Oilers quickly rebuilding prospect pool after busy start to offseason
The Edmonton Oilers have found ways to improve both the present and future state of the franchise this summer.
Though interim GM Jeff Jackson is adamant that he doesn’t want to stay in the gig, there is no question that he has left his mark on next season’s team and maybe beyond.
Outside of the additions of Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson to help the Oilers next season, Jackson has also made a few trades to help strengthen what was a fairly bare prospect pipeline down in the AHL.
Hard to believe that Jeff Jackson has not only improved the team in the present, but it undergoing a a pretty significant rehaul of the prospect pipeline.
Adding Savoie, Jarventie, and O'Reilly in one offseason is pretty impressive stuff. #Oilers
— Preston Hodgkinson (@NHLHodgkinson) July 16, 2024
Chief among those efforts is the addition of Matthew Savoie in a trade that saw Ryan McLeod head to the Buffalo Sabres earlier this month. The 20-year-old Savoie was drafted ninth overall by the Sabres at the 2022 NHL Draft and instantly became the top prospect within the Oilers organization.
Savoie scored at over two points per game pace in his final year in the WHL last season and is primed to push for an NHL spot as early as this season. Losing McLeod may hurt the team a tiny bit right now, but Savoie carries a lot more upside in the long run.
Moving down the list of moves, it is also notable that Jackson decided to roll the dice on a trade that saw the Oilers climb into the first round of this year’s draft to select Sam O’Reilly from the OHL’s London Knights.
O’Reilly is still a few years away from making an impact at the pro level, but he adds more depth to the system alongside defenceman Beau Akey, who was drafted by the Oilers in the second round of last year’s draft.
The latest move that has helped strengthen the farm was made earlier this week as the Oilers traded former first-round pick Xavier Bourgault to the Ottawa Senators for Finnish forward Roby Jarventie, a former second-round selection.
On the surface, going from a first-round pick to a second seems like a downgrade, but it isn’t. Bourgault has struggled to find his game at the pro level, and his chances of making the Oilers were slipping with every passing day. Jarventie has had some injury troubles of late but has already proven to be an effective forward at the AHL level, scoring 20 points in 22 games last season.
Jarventie also has seven NHL games under his belt and could prove to be an effective call-up option for the Oilers next season.
The addition of these three players hasn’t turned Edmonton’s prospect pool into the NHL’s best, but it has gone a long way toward rebuilding a program that has a hard time graduating top-end players into the league.
It will take a few years to truly grade how these moves have turned out, but early returns look encouraging.
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