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Oilers Sign Sam O’Reilly To Entry-Level Deal

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The Oilers have signed 2024 first-round pick Sam O’Reilly to a three-year, entry-level contract, per a team release. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

A likely signing bonus in the deal this season will be a nice gift for O’Reilly, who stuck around on the training camp roster longer than most anticipated. The Oilers, who had traded away their first-round pick to the Ducks in last season’s Adam Henrique trade, swung a deal with the Flyers on draft day to move back into the first round at No. 32 overall.

Edmonton then proceeded to make O’Reilly, who doesn’t turn 19 until March, the last pick of the round. The 6’1″ center’s offensive totals didn’t jump off the page in his draft year on a stacked OHL London team, and they’re also not expected to if he cracks the NHL. He projects as a physical depth piece with strong defensive instincts, making him extremely projectable as the Oilers’ No. 3 or No. 4 center in a few years.

A Toronto native, O’Reilly has been slightly underwhelming out of the gate with London this season – as have most of his teammates. However, his two goals and three assists for five points in seven games are only tied for ninth on the team, and his -3 rating is tied for third-worst. It’s still far too early in his post-draft campaign to write him off, though. Allan Mitchell of The Athletic ranked O’Reilly as the No. 2 prospect in the Edmonton pipeline and their best up-and-coming forward piece over the summer. However, he’s been unseated from that role after they acquired 2022 ninth-overall pick Matthew Savoie from the Sabres.

O’Reilly is unlikely to play 10 NHL games this season, so expect his ELC to slide to the 2025-26 season. If he fails to hit 10 NHL GP next year, too, it’s eligible to slide again to 2026-27.

Oilers Among Teams Interested In Kevin Shattenkirk

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The market of free agent defenders is still surprisingly strong despite the NHL season’s kick-off, with multiple tenured veterans still making their case for a new deal. While providing updates on some of the top remaining UFAs, Pierre LeBrun and Chris Johnston of The Athletic shared that the Edmonton Oilers are among the teams interested in Kevin Shattenkirk. The Athletic crew added that Shattenkirk is staying patient with signing a new deal, waiting for the right fit to come along. While he waits, Shattenkirk continues to work out daily with Connecticut-based hockey trainer Ben Prentiss – owner of Prentiss Hockey Performance, a popular performance company for the NHL’s top names.

Shattenkirk spent last season, his 14th in the NHL, with the Boston Bruins, netting six goals and 24 points in 61 games. He was an impactful piece of the Bruins blue line, showing strengths on both sides of the puck and earning routine time on both special teams. Those were the same traits that carried Shattenkirk through a successful tenure with the Anaheim Ducks from 2020 to 2023 – though he carried a much more substantial role in Anaheim, averaging over 20 minutes of ice time and ranking second on their defense in scoring over his three seasons. He scored 70 points in 212 games as a Duck, scoring half of those points in the 2021-22 season – his highest-scoring season since 2016-17.

Shattenkirk was a strong depth option for a Ducks defense in flux, largely thanks to his ability to control transition through the neutral zone. That’s been his defining skill since he made his NHL debut with Colorado in 2010. He was immediately impactful, netting 43 points in 72 games as a rookie despite a trade just 46 games into his career. His hot scoring continued through the next seven seasons, as Shattenkirk established a firm grip on his second-pair role in St. Louis. He capped the run off with a career-high 56 points in the 2016-17 season, the same year that he faced another trade, this time to Washington. That kicked off the journeyman phase of his career, with Shattenkirk playing for five clubs over the last eight seasons. That includes a stop with the 2020 Tampa Bay Lightning, who helped lead Shattenkirk to his first career Stanley Cup.

Edmonton would add yet another stop to Shattenkirk’s list, and extend his career into its 15th year. It’s no secret that Edmonton is in need of some help on the right-hand side, with Ty Emberson standing as the only true backup to top right-defender Evan Bouchard. The Oilers have been icing Travis Dermott on his off-side to mitigate that lack of depth. Shattenkirk would stand as a sure upgrade towards a handicapped Dermott, and bring a winner’s mentality to an Edmonton team hoping to make a proud postseason run this season.

Oilers Assign Carl Berglund To AHL

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  • The Oilers announced (Twitter link) that forward Carl Berglund has been assigned to AHL Bakersfield. The 24-year-old was injured to start the regular season and therefore couldn’t be sent down until being cleared to play.  As he didn’t spend any time on an NHL roster last season, Edmonton didn’t have any cap charge while he was up with them.  Berglund had 42 points in 51 ECHL appearances in 2023-24 while adding four points in a dozen games with AHL Bakersfield.

Golden Knights Claim Raphael Lavoie, Cole Schwindt

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10/11: The Vegas Golden Knights have reclaimed Lavoie from Edmonton, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, continuing the young forward’s bouncing between Edmonton and Vegas. He has now been waived and claimed by both teams and will be eligible to be assigned to Vegas’ minor leagues should no other team place a claim.

