2024 Edmonton Oilers prospects
#1 C Matt Savoie
- Previously: Unranked
- age 20, 5’9, 179 lbs, acquired by trade on 2024 Jul 05
2018 was something of a banner year for this long-term follower of the Edmonton Oilers to get his first in-person viewings of some up-and-comers whose futures would become intertwined with the local NHL club.
Evan Bouchard became an Oiler at the NHL Draft on a Friday night in late June and took to the ice the following Monday at Dev Camp, faithfully reported by your roving reporter. A few weeks later, a first live viewing of the next two first round picks, Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway, in the round robin and again in the finalof the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup, hosted that year in Edmonton.
Bouchard was 18 that summer, Broberg 17, Holloway just 16. But months before laying eyes on any member of that high-profile trio, I got my first glimpse of a young phenom just a few days past his 14th birthday.
80 months later, that youngster has suddenly emerged at the very top of an Oilers prospect list once dominated by the likes of Bouchard, Broberg and Holloway.
The occasion was the John Reid Memorial Tournament, a 16-team invitational event for high-level bantam-age (U15) players that is held each January here in St. Albert. It was the 40th annual, though for me a first in what has since become an annual pilgrimage. Among its participants over the years, future NHL stars like Jarome Iginla, Rod Brind’Amour, Scott Niedermayer, Eric Staal, Jonathan Toews, Jordan Eberle, Mathew Barzal and many more. It’s a big deal, roughly the equivalent of The Brick Invitational for a slightly older group.
My introduction to the star of the 2018 event was provided by none other than P.A. Guy, who kept announcing his name over the loudspeaker. “Xtreme goal scored by #7, Matt Savoie…”
That announcement happened twice in the third period of the tournament final, and in dramatic fashion. Savoie popped home first the tying, then the winning goal as his club, Northern Alberta Xtreme, overcame a late 3-2 deficit to top the Los Angeles Jr. Kings 5-3 in a highly-entertaining affair.
Among the youngest, smallest players on the ice, Savoie had caught my eye time and again with his skill and tenacity, in that final and in an earlier round-robin game. At tournament’s end the local product was named its top forward. He was also its scoring leader with 18 points in 6 games, 3 clear of teammate Dylan Guenther, a fine young player in his own right who was/is 9 months older.
All of which is to say, a favourable first impression. Not that it means a whole lot all these years later, other than I’ve been tracking his development with interest in the intervening years, even as I’ve never seen him play another live game since.
“Blessed” with a Jan 01 (2004) birthday, Savoie applied to become the WHL’s first exceptional player. While not fully successful, he ultimately won the right to split his 15/16 year old season between two teams, one of them the WHL’s Winnipeg Ice who had drafted him first overall in the bantam draft.
But with the Dub devastated by the pandemic in 2021-22, he found a gig with Dubuque Fighting Saints, overseen at the time by GM Kalle Larsson who is now the Senior Director of Player Development with the Oilers.
It was only in his draft year off 2021-22 that Savoie got a clear runway with the Ice, and ripped it up with 35-55-90, +54 in 65 games, then 11-18-29 in 19 playoff contests. He entered the NHL draft with the wind at his back, highly ranked by the gamut of scouting services. Both Bob’s McKenzie’s consensus rankings and Elite Prospects tagged him at #9, which is exactly where Buffalo Sabres drafted him.
The latter’s scouting report tried to describe him in the site’s trademark game-inside-the-game manner:
- Heavy crossover use and constant motion propel his high-pace, constantly attacking approach, making his every puck touch an opportunity to create a scoring chance. Then Savoie stacks a brilliant first touch, handling skill, an in-stride wrister, and one- and two-touch passing ability on top of that skating and pace combo to ensure many of those chances aren’t for naught.
Savoie still had two years of junior eligibility as a result of that New Year birthday — if he’d been a day older, he’d have turned pro a whole year earlier. He went on to have another great year in Winnipeg (62 GP, 38-57-97, +57) in 2022-23, before something of a mixed bag in 2023-24.
It was a peripatetic season in which Savoie played for five teams, then got traded to a sixth. Hurt in rookie camp, Savoie spent time on the shelf, then 6 games in an AHL rehab assignment in Rochester (2-3-5). He got a token appearance with the Sabres (just 3:55 TOI in his NHL debut) before again being returned to junior. Even there his old club, Winnipeg Ice, had relocated to Wenatchee, WA, over 2000 km away. He had a so-so showing with Canada at the World Junior in Gothenberg, with injury again playing a role. Then he was traded (for seven draft picks!) at the January deadline to Moose Jaw Warriors. Overall he posted 30-41-71, +24 in just 34 WHL games, an average of 2.1 points per contest. He then added 10-14-24 in 19 playoff games as the Warriors rolled to their first Ed Chynoweth Cup. He wound up his vagabond season in Saginaw, MI, playing for the Memorial Cup.
