But the shape of his season told a story that his hockey DB page doesn't quite capture. He yo-yoed. Up when injuries created space, back down when bodies returned.
He played 29 games with the Edmonton Oilers all season and finished with five points. His last NHL game before a late recall came all the way back in January. That's more a 21-year-old stuck in the in-between, never really planted anywhere and less a developmental plan.
Oilers Unlikely To Move On From Polarizing Goaltender Despite a disappointing debut, Edmonton may double down on Tristan Jarry rather than paying a premium to dump his contract, banking on the netminder’s ability to rebound. Matt Savoie went to Bakersfield and stayed. He played first-line minutes, anchored the power play, became a penalty killer and the kind of player Kris Knoblauch could drop into the middle of the third line on a given night without flinching.
Savoie didn't wait for the NHL to come to him; he built the case so thoroughly that the decision made itself. When he arrived, it stuck. Howard's path has been choppier.