10/7: The Oilers and Flames have each lost a forward to the Golden Knights on waivers. Raphael Lavoie is heading from Edmonton to Vegas, while the Knights also claimed Cole Schwindt from Calgary, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

Both enter a competition with recent veteran pickup Tanner Pearson to begin the season as Vegas’ 11th and 12th forwards. That’s assuming center William Karlsson is sidelined for the season opener against the Avs on Wednesday with the undisclosed injury that’s kept him out of action for over a week. They’re also significant reinforcements after Vegas lost Zach Aston-Reese on waivers to the Blue Jackets today.

Lavoie is an intriguing pickup. The 24-year-old has just seven games under his belt without a major league point, all coming last season. But Edmonton’s second-round pick in 2019 has turned into a standout offensive forward at the AHL level and has a 6’4″, 216-lb frame. He put up 28 goals and 22 assists for 50 points in 68 games last season with AHL Bakersfield, all career highs.

Schwindt has the same exact career NHL offensive stat line – no points in seven combined games for the Flames and Panthers, but he has a -5 rating compared to Lavoie’s -2. All in all, they’re players at very similar stages of their careers. Schwindt is a tad younger – he’s still 23, but was also a member of the 2019 draft class. Sent from Florida to Calgary in the Matthew Tkachuk blockbuster, he doesn’t have as much offensive success as Lavoie at the AHL level. He posted 36 points in 66 games for the Calgary Wranglers last year, which was a career-high.

Only one will draw in against Colorado if Karlsson isn’t ready to play. With their lack of NHL experience, it’s anybody’s guess. Both have experience suiting up at right wing and center.

After the claims, the Golden Knights have $652K in projected cap space, per PuckPedia. They need to clear a roster spot, perhaps by placing Karlsson on injured reserve.

Could The Oilers Look To Trade Raphael Lavoie?

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  • Now on the waiver wire for the third time this week, Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal believes the Edmonton Oilers may look to trade forward prospect Raphael Lavoie. Matheson shares correctly that Lavoie is in no-man land in the Oilers organization being too good for bottom six duties and not good enough to crack the top six. If Lavoie clears waivers tomorrow he will at least get a consistent role with the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors but could see his name in an early trade to start the year.

    [SOURCE LINK]

Oilers Place Raphael Lavoie On Waivers

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Forward Raphael Lavoie has hit waivers for the third time this week. Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic reports that the Oilers will try again to sneak him through to AHL Bakersfield.

Lavoie, a second-round pick of Edmonton in 2019, initially hit waivers on Sunday as the Oilers needed him off their opening night roster to be cap-compliant. The Golden Knights pounced on the 24-year-old, taking him out of the Oilers organization, but they weren’t interested in keeping him on the NHL roster and instead claimed him in the hopes they could pass him through to AHL Henderson the following day.

The Oilers never wanted to lose Lavoie, though, and took the opportunity to re-claim him off the wire yesterday. They weren’t the only team to submit a claim, though. One of the eight teams who finished ahead of them in the league standings last season also made one, meaning Edmonton couldn’t assign Lavoie directly to Bakersfield after re-claiming him. As such, he’s back on the wire today as Edmonton tries to return him to the minors for a second time.

Lavoie cracked the AHL All-Star Game roster for the first time last season while recording 28 goals and 50 points in 66 games for the Condors, all career-highs. He also made his NHL debut, going without a point and posting a -2 rating in seven appearances for Edmonton. After a brief dance with restricted free agency, he signed a one-year, two-way pact ($775K/$200K) to return to the Oilers over the offseason.

Oilers Re-Claim Raphael Lavoie Off Waivers

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The Oilers have re-acquired Raphael Lavoie off waivers, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. He was lost on the wire to the Golden Knights just two days ago. If Edmonton was the only team to submit a claim, they can now assign him directly to AHL Bakersfield.

Even if Edmonton wasn’t the only team to submit a claim, they can still get away with having him on the active roster for now. They had two open spots and were up to $1.06MM in cap space before the claim after moving Evander Kane to LTIR, per PuckPedia, enough to shoulder Lavoie’s league minimum cap hit.

It’s good tidings for the Oilers, who never wanted to lose Lavoie in the first place. A victim of roster math, he’s on the cusp of a full-time NHL role after posting 50 points in 66 games for their AHL affiliate in Bakersfield last season. The 2019 second-round pick has intriguing size at 6’4″ and 216 lbs and can play both center and wing – an appealing mix for a depth scorer.

He’s especially so on a contending and cap-strapped Oilers club, who would likely insert him into the lineup the first chance they get if an injury strikes. The Golden Knights were hoping to see what they had in him by giving him some runway with their AHL affiliate in Henderson, but it wasn’t in the cards.

