Oilers prospect turns down ELC after championship winning season.

The Edmonton Oilers seemingly cannot catch a break this week.

After Oilers star defenseman Evan Bouchard suffered a serious looking injury at the World Championship of Hockey this week, news is now breaking out of Russia that suggests an Oilers prospect will be declining the team's offer to come to North America.

News first broke that Oilers prospect Maxim Berezkin would be remaining in the Kontinental Hockey League earlier this morning, with Berezkin reportedly choosing to remain with the team that has won back to back Gagarin Cups in the Kontinental Hockey League, the KHL equivalent of the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup.

It's a tough break for the Oilers as Berezkin looked as though he was going to develop into a very nice late draft find on the part of the organization. Berezkin was selected in the 5th round (138th overall) of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft and given his combination of size and skill, as well as a championship pedigree to now go along with that, it seemed as though the Oilers scouting staff had done a very good job.

Berezkin is coming off the two best KHL seasons of his career with a combined 22 goals and 52 assists for 74 points over 130 games, and played a significant role in helping propel his team to back to back championships.

There was talk that Berezkin would sign his entry level contract with the Oilers when he became a free agent, but at 24 years old you do have to wonder if he will ever be coming over to North America given his decision to remain in the KHL for at least one more year.