DISAPPOINTMENT PROVIDED JORDAN EBERLE EXTRA MOTIVATION

By Joanne Ireland, Canwest News Service

EDMONTON, Alberta — It turns out the first cut wasn’t the deepest; it was the second cut that left Jordan Eberle the most frustrated.

So he used that disappointment for motivation, and a stronger, hungrier prospect has shown up at the Edmonton Oilers development camp.

“I see more strength, even better balance. He’s half-a-step quicker,” said head coach Tom Renney after his 28 charges wrapped up another on-ice session Wednesday.

“I see a stronger-looking player. That bodes well for a smaller player. As long as you have the thickness, the balance and the strength, you’re in pretty good shape.

“He was pretty close (to making the cut last year),” Renney continued. “At the same time, we needed to do the right thing. . . . It could have been a tough situation for a young player to be in. In retrospect, we made the right choice because he certainly looks ready now.”

Eberle hasn’t been handed a roster spot yet, but he will be. He capped a stellar junior career with a season where he rounded out his game and racked up 106 points in 57 Western Hockey League games with the Regina Pats.

Then he scored 14 points in 11 American Hockey League games with the struggling Springfield Falcons farm team, and turned heads at the world championship as a member of Team Canada. Eberle scored once and added three assists when he stepped into the injury-riddled lineup against Norway.

“It’s frustrating when you get cut two years in a row, especially last year. I felt like I was ready,” he said. “The development word kept coming up, but it was frustrating.

“What I didn’t want to do was to be a guy who dwelled on what happened. I wanted to go back (to Regina) and be a go-to guy and I got an opportunity to play five-on-three, five-on-four, power play, penalty kill, the whole works. That experience at the junior level definitely gives you the confidence to to it at the next level.”

Eberle is suddenly the old-timer among Oilers prospects with the likes of 19-year-olds Taylor Hall and Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson, who is also expected to jump onto the big league team.

He came into the development camp pushing 190 pounds, which is 15 pounds heavier than he was when he first showed up in Edmonton.

“I do think it was a season I needed,” Eberle said. “Obviously, it was frustrating that we didn’t make the playoffs, but I got to play in the American Hockey League and at the worlds. I don’t think many junior players have had that opportunity.

“The experience I gained there was unbelievable.”

With all of the changes on the Oilers this off-season, it makes the jump that much easier for Eberle, the Oilers’ first pick in the 2008 entry draft.

He won’t be the only rookie loaded down with expectations, and he won’t be the only newcomer.

“This is an exciting time to come in as a young guy,” he said.

Edmonton Journal