Oilers hopeful rookies can make NHL jump after heavy turnover at forward

The Edmonton Oilers training camp begins Wednesday. There will be 55 players attending this year.

So long, Corey Perry, Evander Kane, Connor Brown, Viktor Arvidsson, Jeff Skinner and Derek Ryan.

Hello, Andrew Mangiapane, Matt Savoie, Ike Howard, David Tomášek and Curtis Lazar.

The Oilers also retained Trent Frederic and Kasperi Kapanen, Frederic for another eight years at an average annual salary of $3.85 million and Kapanen for one year at $1.3 million.

The turnover was very real among the Edmonton Oilers’ forward group this summer, even more so than the year before.

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And while the likes of Kane, Arvidsson, Skinner, Frederic, Kapanen and Ryan weren’t regulars among Oilers forwards last season due to injuries and the numbers game, Perry and Brown were. Kane would’ve played a regular role, too, if he hadn’t missed the entire regular season while recovering from surgeries.

Heading into main training camp, while it’s true each season brings change among the ranks, the Oilers are looking at having three National Hockey League newcomers fill roles: Savoie, Howard and Tomášek. They would represent a quarter of the forward ranks if they make the team, a rarity for a recent Stanley Cup finalist.

St. Albert native Savoie, 21, joined the Oilers’ organization last summer in a trade with the Buffalo Sabres for centre Ryan McLeod and enjoyed a productive 2024-25 American Hockey League campaign in Bakersfield (19 goals, 54 points in 66 games, good for second on the team).

Howard, the 21-year-old American who won the Hobey Baker Award this year as the top U.S. college player, was acquired by Edmonton in July from the Tampa Bay Lightning for Sam O’Reilly, 19, in an exchange of former late first-round picks.

European hockey veteran Tomášek, 29, led Sweden’s top pro league in scoring last season.

Both general manager Stan Bowman and head coach Kris Knoblauch addressed that prospect on Wednesday as the National Hockey League club opened training camp, with Knoblauch saying the “most important” part of auditioning rookies “is finding out how ready they are for the NHL.”

“It’s tough to come to the NHL,” Knoblauch told media at Rogers Place. “They are players who have typically played with the best players, but it’s also difficult if they are put in that position, they are playing with our best players, they’re playing against other teams’ best players, and that’s quite a load for a young player.”

He said at camp, the coaching staff will sort out “exactly where they are, how they’ll help our team, who they complement and what players will complement them the most.”

“We’ve got a lot of uncertainties,” he said. “We’re missing about half our forwards from last year’s Stanley Cup run, so there’s going to be a lot of fluctuation.”

Bowman said what the Oilers, who were the oldest team in the NHL last season, are looking for from the likes of Savoie and Howard is “youthful enthusiasm.”

“I think they’re going to bring an element that we need on our team,” he said. “I think we want some of that. You have to be willing, with younger players, to give them a little bit of latitude. I think this is probably where we’re at with those two.”

And that kind of energy can help veterans get through “a tough year,” Bowman said.

Such energy “can be contagious to our group,” he said. “It’s a grind getting through the 82 games, so having some players that haven’t experienced it before, for our team, it may just be a random Tuesday night in November, but for them, it’s like they’re excited. This is their big moment.”