C
ome September, Philp arrived early at training camp to skate with other Oilers prospects and immediately saw the fruits of his summer labour. Edmonton’s management team and coaching staff did, too.
“I was told that I had turned a few heads in camp and that they were really impressed with how I came back and how I approached coming back,” Philp remembers.
His camp stint extended all the way to the final few cuts, his assignment to AHL Bakersfield coming the day before the Oilers submitted their opening night roster. In sending the promising forward to the Condors, where he’d spent the 2022-23 season prior to stepping away, Edmonton tasked him with further fine-tuning his skills through in-game reps.
“They just said, ‘We really like what you bring to the table and we want you to go and play as much as you can and get more reps in,’” Philp says. “What I absolutely agree with them on is that those little tiny puck skills and that sort of thing is what I feel like I lost most from that time off.”