A complete look at the Edmonton Oilers’ prospects in spring 2025

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Even as the Edmonton Oilers push to make the Stanley Cup Final for the second year in a row, there are some interesting things happening among players in the team’s prospect pool.

Sam O’Reilly and William Nicholl are helping the London Knights at this year’s Memorial Cup. Russian winger Maxim Berezkin has completed his season (including playoffs) as a member of the KHL champion Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. He was a major contributor throughout the regular season and playoffs for his team. He’s a free agent this spring, and Edmonton holds his NHL rights.

Here’s a look at the Oilers system up to the minute.

Matriculating

This is the group that includes signed and unsigned teenagers. Generally speaking, they are at least one year from pro hockey and several seasons away from making an NHL debut.

O’Reilly is the exception. He’s signed, and may get a significant audition at Oilers training camp this fall. When scouting director Rick Pracey and the Oilers’ amateur scouts decided to pick O’Reilly, it was with an eye to the current Edmonton roster. O’Reilly is a perfect fit for the Oilers: A right-handed centre, with a rugged playing style, enough skill to move the needle offensively and significant defensive value. Since he was drafted last summer, O’Reilly has improved in all areas. Bet on him to return to junior for his final (age 19) season at that level, but there’s at least some chance he’ll get some NHL games to start the 2025-26 season.

Nicholl is a classic “draft and follow” type, chosen despite a small sample of playing time before his draft day on a great junior team (London Knights). He’s a skilled forward who can play at pace with the team’s best players. It’s unwise to project later draft picks into NHL feature roles (that’s a rare outcome), but Nicholl has enough tools to be ranked as the No. 5 prospect in the system last December.

Eemil Vinni is a famous prospect goaltender due to his outstanding and acrobatic saves. His critics point to inconsistency as a main issue, which is true of all teenage goaltenders. The jury will be out for several seasons on Vinni, but he owns the tools to thrive at a high level if he develops.

Bauer Berry is just coming off a Clark Cup championship, as the Muskegon Lumberjacks won it all in the USHL final. Berry is a shutdown defenceman with NHL size and grit. He will play for the University of St. Thomas in the fall and is several years away from a pro contract.

Signed or need to sign

Goaltender Samuel Jonsson has emerged as a top-flight prospect after his quality season in Sweden’s second league (Allsvenskan). He has size, quickness, calm feet and a resume that includes excellent performances. It’s uncertain when he’ll come to North America, but he should be regarded as the best goalie prospect in the system.

Beau Akey is a known prospect to Oilers fans. He missed most of last season due to injury, and didn’t completely establish himself as a top-flight offensive defender in 2024-25. He’s a speedy player, a right-handed defender, has skill and should see major minutes in the AHL with the Bakersfield Condors next season.

Another speedy defenceman, Damien Carfagna, is a lefty with a similar skill set to Akey. A fast train who can move the puck and is creative in making plays, Carfagna is a little older (22) than Akey and may have a more immediate impact in the AHL. He was signed out of Ohio State University this spring by Stan Bowman.

Both men should be among the best talents on defence for the Condors this fall.

Connor Clattenburg and Brady Stonehouse are forwards who graduated from the OHL after the 2024-25 season and saw limited action in pro hockey this spring. Both are long shots, but Clattenburg is a tough winger with speed and could carve out a role as an agitator with Bakersfield this fall. Stonehouse was signed as a scoring winger in October 2023, but his scoring levels did not sustain in the two OHL seasons that followed. It’s unknown how much he will play in the AHL during 2025-26, and he could be ticketed for the ECHL Fort Wayne Komets in October.

Matt Copponi, Luca Munzenberger and Joel Maatta are college men who need to be signed by Aug. 15, or the Oilers lose their playing rights, via PuckPedia. All three have things to recommend them, but Munzenberger (a two-way defender with good speed) has the highest draft pedigree.

Signed this spring, new to the organization 

It would be a mistake to suggest everyone in this group will be part of Edmonton’s farm system (Bakersfield AHL, Fort Wayne ECHL). Three in this group have considerable pro experience in quality European leagues, and the fourth (Quinn Hutson) has already played in the NHL.

Bowman was aggressive this spring in signing a group of legit players who could push for the NHL roster this fall. Chief among them are David Tomasek, who led the SweHL in points last season, and Atro Leppanen, who delivered outrageous offence in Finland’s Liiga in 2024-25.

Both men could vault themselves into the NHL immediately, but there’s a chance they will be Condors at some point next season.

Josh Samanski is a big centre (6-foot-5) who delivered solid offensive seasons for Straubing in Germany’s highest league (DEL). He’s a two-way pivot, and is the most likely of the Europeans in this group to play in the AHL next season.

Hutson signed a deal that included NHL time, but he didn’t get a chance to show much in his games with the Oilers. He’ll get a good look in the fall, but is probably ticketed for Bakersfield opening night.

The Condors 2025-26

This is the group that is signed for next year. These men will play in Edmonton, Bakersfield or Fort Wayne in the coming season.

The big name here is Matt Savoie. A splendid skill forward, he saw action with the big club in 2024-25 and showed well. It’s possible he doesn’t see the AHL again.

After that, there’s a group of six players (Noah Philp, Olivier Rodrigue, Cam Dineen, Alec Regula, James Hamblin and Josh Brown) who could play in the NHL next season. If they are in Bakersfield, all will play feature roles.

Matvey Petrov isn’t a recall option for the year to come, but he should be based on his skill set. An electric shootout option, the passing and shooting ability is there, but has not yet been a consistent part of his game. If there’s a sleeper talent on this list, it’s surely Petrov.

The rest

Berezkin has reached KHL free agency, meaning a long-awaited window to sign the player is now open. Berezkin was drafted in 2020 and has emerged since as a top-quality player with a range of skills. He combines size, skill and strength into an impressive hockey package, and could push for NHL time next season.

Foot speed is a concern, it’s unknown if he can play at pace in the NHL. That would be disqualifying for most prospects, but the numbers show Berezkin can impact the game offensively, and that has high value. His team just won the championship, so there may be a desire to try a new challenge.

He’s worth pursuing.

Paul Fischer was acquired from the St. Louis Blues in the Philip Broberg-Dylan Holloway trade. He’s a mobile defenceman who played his sophomore season with Notre Dame (Big Ten) in 2024-25. His mature approach to the game, married to his speed, makes him a good match for the Oilers and the team’s focus on those areas.

Bottom line

The Oilers trade the first-round pick every year now, and often the second- and third-round picks as well. The job of the team is to avoid a prospect “Death Valley,” and there are signs of life in the system.

Savoie is the shining star, O’Reilly the distant hope on the horizon and Europeans like Jonsson and Berezkin could impact soon. As always, some of these names will be used as trade pieces at next year’s deadline.

The Oilers are pushing for Stanley, and no one is complaining about the state of the prospect pool. The day when procurement of amateur talent is a priority for Edmonton begins well into the next decade.

That makes Savoie and the rest all the more important. They must cash as quality NHL players.

(Photo of Sam O’Reilly: Chris Tanouye / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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