How the Edmonton Oilers are set up for the 2025 NHL Draft
The Edmonton Oilers signed another young free agent on Saturday. Finnish left winger Viljami Marjala is 22 and the latest addition to the prospect pool by general manager Stan Bowman.
Marjala posted 44 assists in Finland's Liiga last season, the fifth best total in the entire league. His 52 points landed him just outside the top 10 in league scoring. Scouting reports have him as a playmaker with a good shot, a good two-way type and a player who blossomed in the last two seasons with TPS Turku.
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Bowman has signed a plethora of prospects since arriving last August, giving the team's talent pool more long-shot bets and addressing a major area of need.
The draft this summer will be a challenge for Edmonton. Currently in the middle of the Stanley Cup Final, management has one eye on the series against the Panthers and another on the summer's activities. That includes the draft.
Here's a quick look at what the picks Edmonton owns, and a possible target with the top selection.
At this point in the season, there's some uncertainty in the final draft seeding. Edmonton's first-round selection will land No. 31 or No. 32, depending on the outcome of the final. Here's a look at the selections currently belonging to the Oilers:
via Pro Sports Transactions
The Oilers own three picks in the 2025 draft, the highest originally belonging to the St. Louis Blues. That selection, tentatively No. 83, will be key to any draft success delivered by Oilers scouts.
A decade of dealing picks and prospects left the Oilers with holes at most positions. The organization has made attempts in the last 12 months to add bona fide NHL future talent, specifically Sam O'Reilly and Matt Savoie.
A look at the projected best player by position informs us the group, while showing considerable promise, isn't deep and could use some help via the 2025 draft:
Bowman could sign KHL winger Maxim Berezkin in the days to come, and help the depth chart at left wing. The Oilers organization may have found a late-round gem in goaltender Samuel Jonsson, who offers size and an impressive 2024-25 performance.
Savoie is the surest bet in the group, a guaranteed plug-and-play on an NHL skill line next season. The only ways he isn't on the opening-night roster for 2025-26 will be poor performance in preseason, injury or a trade.
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That leaves defence. It is there that the Oilers may use that third-round pick acquired from the Blues.
A team that enters a draft with a third-round selection as its highest option is forced to make a decision: Go for the safe prospect, or try to hit a home run with a player with both extreme talent and enough question marks to scare away the teams with higher picks.
Most of the players who make the NHL as depth players are readily available via trade or free agency. The Oilers would be best served by attempting to hit a home run.
Since Bowman arrived as general manager, he has signed two defencemen (Atro Leppanen, Damien Carfagna) and three forwards (Marjala, Josh Samanski, Quinn Hutson) from outside the organization. He also secured goalies Jonsson and Nathan Day and forward Connor Clattenburg from the group of previous Oilers drafts.
Based on the team's depth chart, a defenceman might be the best option available.
Scott Wheeler at The Athletic has Reese Hamilton of the Regina Pats ranked No. 77 on his final list for the 2025 draft. His description reveals an exceptional skater who was highly ranked entering his draft season but fell down lists due to dull performance in 2024-25.
Wheeler's thumbnail sketch of Hamilton suggests the type of defender the current Oilers management group may value highly. Wheeler: 'Hamilton is a smooth-skating, heads-up defenseman whose impressive mobility allows him to transport pucks, walk the line, gap and re-gap and get back to pucks. He's a zone-exit machine.'
The Oilers are currently trying to win the Stanley Cup playing a style that focuses on zone exits that allow fast breaks for Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and others.
Gathering a player who could play that role in the future is a good idea.
Although Hamilton does not have the resume Evan Bouchard delivered in junior, he plays for the Regina Pats, who were the poorest offensive team in the WHL last season. The club's 170 goals represent just 2.5 goals per 60, in the same league that the Medicine Hat Tigers averaged 4.41 goals per game. The Pats were bad one year ago.
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Wheeler concludes, 'his skating is the real premium, though. It's effortlessly smooth and should allow him to develop into an entry/exit/escapable/rush defense/tight gap D.'
Hamilton is 6-feet-1, 170 pounds and could grow into a more substantial blueliner. His foot speed will get him a long look as a pro, and if his offence develops, the Oilers could have a useful top-four defenceman by the end of the decade.
The Oilers have left themselves vulnerable at the 2025 draft, but no Oilers fan can possibly be upset. If the idea is winning the Stanley Cup, the last two years have proven beyond a doubt that the organization is laser-focused on winning it all.
The steps taken by Bowman this season, in adding multiple players, show management is aware that the organization is vulnerable in the area of amateur procurement. The urgency is warranted.
There's little use in finding a future No. 6 defenceman. Taking a chance on a player like Hamilton allows the team to make a sizeable bet on a player with raw physical skills.
In baseball, these types are called 'draft and follow' and can have a major impact.
Last season, playing for two WHL teams, Hamilton posted just four goals and 14 points in 59 games. Akey, another speedy puck mover, scored 47 points in 66 games during his draft season. The Oilers grabbed him with selection No. 56 in 2023.
The key to identifying a 'draft and follow' player is making certain the talent was real and confirming the opportunity was unlike other draft-eligible players one year ago.
It would seem Hamilton is such a player. Wheeler's ranking, despite the poor offensive production, is a tell.
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