The Okotoks Oilers continue to recruit and produce top tier talent that has caught the eye of NHL Central Scouting.

Defenseman Reece Soukoroff is the latest Oiler to be named to the NHL's Players To Watch list.

Soukoroff is one of five AJHLers ranked.

He says when he found out he was ranked, he was with his teammates after a team builder at a dance studio and was surprised.

"I was in the car with a few guys driving to the mall and it was a little bit of a shock to start off, I didn't think it was actually real and its a really cool feeling to just to share it with those guys and share it with the team as well," he says.

Soukoroff is coming off a stellar season with the Calgary Royals of the AMHL where he was named the league's top defenseman. But it was a bit of a journey for Soukoroff who started the year in the Vernon Vipers organization of the BCHL but was released and immediately picked by the Oilers. Where's settled in with a young defense core where he's registered five goals and two assists in 20 AJHL games.

Now with the added pressure of helping his Oiler team succeed, the ongoing pursuit of an NCAA scholarship and now the NHL attention, Soukoroff says he has to take care of everything on and off the ice to achieve all of the the challenges in front of him.

"The only thing that I can control is how I perform out there," he says. "Obviously with central scouting that's up to the guys that come to the games and watch to make up that list, all you can control is your game on the ice and what you do in the classroom and hopefully things will follow."

As most players who get noticed for an opportunity to get drafted, most are just happy to selected into the NHL but when asked if he could have a choice to where he'd land come draft day, Soukoroff would love to be a part of an Original 6 team.

"My favourite team from the probably the day I came into the delivery room was the Detroit Red Wings," he says. "Nik Lidstrom is probably the greatest defenseman of all-time so to be drafted there would probably be the happiest moment of my life."

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