The Edmomton Oilers are undoubtedly 'all-in', on their attempts to win a first Stanley Cup since the 1989-90 season. This makes plenty of sense when you have the best player in the game, along with another who is regularly ranked in the top 5-10 in the NHL.
Along these lines, the Oilers roster is -- if not the best -- among the very best roster in the NHL ahead of the 2024-25 campaign. However, it's a different story altogether when we turn our intention to their prospects, at least if you ask some of the top hockey media outlets around North America.
To begin with, consider the Daily Faceoff's Steven Ellis, who ranks the Oilers' prospect pool 29th out of all 32 NHL organisations. This is down from last season, albeit it wasn't much better, with the Daily Faceoff still ranking them a lowly 25th.
Ellis lists the Oilers' most notable prospects as being Matthew Savoie and Beau Akey, as well as the recently drafted Sam O'Reilly. Overall, he concludes the pipeline doesn't have much going for it but, unlike the early 2010s, fans won't be complaining given the talent on the current roster.
Even worse with The Athletic
It's slightly worse for the Oilers over at The Athletic (subscription required), with Corey Pronman ranking their prospect pool at 30th. In fact Pronman writes that he had them ranked dead last at 32, prior to the trade for Savoie and moving up in this year's draft to select O'Reilly.
Turning to ESPN, Rachel Doerrie also ranked the Oilers low at 28th, albeit back in April. However, making this more concerning, consider that this ranking by Doerrie was made with reference to the likes of Philip Broberg, Dylan Holloway and Xavier Bourgault, who are now all gone.
Finally, we take a look at the Oilers' prospect pool review by The Hockey News. While Tony Ferrari doesn't actually assign a ranking to them, you can only imagine how bad it would be, given his comments that beyond Savoie, things get a bit more shaky with one of the most uninspiring pipelines in the NHL.
What does this all mean for the Oilers?
So, what are we to make of all this? Well to begin with, as alluded to with the reference back to the early 2010s, the Oilers have had a reputation as one of the poorer prospect pools in the NHL for over a decade.
At the same time, it does seem as if the Oilers have done slightly better in recent years, with the likes of Stuart Skinner, Holloway and Broberg. Albeit Broberg only very recently came to the fore after previous criticism about how badly he was being developed by the Oilers, which links to part of the reason for their long-term poor reputation when it comes to prospects.
Aside from Savoie, O'Reilly and Akey, we do like the look of Raphael Lavoie. He's coming off his best professional season yet with the Condors in the AHL, signed a new one-year deal, and there's the potential for his to be part of the NHL roster in 2024-25.
We're also intrigued by the recent additions of Ty Emberson and Vasily Podkolzin. Emberson in particular, looks like a good bet to feature in the Oilers' pairing this coming season.
Overall, we appreciate that the Oilers' prospect pool isn't viewed favourably by the hockey media in general, but we would contend it isn't quite as dire as seemingly perceived. Regardless, it will be interesting to see what Stan Bowman, Keith Gretzky and company are able to do and build moving forward.