The future isn’t looking too bright for the Edmonton Oilers, according to one NHL expert.
One of the things that comes with being a Stanley Cup contender over several seasons is sacrificing the future to help the present. The Oilers have been no exception, having picked in the first round of the NHL Draft just once in the past four seasons, and moving out some of their more highly touted prospects.
That strategy nearly paid off with Stanley Cup victories in 2024 and 2025, but they haven’t been able to get over the hump quite yet, and things are getting dicey.
The prospect cupboards are starting to get very thin after all these years of competing. If Edmonton were to lose Connor McDavid over the next few seasons, there is potential for the future of the franchise to completely blow up.
The latest prospect rankings from The Athletic’s Corey Pronman painted a bleak outlook for the Oilers, as he had the team’s prospect group ranked 31st, or second-last in the entire NHL.
The only team with a worse pipeline is the Colorado Avalanche, who, like the Oilers, have been a consistent Stanley Cup contender over the past five years or so. However, unlike Edmonton, the Avalanche were able to win the Stanley Cup back in 2022.
Two Pacific Division rivals topped Pronman’s list with the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks taking first and second, respectively. The Calgary Flames and Seattle Kraken cracked the top-10 as well.
Pronman singled out Matt Savoie and Rūdolfs Bērzkalns as the top two prospects in the Oilers system at the moment. Savoie appears ready to graduate from that group after notching 18 goals and 37 points in his rookie season last year. Bērzkalns was the Oilers’ top pick in the latest NHL Draft, taken in the second round, and is likely at least a few years away from competing for an NHL spot.
Defenceman Asher Barnett came up third, while Isaac Howard was surprisingly low on the list at fourth. Barnett was drafted in the fifth round by the Oilers in 2025 and seems primed to be a leader on Team USA’s World Junior Squad this winter.
Pronman praised Howard’s raw skill set, but put his compete level into question and didn’t seem convinced that the 2025 Hobey Baker was as elite as initially expected.
There is still time for the Oilers to compete for the Stanley Cup and put the concerns about their middling prospect pool to rest. If Edmonton can bring a championship back to the Alberta capital, many fans won’t care if the team needs to go through another rebuild in three or four years.
However, if things blow up before then, it doesn’t appear that the Oilers will be able to lean on their prospect pipeline to bail them out. That means there is a considerable risk of another lengthy rebuild without anything to show for.
It’s now or never for Edmonton.
