2024 Edmonton Oilers prospects
Series wrap
- “We gotta start getting our pipeline going.”
— Jeff Jackson, Edmonton Oilers’ CEO of Hockey Operations
The occasion was the 2024 NHL Draft, Jackson’s first foray into full management of the hockey club, eleven months after his hiring in August of 2023. Ken Holland’s five-year reign as the club’s General Manager was reaching its end, and the departing GM was nowhere to be found as the draft unfolded. It was, after all, an investment into a future in which Holland wouldn’t be involved.
Not that his influence wasn’t felt. The Oilers entered the draft without their first-round pick, dealt for veteran help at the deadline. The third and the fourth rounders were gone as well, both cashed for cap space. For the third straight draft, the club would have but a single selection in the top 150. It seemed they would once again be bit players at the league’s wellspring of talent acquisition.
Suddenly, the Oil hung out their “under new management” shingle. Just as the first round was coming to a close after a four-hour TV extravaganza at The Sphere in Las Vegas the club made a late splash. The local club had traded up (from 2025!) to acquire its 32nd and final selection, which they promptly used to select London Knights centre Sam O’Reilly. In the aftermath of the move, Jackson was interviewed and made the cited remark about the pipeline.
It was a harbinger of what was to come. On Jul 01, the squad came to terms with big centre Noah Philp, previously a Holland signing who was returning to the fold after a year away from the game. On the 5th, the big trade that sent away Ryan McLeod and prospect Ty Tullio for young Matt Savoie. Then on the 15th, last year’s top prospect Xavier Bourgault and another youngster Jake Chiasson were dealt to Ottawa for Roby Jarventie and a future fourth-rounder.
By the time Stan Bowman was hired as Holland’s replacement on Jul 24, most of the heavy lifting had been done on the prospects front. Not just by Jeff Jackson of course, but by some of his own hires like Rick Pracey, Director of Amateur Scouting and Kalle Larsson, Senior Director of Player Development who were in place at the time. Since then, three more additions to Hockey Operations were announced this week, all with the words “Development” in their job title. Seems like a priority, eh.
Our focus here is on the young players themselves, the ones beyond the NHL roster who are either under contract or on the club’s reserve list. We included 33 hopefuls after the Jarventie swap, collectively ranked by our panel for the fourteenth annual Cult of Hockey Oilers prospect countdown. College d-man Paul Fischer, acquired after the rankings were done, wasn’t considered.
And wouldn’t you know, the top two prospects in the system, and four of the top six, were acquired since Ken Holland left the scene in the last days of June. Just the one through the draft, and even that addition triggered via the trade route. The word of the month was “proactive”.
Historical Top 5
Since the Oilers have clearly changed their ways, we can do the same here, elevating what is typically a footnote to the leadoff spot. Let’s start our series wrap with a look at history first, then zoom in on the current situation.
As usual, this table shows the top 5 prospects every year since we started this series in 2011. This time around we’ve added emphasis about each player’s position and draft pedigree, as per the key at its bottom. Of special note today, the pale orange background which indicates a given prospect was drafted by the Oilers themselves.
That colour dominates the chart, filling 63 of the 70 cells, fully 90%. The handful of exceptions include Colten Teubert, Griffin Reinhart and Laurent Brossoit, all acquired by trade at a young age, along with Justin Schultz and Drake Caggiula, signed out of the US college ranks. If those names seem like ancient history, they are; for the last seven years in a row 2017-23, the Oilers entire top 5 prospects have come from the draft with no other sources whatsoever.
That’s finally changed in 2024. For the first time in all these years, Edmonton has acquired their #1 prospect by actively dealing outside their own organization. The previous 13 incumbents (10 different players) were all first-round draft picks, most of them chosen in the top 10.
The Oilers have shown an historical tendency to hang on to their top picks. They were typically pushed to the NHL as teenagers during the Decade of Darkness, then developed with a little more patience during Holland’s time at the helm that saw youngsters like Evan Bouchard, Philip Broberg, and Dylan Holloway spend three or even four years among the top three before graduating.
But that seems to have changed. Not all for the best, either; several top young players of the Holland/Tyler Wright era have moved on this summer, including Broberg, Holloway and Bourgault, all of them first-round picks. But the Oilers countered at least some of those departures with the trades for Savoie and for the draft pick that became O’Reilly. Meanwhile, the return of Philp belongs in a category of its own, recognizing that Holland deserves a large share of the credit for signing as a college free agent, the man currently ranked at #5. Just outside the table at #6, Jarventie too was added by trade, underscoring the Brave New Oilers’ willingness to step beyond the draft in its search for promising youngsters.
