It’s not all the time that a player gets drafted by one team and secretly roots for another, but you can forgive Matt Savoie’s mixed loyalties.
He was a highly-rated prospect in the Buffalo Sabres organization, drafted ninth overall in 2022, but he spent last summer bleeding Edmonton colours.
Nothing against the Sabres, but there’s no way a kid who grew up in St. Albert was going to stifle his love for the Oilers in the middle of their Stanley Cup run.
“I got back to Edmonton after the Memorial Cup in June and I’m not afraid to say I was an Oilers fan for those few weeks,” said the dynamic right-shot centre. “The city was buzzing. Me and all my buddies would go watch the games in a restaurant and be a part of the atmosphere. It was really cool to watch the run and how good they did.”
Then came the news: You’ve been traded… to the Oilers. Edmonton sent Ryan McLeod and minor leaguer Tyler Tullio to the Sabres on July 5 for the 5-foot-9, 180-pound Savoie, who averaged more than two points per game (74 in 31) last year with the Western Hockey League’s Moose Jaw Warriors.
‘Little weird initially’
In a prospect cupboard that was starting to look a little bare as the Oilers unloaded draft picks and mortgaged the future to go all in right now, Savoie is a good score. Getting a high-end prospect who produced deep in the WHL playoffs three years in a row (65 points in 48 games), is exactly what the Oilers need. The fact he’s a local kid, to boot, only sweetens the deal.
“It was definitely a little weird initially when I heard, but I’m really excited and my family was really excited. I’m coming here to try and prove something and have a good camp.”
How cool is it to be to be Oilers property, to be joining his hometown team at the peak of the organization’s long-awaited rebirth? Was this always the dream?
“You just want to have success wherever you are and you want to be in the right spot for you,” he said. “Just as a hockey fan it was so fun to watch, and being an Oilers fan growing up. It wasn’t really in the back of my head ‘I wish I was there’ but it’s pretty cool to be here now.”
This feels like the right spot. Right from Day One.
“I’m so comfortable here, growing up here and being so familiar with the city. It was kind of weird. When I first came into the room and met some of the guys it felt like I’d already been here for a year or two. I was so comfortable talking to the guys. I don’t know if it’s from my brother (Carter, now in Europe) being here previously but I’m just having familiarity and comfort with the city and the organization. It was a pretty seamless transition.”
With the Oilers as deep at forward as they’ve been in decades, Savoie, unless his training camp performance makes it impossible to send him down, will start the year in Bakersfield and go from there.
It’s not Edmonton, but it’s close enough.
And after playing for six teams over the last two seasons (WHL Winnipeg, AHL Rochester, WHL Wenatchee, NHL Buffalo, AHL Rochester and WHL Moose Jaw) it’s nice to have a team to call home for a while.
“Bouncing around through teams it was tough to get a rhythm, tough to put my feet on the ground and say ‘This is where I am.’”
Now he has that.
“I haven’t been home this late in an offseason in a long time, probably four or five years,” he said, adding his travels, while not ideal, made him a better player.
“You can learn a little bit from every experience you have, from every coach, from different teammates. Every team I’ve been on the last couple of years I’ve learned a lot in each situation. It’s just trying to be a sponge wherever you go, trying to pick up as many things as you can.”
The Oilers, who know better than anyone else that nothing is better for a player’s development than a deep playoff run, are getting a kid who spent three springs in a row in post-season battles and capped his junior career with a Memorial Cup.
‘Always beneficial’
Savoie is the first to tell you those runs made a huge impact.
“The last three years in the Western league I went really far. The finals, the conference finals and won last year. I’m getting experience in meaningful games, big games where you need to really bear down is always beneficial.”
And now, there he is, on the ice with the likes of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl at the Oilers pre-camp skates.
“It’s special to see firsthand what he can do on the ice, what he can do with the puck, the speed he plays at and how he thinks the game. It’s all just so impressive to a hockey player to see that. I was matched up against him, so it wasn’t very fun playing against him, but I imagine playing with him is a treat.”
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