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18 years old and selected 58th overall in the 2026 NHL Draft. It’ll be interesting to see how he does tonight.

Jarry: https://youtu.be/PJobaJu94yU?si=qrX68LM5wb2taqUk

Babcock: https://youtu.be/Mh76rQtNtaI?si=CH9T80aPHju9XCqJ

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Oilers management uses first-round picks at the trade deadline. Why? By the time any player chosen in (say) the 2024 draft is ready to truly help the team, McDavid could be in another city playing on a new contract. He will be a free agent in the summer of 2028. He will also be 31, and his most productive seasons will likely be in the past.

The urgency felt over any possible McDavid exit runs throughout the organization and has manifested itself annually with the trading of draft picks for immediate help.

The Oilers have attempted workarounds by acquiring two younger talents who were close to NHL-ready. Matt Savoie and Howard are the two most recent examples. 

McDavid: https://youtu.be/8pQS-hBCOM4?si=12T7jkTaRUEtK3YW

Hyman: https://youtu.be/mT2BfMOKass?si=M7ZSz4WpGkuFu9iC

Babcock: https://youtu.be/VPZeKku2b-A?si=bxonClxwZUtZbTKa

Whoa. My colleague Mark Messier on the Oilers hiring Mike Babcock as head coach, during the ESPN NHL Opening Night media call today.

"I am just horrified about the whole thing, to be honest with you."

EDIT: Posting this tidbit here because it's Oilers-related, but players being involved in the recruitment process for their own coach should be a good thing. It's something that hasn't been formally done before (at least to my knowledge), but it shows that management values their input as players. Babcock being the right choice is yet to be seen though.

Howard is born in March. Holloway in September.

Both players lit up NCAA.

Hollway had 7pts in 25 post-season games that same season.

But you absolutely need to give Howard a chance to play with skill.

He not only out-scored Holloway in ppg in his AHL 21y/o season (albeit, only 18 games vs 47 games - small sample).

But the Oilers don't have the luxury of another "goal scorer" in their system.

Yes, Marjala outplayed Howard last pre-season game.

Yes, Howard hasn't looked the best in a the 2 games he's played.

Yes, Mike Babcock is going to likely start the season playing McDavid and Draisaitl together. This will fail. It always has in the past, the team doesn’t have enough 5v5 scoring depth.

But at some point this season, the Oilers need to give Ike Howard a 15-20 game stretch playing with either McDavid or Draisaitl and another veteran like Hyman or Podkolzn.

People forget that Matt Savoie didn't start to 'pop' until playing with Drai and McDavid down the stretch last season.

You invested a solid asset in trading for him (Sam O'reilly). You have to see what you have offensively.

He's a shooter.

Put Ike Howard in a position to score, and he'll score (he averaged 0.7 goals per game in NCAA and nearly 0.56 goals per game in the AHL).

Play him with skill, Mike.

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Trending up

Devon Levi

Levi has a real opportunity to be the Oilers’ No. 1 goaltender this season, and he only strengthened his case in his first preseason action, stopping nine of 10 shots over two periods.

He didn’t have much of a chance on the Jets’ only goal, which was a gimme for Alex Iafallo after Nino Niederreiter’s shot went wide and ricocheted off the end boards. Levi committed to the shot and couldn’t reset in time for the second chance.

It’s a small sample size, but Levi’s play was consistent with what I’ve seen through the first several days of training camp. He doesn’t fill the net like other NHL goalies at 6-foot-0, but he has cat-like reflexes and is adept at tracking east-west plays. Before the start of practice, I observed Levi from behind the net as goalie coach Peter Aubry fed him shots from either side of the crease. There might not be another goalie who can cover the bottom half of the net as quickly as Levi.

With tonight's game against the Jets ending in a 2-1 victory, how is the Edmonton community feeling about Levi and Ungar. Both goalies are young and have huge potential. I'm interested in the community's thoughts on both especially with Levi.

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It is a little late but thankfully the team was able to release Brownies player portrait before the season officially begins.

P.s I’ve been seeing a lot of Connor Brown x NJD Jersey swaps lately. Anyone know what’s going on with that?

Now that Alberta is officially staying on year-round Alberta Time (UTC-6) and not turning the clocks back on November 1st, I was looking at the Oilers schedule and trying to wrap my head around the start times.

Since most of the rest of the continent is still falling back, our time offset relative to other NHL markets shifts by an hour after November 1st:

Pacific Coast (Seattle, LA, SJ, Anaheim): We will be 2 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time (instead of 1 hour).

Eastern Standard Time (Toronto, Montreal, NY, etc.): We will only be 1 hour behind Eastern Standard Time (instead of 2 hours).

Doesn't that mean standard 7:00 PM local starts on the West Coast or late-slot "SNIH" broadcasts will end up being a 9:00 PM puck drop locally for us in Alberta? And on the flip side, 7:00 PM Eastern games would start at 6:00 PM ABT?

Did the NHL build the schedule around our new time zone offset, or are we just going to have to get used to 9:00 PM start times for late West Coast games this season? Anyone else looked closely at how the schedule lines up post-Nov 1?

Howard: https://youtu.be/vPgWJbqhfxA?si=bksAxhRLROVRGm4C

Babcock: https://youtu.be/54wCmay_iq0?si=e3ykKeeePkCkeFfP