Pacific Notes: Kane, Savoie, Wright, Eberle

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As expected the Edmonton Oilers have announced they have placed forward Evander Kane on long-term injured reserve to start the 2024-25 NHL season. He had major surgery in mid-September on two torn hip adductor muscles, two hernias, and two torn lower abdominal muscles which will keep him off the ice for the next four months.

The move gives Edmonton some much-needed financial breathing room and will allow them to safely register Travis Dermott’s one-year, $775K contract. Kane’s LTIR placement gives the Oilers $5.125MM in cap room after starting the year with only $53 of space.

Things will get tricky for Edmonton once Kane returns from surgery in mid-January since his contract will be added back to the active roster. The team will still accrue cap space thanks to a separate transaction today (more on that later) but will still be in a bind when Kane returns.

Other Pacific notes:

  • In the same announcement, the Oilers shared they have reassigned forwards Matthew Savoie and Cameron Wright to their AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors. The two combined for $1.811MM in cap space with the latter signing a one-year, $925K contract with the team yesterday. Coupled with the team officially signing Dermott to a one-year, $775K contract they have opened up another $1.036MM in salary cap space.
  • Before the team’s first game of the regular season against the St. Louis Blues this afternoon, the Seattle Kraken named their second captain in franchise history. Forward Jordan Eberle will now don the ’C’ for Seattle and will be the first player to do so since defenseman Mark Giordano. Eberle was selected by the Kraken from the New York Islanders in the 2021 Expansion Draft and signed a two-year, $9.5MM extension with the club during the 2023-24 regular season.

Edmonton Oilers Sign Travis Dermott

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4:41 PM: Edmonton has officially announced the one-year, two-way contract for Dermott.

11:27 AM: The Oilers still have defenseman Travis Dermott with the organization on a professional tryout, and it’s expected to result in a two-way contract tomorrow, per PuckPedia. Edmonton still has some procedural moves to make, including maximizing their cap hit before placing winger Evander Kane on LTIR, so it’s not surprising Dermott’s deal has had to wait. While it’s a two-way deal, it would be a surprise to see Dermott land on waivers instead of starting the season on the NHL roster with the Oilers carrying only six defenders.

From 2018 to 2022, Dermott was a regular with the Maple Leafs, peaking as a serviceable third-pairing option who wasn’t afraid to involve himself physically. Over his first three seasons in Toronto, Dermott posted 41 points in 157 games with a +25 rating, averaging 17 minutes per contest. He was consistently among the team’s hit leaders, finishing third on the club with 100 in 64 appearances in 2018-19, and posted well above average possession metrics in his relatively easy minutes. While a left-shot defender, he’s logged some time playing on the right as well.

But over the past three seasons, his overall play has taken a step back. After being sent to the Canucks at the 2022 trade deadline, he missed most of the following season with a concussion and played just 11 games. He wasn’t given a qualifying offer and landed with the Coyotes shortly thereafter on a one-year, two-way deal for 2023-24. He avoided waivers and played 50 games last year for Arizona, posting seven points (2 G, 5 A) and a -14 rating while averaging 17:17 per game – the most ice time he’d logged since 2019-20.

Dermott’s showing last season certainly doesn’t jump off the page. However, he was given the toughest minutes of his career with the Yotes, starting nearly 60% of his even-strength shifts in the defensive end. His possession metrics responded in kind, posting a 45.0 xGF% and a 44.3 CF%, the worst possession numbers of any Arizona defender not named Josh Brown, who’s now also in the Oilers organization.

The Oilers’ defense is far from set after they lost Vincent Desharnais in free agency and cap constraints forced them to deal Cody Ceci to the Sharks. They’re looking for a partner for Darnell Nurse on the team’s second pairing, a competition Dermott may enter alongside Ty Emberson and Troy Stecher.

Edmonton Signs Cameron Wright, Recall Matt Savoie

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The Edmonton Oilers are bringing up some depth from their AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors. The team announced they have signed forward Cameron Wright to a one-year, two-way contract worth $925K and have recalled forward Matthew Savoie.

Wright has been bouncing around the AHL and ECHL over the last few years after finishing his college tenure at the University of Denver in 2021-22. His first professional season came a year later in the Colorado Avalanche organization, where Wright played 64 games for the ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies and two for the AHL’s Colorado Eagles.

His first year with the Oilers organization came last season where Wright managed 48 games for the Condors. He became an effective goal scorer at the bottom of the lineup with 12 goals and 21 points in total.

It will be interesting to see how long Wright and Savoie stick around on Edmonton’s roster to begin the 2024-25 NHL season. The latter recently joined the Oilers organization in the offseason in a trade with the Buffalo Sabres and quickly became one of Edmonton’s top prospects.

This year would mark his first full year in professional hockey after small appearances with the AHL Rochester Americans and Sabres last year. The Oilers have yet to put Evander Kane on LTIR which will inevitably open up much-needed financial flexibility for the roster.

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