2024 rankings detailed
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. This year all five of us agreed on Savoie as the top prospect, the first time an area product or even an Alberta native has topped these particular charts. (I personally had Holloway at #1 in 2021, but he averaged out in the second spot.)
One odd split here: among the 23 players drafted by Edmonton (pale orange cell), just one, Maximus Wanner, came from the Western Hockey League. A far cry from the days that the Oilers carry as many as four prospects playing for the local Oil Kings, and numerous others scattered around the Dub. As if to atone for that deficiency, though, five of the ten hopefuls acquired by other means have roots in that league. Savoie and Jayden Grubbe were acquired by trade, while Philp, James Stefan and Connor Ungar were all signed as free agents. All of which suggests the local scouts are still beating the bushes once draft day has come and gone.
One notable aspect of the latest rankings, the top five are all right shots. Same applies to nine of the top ten skaters (through #11 Philip Kemp excluding #8, netminder Olivier Rodrigue). A very far cry from the days of yore, when the infamous “Leftorium” ruled the roost.
Movers and shakers
Unlike last year when we identified six hopefuls who made major leaps up the charts, the 2024 edition features a whole lot of running to stand still. 19-year-old rearguard Beau Akey is something of an exception, surging from #9 to #3 on the strength of a strong showing at rookie camp, even as his penultimate OHL season ended after just 14 games due to a shoulder injury. Philp’s return to the list at #5 was eleven spots higher than his debut two summer ago, largely based on an excellent AHL season in 2022-23 that was not considered a year ago due to his temporary retirement. Hulking left winger Shane LaChance was the only other to move up as many as five spots, from #17 to #12.
Special shoutout to d-man Philip Kemp for his record eighth appearance on the list.
Departures from last year’s Top 25
- #1 Xavier Bourgault, traded
- #5 Ty Tullio, traded
- #7 Carter Savoie, no qualifying offer issued
- #15 Jack Chiasson, traded
- #19 Ryan Fanti, no qualifying offer issued
- Five others dropped out of the top 25 but still on the list
Prospect depth chart
Wings and d-men sorted left and right based on which way they shoot, even as the likes of Raphael Lavoie and Matvey Petrov frequently line up on the left side. Meanwhile, the top six centres listed here are all right shots.
The yellow cells represent prospects who will represent the Oilers at the Penticton Young Stars tournament, which begins on Friday. 12 of the top 25 will be so represented, while #27, G Nathan Day, and #31, C Carl Berglund, will also see action.The rest of the team consists of two players on AHL contracts and nine camp invites.
Other top prospects are either unavailable (playing in European leagues or NCAA) or have aged out of this specific event. Tournament roster is shown below, with much more detailed info available here.
Six games in all, three of them involving the Oilers:
- Fri Sep 13 vs. Vancouver Canucks, 8:30pm MDT
- Sat Sep 14 vs. Calgary Flames, 8:30pm MDT
- Mon Sep 16 vs. Winnipeg Jets, noon MDT
We’ll have ongoing coverage here at the Cult of Hockey.
Links to prospect profiles
Goalies (6): #8 Olivier Rodrique | #14 Eemil Vinni | #21 Connor Ungar | #27 Nathan Day | #29 Samuel Jonsson | #33 Ty Taylor
D-men (8): #3 Beau Akey | #4 Maximus Wanner | #11 Philip Kemp | #15 Nikita Yevseyev | #18 Luca Munzenberger | #20 Albin Sundin | #25 Noel Hoefenmayer | #26 Bauer Berry
Centres (11): #1 Matt Savoie | #2 Sam O’Reilly | #5 Noah Philp | #10 Jayden Grubbe | #17 Dalyn Wakely | #19 Matt Copponi | #24 William Nichol | #28 Joel Maatta | #30 Tomas Mazura | #31 Carl Berglund | #32 Maxim Denezhkin
Wingers (8): #6 Roby Jarventie | #7 Raphael Lavoie | #9 Maxim Berezhkin | #12 Shane LaChance | #13 Matvey Petrov | #16 James Stefan | #22 Connor Clattenburg | #23 Brady Stonehouse
Related at the Cult of Hockey
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