Yamamoto leads list of Oilers prospects playing holiday hockey at World Juniors

The Edmonton Oilers’ Christmas break ends on Wednesday when the team takes on the high-flying Jets in Winnipeg, but many of the city’s hockey fans will also be keeping an eye on some younger hockey stars going for gold at the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships over the next 10 days.

This year’s World Juniors is taking place in Buffalo, N.Y. and will showcase the talents of four Oilers prospects, the most recognizable of which is an offensively-gifted winger who turned heads with a brief spell in the National Hockey League earlier this year.

READ MORE: Alberta’s Carter Hart ready to lead Canada at World Juniors

Kailer Yamamoto, 19, will be lacing up his skates for Team USA in the tournament only a little more than seven weeks after the Oilers sent him back to the Western Hockey League’s Spokane Chiefs. During Yamamoto’s nine-game stint in the NHL, he tallied three assists but drew praise from Oilers head coach Todd McLellan.

Watch below: On Oct. 4, 2017, Quinn Phillips filed this report about Kailer Yamamoto, who made the Edmonton Oilers team to start the 2017-18 NHL season.

3:24 19-year-old Kailer Yamamoto’s first Oilers game

Yamamoto, who was selected 22nd overall by the Oilers in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, has never played in the World Juniors but the diminutive winger has had success at other international events, including the IIHF U18 World Championship, the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament and the World U17 Hockey Challenge.

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The Oilers’ fourth-round draft pick from the 2017 entry draft, 18-year-old Ostap Safin, is playing for the Czech Republic in this year’s World Juniors. The 6’4″, 198-poun​d forward is playing for Saint John Sea Dogs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League this season.

Aapeli Räsänen is suiting up for Finland at the Buffalo tournament. The 19-year-old forward was drafted by the Oilers in the sixth round of the 2016 entry draft.

Selected 84th overall by the Oilers in the 2017 draft, Dmitri Samorukov is the team’s only defensive prospect appearing in the tournament. The 18-year-old is on Team Russia at this year’s World Juniors.