It’s Draft Day! Hundreds of hockey players are eagerly waiting to hear their name called by an NHL team, and teams have spent months putting their draft lists together in anticipation of the big day.
For the Edmonton Oilers, this is expected to be a bargain-bin hunt of a draft. Without a pick in the first two rounds, the team will be looking for value with their depth picks. However, the team has found a lot of good finds in the later rounds, with William Nicholl and Connor Clattenburg two later round picks that are already looking like good picks from last year’s draft.
Here’s everything you need to know about the weekend:
Key Draft Details
- Draft Date: June 27 and June 28, 2025
- Location: Virtual
- Broadcast Info: Sportsnet, ESPN, Disney+, TVAS
Where are the Edmonton Oilers drafting
The Edmonton Oilers will make the following draft picks:
| Round | Pick Number | Original owner of the pick |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 83 | St. Louis Blues |
| 4 | 117 | Ottawa Senators via Vancouver Canucks |
| 6 | 191 | |
| 7 | 223 |
Edmonton traded their first-round pick this year for a first-round pick last year, which they used to select Sam O’Reilly. Their pick is owned by the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Oilers’ second-round pick went to Arizona in 2022 as part of the Zack Kassian cap dump. The pick was then moved to New Jersey for John Marino, another former Oilers draft pick.
The third-round pick was given to the Oilers as part of the Dylan Holloway offer sheet. Because the Oilers declined to match the offer sheet, the St. Louis Blues gave them the pick as compensation for losing the forward.
The Oilers traded away their own third-rounder to San Jose along with Cody Ceci in exchange for Ty Emberson.
The fourth-round pick came from the Ottawa Senators to Edmonton as part of the deal that sent former first-round pick Xavier Bourgault and Jake Chiasson east in exchange for Roby Jarventie and this pick.
The Oilers flipped this pick to the Vancouver Canucks last August in exchange for forward Vasily Podkolzin, but then got the pick back in exchange for Evander Kane.
Edmonton also traded both their fourth and fifth round picks. The fourth went to Tampa Bay in exchange for Adam Henrique at the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline. The fifth-rounder went to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Sam Carrick, Ty Taylor, and a seventh-round pick. This trade also included the Oilers’ first-round pick.
The Oilers have their own sixth and seventh-round picks.
What do the Edmonton Oilers need in the draft this year?
Short answer: everything.
There is no single area where the Oilers have too many prospects in the pipeline, nor is there a specific area of need. The key thing for the Oilers in the draft this year will be to prioritize upside. Finding players who could blossom into impact NHLers is going to be key. With the team pressed up against the salary cap, it’s going to be critical that they find complementary pieces that can fill gaps for minimal cost.
Key draft targets for the Edmonton Oilers this year
Predicting the third round of the draft is a crapshoot, but here are the three players that we previously identified as targets for the Oilers in this round:
Aiden Lane
The Canadian forward has bounced around a lot in his junior career, but finished the season in the OHL with the Brampton Steelheads. He’s great at breakouts and is super engaged at both ends of the ice. Standing tall in front of the net, the Harvard commit is a dual threat as both a playmaker and a finisher. While his skating does need some work, he’s got all the right skills to be an NHLer in the future.
Lucas Beckman
The Baie-Comeau netminder finished the year with a 0.914 save percentage in the QMJHL, which is traditionally a scoring league. Not the tallest netminder at 6’1″, he’s shown strong positioning and agility while being able to move very well inside of his crease. Goalies are a wild card, but Beckman seems like a good bet to be an NHLer in a few years.
William Horcoff
The son of former Oiler Shawn Horcoff, William had 10 points in 18 games as a rookie at the University of Michigan. Known for his strong two-way game and his playmaking skills. He’s also a very physical player, who plays hard in the corners. The challenge is his skating, which will need work if he wants to follow his father’s footsteps to the NHL. That said, his pedigree gives him a good chance of becoming an NHLer.
Could the Edmonton Oilers make a trade on the draft floor?
Prior to this week, odds were that this was going to be a very boring draft weekend for the Oilers and their fans. Still, yesterday reports surfaced that the Oilers were talking to several expected first-round selections, leading to the theory that they may be looking to move up.
This is expected to be a wild draft, with significant movement in both order and selections. While it’s still mostly unlikely that the Oilers move into the first round, it’s far from outside the realm of possibility.
Final Thoughts:
The draft has not been the most exciting time for Oilers fans of late, but with reasonably empty prospect cupboards and an aging core, this is a team that desperately needs to inject youth into the lineup. If the Oilers can add another player like O’Reilly this draft, it’s a massive win for the organization. Throw in a few more players with high-end skill, and you have the makings of a great weekend..
Want to know more about the NHL Draft?
Players the Oilers should consider in the third round
Players the Oilers should consider in the third round part 2
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