Colten Teubert (Photo by Steven Christy / OKC Barons). RELATED Future Watch - Part One: Colten Teubert

When Dustin Penner was traded to the Los Angeles Kings 10 days ago, highlighting the packaged return was bruising defensive prospect Colten Teubert. The name was likely familiar to many, considering the 21-year-old native of Surrey, BC had participated in the 2009 and 2010 World Junior Hockey Championships.

Teubert helped Team Canada collect a gold and silver medal, respectively, while serving as an alternate captain in the 2010 tournament. Before his professional career had even begun, Teubert was quickly establishing his name in the hockey world.

Since that time, his path to the NHL has been guided through the Kings organization. Chosen by Los Angeles 13th overall in 2008, Teubert officially began his professional quest this season with the AHL's Manchester Monarchs.

Oilers Head Professional Scout, Morey Gare, believes that Teubert will one day bring a vital element to this rebuilding Oilers squad; an organization that eyes a contender status in the near future.

"We like a lot of things about his game that we're kind of lacking with our organization,” Gare said. “He has good size and strength, good mobility, we like his physical game and his toughness. Most importantly, his willingness to be involved physically in the game and to be hard to play against."

"We see him as more of a defensive defenceman who will be able to contribute some offence. He moves the puck well, too. We're really drawn to the whole package."

With big, physical defenceman now becoming a necessity, Gare commented on what the organization sees, long-term, in Teubert’s unique skill-set.

"His defensive play really stands out. Hopefully he can turn into a shutdown type defenceman that can play against other teams' top lines and be a hard guy to play against. If he can turn into that, then he's going to be very valuable to us going forward"

"We're hoping that his game continues to grow in that area and there's no better place than the American Hockey League to work on that," Gare explained. "[Teubert] has a lot of good attributes, so it’s now a matter of defining that part of his game and making it his calling card."

Although Teubert had been developing with another organization over the past few seasons, Edmonton had been keeping a close eye on the six-foot-four rearguard for quite some time. Advanced scouting opportunities and pre-draft due diligence helped the organization have an excellent understanding of his game. That, in addition to the 2010-11 viewings, helped make Teubert a sought-after commodity in the Oilers organization.  

"We have numerous professional scouts that have had various viewings on Colten. I've seen him maybe two or three times," Gare said. "He was injured in the early part of his pro career this year, but we've had really good background on him through coaches that have coached him through the World Juniors and psychological testing that we had done on him prior to the draft."

"We had a pretty good idea of what the whole package was, so all the things were positive; he has tremendous leadership skills and he wants to be a leader and take charge on the ice. Those are all good qualities that you want in a player; especially one that shows this kind of promise at such a young age."

With an array of positive opinions backing Teubert’s game, Gare believes that the player’s development will ultimately determine his future spot in the lineup; dispelling a rumour to surface on Twitter recently, which said that the organization believed his top-end potential to be a bottom-pairing NHL defenceman.

"Everyone has their own opinion on things and that's fine. We see Colten with tremendous upside," Gare said. "I don't think it's fair to players to project them in any slot at this point. He's still developing as a young player. If he continues to develop, then he will determine where he fits in our lineup."

"It’s basically up to the player. We make those predictions but we keep them in the organization and then we let the player determine where he's going to fit in the lineup through his play on the ice."

Click here to read part one of our Colten Teubert series

Author: Ryan Dittrick | edmontonoilers.com

 
2010-11 OILERS PROSPECT STATS