The Edmonton Oilers had a Calder Trophy finalist in 2022-23, plus a couple of players who could last a decade to boot. Last season wasn’t a stellar year for Oilers freshman, but 2025-26 has real promise.
THE 2015-16 ROOKIES
Total Rookies of Interest: 10. Connor McDavid led in goals and points, Darnell Nurse in games played, Iiro Pakarinen, Anton Slepyshev and Jujhar Khaira hung around for a time.
2015 Draft Notes: Edmonton picked Connor McDavid No. 1 and everything changed. Despite a difficult rookie season (injury), there was absolutely no doubt about McDavid’s stunning talent.
Best Player as a Rookie: Connor McDavid. Only the one play against Philly’s Brandon Manning derailed a dream campaign.
Second Best Player as a Rookie: Brandon Davidson gets the edge, the young defender had a fantastic rookie season.
Oldest Rookie: G Anders Nilsson was 25. He was effective for the team in a backup role, actually getting most of the starts at early points in the year. Nilsson would be traded to St. Louis at the deadline.
Oldest Rookie Who Played a Lot: Nilsson play 26 games, that’s significant. Iiro Pakarinen, 24, also played quite a bit.
Most Unusual Story: Griffin Reinhart was acquired at great expense and the organization whiffed completely in regard to his being NHL-ready. He is no longer playing hockey.
Longest NHL careers. Connor McDavid will be fast at 50. His career is going to be a monster.
Anything Else? The sheer number of defensemen who arrived in a single season (Darnell Nurse, Davidson, Jordan Oesterle, Reinhart, Adam Clendening) was well above average. The quality of this crop was impacted by injury, but the fast defensemen (Nurse, Oesterle) are still going.
THE 2025-26 ROOKIES
Total Rookies of Interest: I count 8, with four names having a real chance to play 40+ games. Matt Savoie and Ike Howard lead the list, and one or both could push for rookie of the year consideration. Other rookies of note include Roby Jarventie and Quinn Hutson. Rookies who are unlikely to make the NHL this season but are still worthy of mention: Viljami Marjala, Beau Akey, Damien Carfagna and Samuel Jonsson.
Any interesting names too old to qualify for the Calder? Three fascinating names: Noah Philp, David Tomasek, Atro Leppanen.
Best Player as a Rookie: I think it’s fair to suggest we know Savoie and Howard are about even now in terms of opportunity, and we should wait to see how this rolls out. It’s going to be a fun year watching both talented young players find their way. I don’t think there’s a reasonable argument for one over the other at this time. I do believe it will be difficult for the coaching staff to give both the kind of push we’d like to see.
Oldest Rookie: Quinn Hutson is 23, and even though he is blocked at this time, injuries to others and a strong performance for the Bakersfield Condors could put him in a position to play NHL games. He’ll need to show well early to get into the conversation.
Most unusual story: Roby Jarventie signed a Liiga contract and then signed an NHL deal with the Oilers. That tells us that, at some level, Jarventie and or his agent would have believed the NHL option was no longer available. Another NHL chance has to be a very nice outcome for the young player.
New for The Athletic: Five Edmonton Oilers players who could get traded early or late in 2025-26
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6517169/2025/07/27/edmonton-oilers-players-trades-2025/
So I guess we’re down to cheering for Nicholl on London. What would be the path of this youngster? Would he play AHL next year if he signs a ELC contract. I’m sure he’ll see a more featured roll this year. How many goals and points would it take to get excited about this young fellow?
I feel like the biggest difference between 2015 and 2025 is that, back then, we NEEDED at least 4 or 5 of these guys to pan out just to fill out the roster. I’d say we still need one or two of these guys to show up, but the odds are good this group covers that bet, and anything else will be gravy. I see competition up and down the roster and multiple different looks in terms of what lineups KK can throw out there.
I’d like to see more consistency in terms of lines and pairings, but I think we’re going to see a pretty consistent blenderizing of this team for at least the first 40 games. Will be interesting to see how KK works with the mix of rookies and veterans; up until now it’s really felt like his only job was to win, but this year I imagine development will be a prominent theme throughout the regular season.
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I’m not sure its as much blocked as, well, he’s more of a distance bell than a can’t miss prospect who, if he does make it, it will probably be after real development time in the AHL.
At least that’s my current thoughts on Hutson.
I’m not discounting him, I’m just trying to be realistic on his chances of making it and potential timeline.
History tells us we shouldn’t expect an every day NHL player here but, of course, that is far from determinative.
I do look for him and Jarventie to be offensive drivers early in the year – at Hutson’s age, he needs to hit his first full pro year running.
I’m hoping that Stan Bowman can capitalize on the “deferred salary” clause in the current CBA to get McDavid to sign longer and keep his cap hit lower. This is the last year it can be done.
In 99.99% of the cases, deferred salary is NOT in the best interests of the player. Mario Lemieux would have lost tens of millions of dollars if he did not have wealthy friends to help him buy the Pittsburgh Penguins out of bankruptcy. A player is playing his agent a hefty fee to provide financial management services.
Deferred salary is just an owner friendly term for the player lending millions of dollars to the owner.
Do you lend your employer a big chunk of your salary?
The owners made it very clear in the new CBA that they are the employer and the players are the worker when they refused to share expansion revenue. Hence the NHLPA made the proper decision that players should not be lending their salary to the owners.