The moving around was by no means done, as on Jul 05 the 20-year-old was traded from Buffalo to Edmonton Oilers in a shock trade for Ryan McLeod and prospect Ty Tullio. Back in his home town after all that globetrotting. The day he arrived he was clearly Edmonton’s top prospect, and indeed was a unanimous #1 among our panel of five voters.
It’s not all sweetness and light, mind. Corey Pronman of The Atlletic, for example, offered this mixed review:
- Savoie is a great skater with a high skill level. He buzzes around the ice due to his speed and compete, attacking loose pucks and taking them to the net consistently despite his smaller frame. He is a very skilled playmaker who makes a ton of difficult plays at very fast speeds. The concern on Savoie is his size, and there is a minor question of whether he’s actually dynamic offensively for that frame at higher levels… I see a potential middle-six wing still, but his stock is down in the league since being picked in the top 10.
That last comment might have been triggered in part by another small skilled forward, Zach Benson, winning a full-time job in Buffalo in his Draft +1 season, even as Savoie’s rookie camp injury took him out of the competition. One wonders if Benson’s unexpected success at 18 might have prompted the Sabres to trade from strength to fill a need elsewhere in the lineup.
Pronman later listed Savoie as just the #143-ranked player (full-blown NHLers included) under 23, nonetheless the top and indeed only Oiler on a list that went 155 deep. The organization’s prospect pool ranked #30 in the NHL in his estimation.
His colleague at The Athletic, Scott Wheeler, was a little kinder, ranking Savoie at #42 in his own list of 100 drafted prospects (under 23, excluding established NHLers), once again the only Oiler on a lengthy list. Wheeler provided this detailed scouting report:
- One of the most threatening and consistently dangerous players in the CHL this year, Savoie’s game has the potential to thrill. He’s got extremely quick side-to-side hands that help him beat defenders one-on-one off of cuts. He’s got an NHL shot (he can place with pinpoint accuracy from a bad angle and rip by a goalie clean from a distance, but he also loves to change up and slide five-hole). He does an excellent job creating plays to the slot out of traffic. He’s a burning skater with explosiveness and quick three-step acceleration that allows him to win races, separate in transition and put defenders onto their heels, or dash through holes in coverage to the net (or draw a penalty). He’s a soft, small-area passer who blends deception into his movements.
And then on top of those things, he’s got a bit of a chip on his shoulder. He’s always engaged, he keeps his feet moving, he plays with a ton of energy, and he finishes his checks and knocks his fair share of players over despite being on the smaller side. He’s also sturdier on his feet than his listed height (5-foot-9) might suggest, which helps him play between checks.
For his part, Oilers director of scouting Rick Pracey had this to say about the new acquisition:
- We like his competitiveness and his motor. He gives us right now an A-prospect in the American Hockey League, and that was massive. In terms of how close he is to the NHL still needs to be determined. We don’t want to put too much expectation on a first-year pro, but having somebody with his skill set and his ability, it’s always good to have someone like that in your organization.”
It’s all too easy to fall into the trap of “too much expectation”, especially in talking about a club’s consensus #1 prospect. One detail that struck me about this one is this list of career highlights from his player page at EP.
Goes all the way back to his age 12-13 campaign, with at least one significant achievement in all eight of those seasons. Particularly impressive to these eyes was the single-year jump from U15 MVP to U18 MVP, achieving the latter the year he turned 15 at midseason. That’s a long way ahead of the curve. The accolades just kept on coming throughout his four seasons in major junior. Now, it’s high time for the next challenge.
Expectations for 2024-25: Make a strong impression at training camp, and perhaps seize a position on the opening day roster to validate his bonuses in the event of a call-up later in the season. While it’s not impossible he might make the big club outright, the more reasonable expectation is an assignment to Bakersfield for at least the first half of the season, where a job in the top six is his to win. Expect him to put up points in the AHL as he has always done at every level; perhaps as many as 1.0 per game although 0.8 might be a more reasonable line in the sand. Do that and he might be in line for an in-season call-up as injuries and performance on the big club dictate.
2024 Cult of Hockey prospect rankings
- Goalies: #8 Olivier Rodrique | #14 Eemil Vinni
- D-men: #3 Beau Akey | #4 Maximus Wanner |#11 Philip Kemp | #15 Nikita Yevseyev
- Centres:#2 Sam O’Reilly | #5 Noah Philp |#10 Jayden Grubbe
- Wingers: #6 Roby Jarventie | #7 Raphael Lavoie | #9 Maxim Berezhkin | #12 Shane LaChance | #13 Matvey Petrov
- Introduction + long shots #s 26-33 | Depth prospects #21-25 | Depth prospects #16-20
- Background: Edmonton Oilers prospect pool takes a beating from NHL draft insiders
- Foreground: Oilers announce roster for Penticton Young Stars tourney
- Rankings are the average of those submitted by our panel of voters including the Cult of Hockey’s homegrown trio of David Staples, Bruce McCurdy and Kurt Leavins, Edmonton Journal colleague and long-time Oilers scribe Jim Matheson, and friend of the blog and AHL follower Ira Cooper.
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