YOUNG STARS: Petrov looking to lead Oilers Rookies after navigating first pro season

PENTICTON, BC – The ‘mummy stick’ of Oilers prospect Matvey Petrov this summer took on a life of its own at a quiet time during the offseason, and he wasn’t expecting such a viral response.

The 21-year-old was snapped by a photographer back in August during an off-season skate using a full-white stick that took too much tape to complete, the Russian forward admitted, while nearly tripling the weight of his twig and making for some difficult shooting, passing and stickhandling.

“It was heavy,” Petrov admitted after Thursday’s practice at the South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton. “I'll be honest with you, It was like three sticks together.”

For what was such a small thing during an off-season skate, Petrov is okay with leaving the ‘mummy stick’ in its tomb for good after an innocent gamble with one of his coaches backfired on him before becoming a summer talking point around the hockey world – especially in his DMs on social media.

“So that was a joke,” he said. “Basically, I made the bet with my coach and I lost. He told me just to wrap the stick all the way down, so when I did and saw the cameraman at the practice, I was like, ‘Ah, here we go.’

“Probably 30 minutes after practice, my phone was blowing up. I was like, ‘What's going on?’ and the funny story was that the day after, probably every kid in North America asked me the question: ‘How many rolls of tape used per week?’

Sadly, the popularity and the practicality of the stick weren't enough for him to keep it around.

“I'm gonna use my regular tape job during the season,” Petrov confirmed.

Petrov is stepping into his third Young Stars Classic as one of the veteran faces amongst the Oilers Rookies, having made his professional debut with the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors last season and spending the last three years adjusting to life and hockey in North America.

Amongst his biggest improvements off the ice has been his ability to speak English, which has drastically improved year-over-year for the product of Gus-Khrustalny, RUS after having limited speaking ability when he arrived in North Bay before the 2021-22 OHL season.

“Just gotta work through everything,” Petrov said of his approach this weekend. “Just gotta shoot the puck more, just gotta compete. We're probably the older guys here, so we’ve got be take the leadership role."

“Just help young guys every time with whatever they need. They always ask me how it was in pro, so I'm just explaining everything.”

After recording 40 and 27 goals respectively in his two years with the North Bay Battalion during the ’21-22 and ’22-23 OHL seasons, recording 90 and 93 points in each campaign, Petrov felt the impact of moving up to the pro ranks in ’23-24 with the Bakersfield Condors, where he recorded nine goals and 14 points in 53 AHL games while missing time due to injury.

“It's hard to be a pro,” Petrov said. “You gotta learn a lot. You're gonna learn from older guys every day, so basically, you’ve just got to get into the ring and do the exact same routine as a pro hockey player.”

Petrov said he expected to experience a hard adjustment to the AHL level. In addition to some of the technical elements of his game he’s looking to build upon, one thing he’s making sure of is to keep enjoying the entire process.

When it comes to Matvey Petrov, it’s hard to stop him from smiling.

“I was ready for that because it was my rookie year, so not as many chances,” he said. “If I got any chances, I would obviously try to score. It was a tough year for me. Obviously it was lots of injuries around. So hopefully this year gonna be no issues, more goals, everything how I said before, have some fun, more smiles. Yeah, for sure.

As he prepares for his second full professional season, Petrov wants to stand out at the Young Stars Classic and be a leader for the rest of the guys in the room before hopefully rolling that success into a strong showing at next week’s Oilers Main Camp.

“Just getting ready before Main Camp, getting some touches, getting some goals and getting some apples,” he said. “It's a really good tournament for young guys to show what they’ve got, so I think for me personally, just go and do my job and get ready for main camp with potentially having that leadership opportunity and just being able to lead those guys in the room.”