Hopefully Connor-Leon (something in their contracts) will be the GM-Coach of the Oilers transitioning seamlessly immediately after they hang up the skates. I’ll be dead and gone but it would be funny to see the same younger crowd that enjoys peeing and pooping on the likes of Lowe-MacTavish having to defend Connor-Leon from young whippersnappers that never seen them play
We know Savoie will impact the roster and maybe be real impact players but I have both Jarventie and Regula as legit options.
All they need is to stay healthy and play a real stretch of AHL games, in particular Jarventie, who is legit (I don’t have eyes on Regula).
Waiver is a risk with each but, let’s not forget, neither have established themselves as NHL players and they have both missed essentially a full season (Jarventie a season and a half save two games) – it’s tough for any team to claim and use a roster spot on a tweener that hasn’t played in a year plus.
Matt Savoie is going to play a big role on the team next year.
Said Howard and Savoie will start on Pthe team for sure – they will give them the opportunity. If they aren’t ready they aren’t ready and they’ll adjust but they think they are ready to help.
Bowman super impressed with not just Savoie’s offence but his overall and 2-way play. Things he can help the team in a lot of ways and play many roles.
Talked about Howard being so excited to join the Oilers like really happy.
Bowman confirmed Nuge had a broken bone in his hand.
“It’s going to be the same 5 guys on the PP – but there will be some new looks, etc.” – Stan Bowman
Will talk about Bouch using his shot a bit more. That can be an improvement.
Ugh, that was getting a bit stale to my eye. Just like Leon in his office, everyone knew the BouchBomb was coming.
Its also been the best PP in the league over the course of a very long time including some of the best PP seasons of all times.
It was a bit of a down year last year and, until ALL the PP1 guys were out of the lineup was still 5th or 6th and it didn’t come up at big times in the playoffs, I acknowledge.
At the same time, there will be a new coach for the PP (and I’m watching his coaching seminar video’s, the man knows offence) and Bowman talked about new looks and ideas for sure.
I have full faith that Nuge and Hyman on the PP will be able to succeed along with the other three more than, say, rookie Howard/Savoie and Frederic.
Nuge’s productivity on the PP has declined over the last two seasons. Given his injury it seems possible that trend could continue.
Perry became an important part of the PP at key points and when Hyman was not available. The third string there for net front was Kane. With the Hyman injury it will be interesting to see who will play in that spot. Does Podkolzin see some time there early in the season?
Bouchard using his shot more last year hurt the powerplay. The Oilers powerplay does not have multiple guys crowding the net for point shots like other teams do, and should not particularly want to. Last year, it looked like most teams had figured out the Bouchbomb.
The GM thinks he didn’t use his shot enough and:
1) He did NOT use his shot more, his shot attemps/60 at 5 on 4 last regular season were lowest of his career.
2) You oversimplify what the point shot can do – its not just about scoring on that play but (a) its about having the opposition acknowledge the option and cheat up (which they do) and (b) its also about “causing chaos” – MANY PP goals are scored off a point shot with puck retrieval as that is when the PK is out of their structure and this talent takes advantage.
This means the opposite of what you think it means. It is a statistic artifact of the power play being worse, because the power plays were less efficient and lasting longer, because they were not scoring power play goals.
Statistics lie if they are not interpreted correctly.
They need to have Bouch shoot from somewhere other than from the right point. The PP was stale because it was static, watching McDavid circle around the left side of the ice, with the other 4 guys in set positions. They became too predictable.
Leon and Bouch need to change their point of attack. Bouch only shoots from the right point. Leon from below the right dot. The shots on the PP were only coming from the right side of the ice. When the puck was on the left side, the opposition PK could just sit back and wait for the Oilers to try to swing it back to the right side of the ice, where they kept trying to force the shots from.
Get Bouch to set up the shot from the left point, where RH shots typically come from on a PP.
Increased shots from Bouchard correlate with a weaker version of this PP. Usually they are deferring to the point when they are unable to make a cross seam pass or another play.
How is it going to be the same 5 guys for possibly the first quarter of the season with the Hyman injury. Is it possible Frederic get’s the Chaisson-Neal spot? Or maybe a new twist with that bomb of Howard being utilized?
John Shannon: “Are Stu and Cal the two goalies going to camp?”
Stan Bowman: “yup, it looks that right now. You never say never but for now ….. We looked at a lot of options. There were a lot of good things we did last year. I understand the external focus on the goaltending. You respect the fans passion but it does got more attention than it deserves but that’s the nature of the beast. to change something just to change it, I’ve never been a fan of that. Have to be confident it’s an improvement and when we looked around at the options, there was nothing out there that made sense to give us a better look.
Bowman: Bouchard’s contract was not any more of a grind that Drai’s was. He takes too much criticism. Don’t think he makes any more mistakes than other guys. They get magnified for some reason. He does so many amazing things with the group. It’s emerged as Connor, Leon and Bouch as the three guys – those really are the three guys that make our team go.
The biggest thing about Bouch is his patience and confidence with the puck. He might have a tough start and turn the puck over and give up a goal but it doesn’t phase him – he just goes back out there and make good plays.
Hes an amazing athlete, in great shape and very durable.
He played though a ton of pain this playoffs. There were games where the doctor didn’t think he’d be able to go. People don’t know what he played though.
What was the Bouchard pain/injury? I missed that.
Sounds like he’s doing a good job of not tipping his hand on the Goalie front.