CEO and acting general manager Jeff Jackson said he plans to bring back all of the team’s pending UFAs of the Edmonton Oilers this summer. Having already signed Calvin Pickard to a two-year extension, when asked by Elliotte Friedman at the NHL Draft how conversations were going, Jackson said he’s having good discussions and the team is looking to bring back every UFA that needs an extension.
It’s an interesting comment, to say the least. With nine UFAs still needing to be signed, it was expected that the team would lose at least a couple of players. That the Oilers are actively trying to sign everyone means they want to bring back as close to the same team that ended 2024 as possible.
It’s not clear how realistic that will be considering the asks of some of the players, but if Jackson thinks all the players could be back, the assumption has to be that everyone is open to the idea of taking a deal to keep this roster as close to whole as possible.
This means the Oilers want to get Connor Brown, Mattias Janmark, Warren Foegele, Corey Perry, Vincent Desharnais, Sam Carrick, Sam Gagner, Adam Henrique, and Troy Stecher. Perhaps “all” was an exaggeration, but the comment suggests the Oilers aren’t looking to explore the market on Monday and want to take care of all of their business internally.
The Oilers Traded Up to Get Into The First Round
Edmonton didn’t have a first-round pick this year because they traded it to Anaheim for Henrique and Carrick at the trade deadline. They moved a future conditional first-round selection in 2025 or 2026 to move up and draft Sam O’Reilly from the London Knights.
O’Reilly was a draft riser this year. He started out as nowhere near being a first-round pick, but kept raising his stock in the latter half of the season as a utility guy. He’s super competitive and will always give his all, no matter what role he’s asked to play.
Jackson said, “Our staff had him rated quite a bit higher than where he went, so Rick felt very strongly we were getting a player that would fit our mold and we’ve got to start getting our pipeline going. We felt very comfortable making the move today.”
The fact the Oilers moved a future first means they’ll have one less asset to trade at next season’s trade deadline. And, if they don’t finish high in the playoffs, the pick could be considerably higher than what they took tonight. The Philadelphia Flyers are taking a gamble that the pick will be better in a year’s time.
