The annual The Oil Rig Prospect Rankings is now completed, and all the prospect profiles are out in the world. Now, here is the opportunity to peek behind the curtain and see how the rankings were determined, as well as who voted.
Let’s take a look:
How the Oilers’ 2025 Prospect Rankings shook out
This year, seven of our writers were given a full set of every single Edmonton Oilers prospect and asked to rank their top 10 and also allocate two honourable mentions. The results were then totaled up, with tiebreakers being decided by the prospect with the most total ballots. If a tie still existed, the tie was broken by prospects who had the highest single ranking.
Here is the full ranking:
| Ranking | Name |
|---|---|
| 1 | Matthew Savoie |
| 2 | Issac Howard |
| 3 | Maxim Beryozkin |
| 4 | Samuel Jonsson |
| 5 | Beau Akey |
| 6 | Roby Jarventie |
| 7 | Quinn Hutson |
| 8 | William Nicholl |
| 9 | Josh Samanski |
| 10 | Paul Fischer |
| Honourable Mention | Tommy Lafreniere |
| Honourable Mention | Aidan Park |
The top two this year were unanimous. Savoie finished at the top of everyone’s ballot while Howard was second across the board. This is unsurprising given how much further ahead they are than the rest of the team’s prospects.
For all but one of our writers, picks three to six were some combination of Jonsson, Beryozkin, Akey, and Jarventie, with just two writers putting Hutson into the six spot over Jarventie. Of this group, the inclusion and high ranking of Jonsson is most interesting. The goalie had an outstanding year and has not earned nearly enough praise for his play. While he earned more third-place votes than Beryozkin, his one low vote pushed him down the averages.
The bottom of the ballot is always the most fun, with little in the way of consensus. The top seven players earned votes from all of our writers, while picks eight through ten earned six votes. Mac did not rank Nicholl, who finished eighth, while Troy had neither Samanski nor Fischer on his ranking. Both Mac and Troy had Dalyn Wakely on their ballots, who finished just outside the rankings this year with three votes.
The two honourable mentions each earned four votes: Tommy Lafreniere and Aidan Park. Other players earning votes that did not make it included Damien Carfagna, who earned a tenth-place vote, and Viljami Marjala, David Lewandowski, and Daniel Salonen, who each earned an honourable mention.
From last year’s rankings, the most surprising non-inclusion was Eemil Vinni, who fell from sixth last year to being completely unranked this year. An injury-plagued season contributed to that significantly, with the goalie playing just nine games all year and spending seven of those in Finnish U20. Matvei Petrov and Matt Copponi join Vinni in this group, but they finished 10th and as an honourable mention last year, so a much less stark drop.
At the end of the day, how a player did last season is one thing, but how they do this year is what really matters. Our writers took that into account, looking at how they produced and their ability to reproduce results in higher leagues in their voting. Hopefully, this is the start of a big year for Oilers prospects.
How all of The Oil Rig’s writers voted
Here is how our writers scored everyone:
| Sean | Adhi | Greg | Khalid | Mac | Troy | Aliaks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Savoie | Savoie | Savoie | Savoie | Savoie | Savoie | Savoie |
| 2 | Howard | Howard | Howard | Howard | Howard | Howard | Howard |
| 3 | Jonsson | Jonsson | Beryozkin | Jonsson | Beryozkin | Beryozkin | Jonsson |
| 4 | Akey | Akey | Jonsson | Beryozkin | Akey | Wakely | Beryozkin |
| 5 | Nicholl | Beryozkin | Akey | Jarventie | Jonsson | Akey | Jarventie |
| 6 | Beryozkin | Hutson | Jarventie | Akey | Hutson | Jarventie | Akey |
| 7 | Jarventie | Jarventie | Hutson | Hutson | Jarventie | Jonsson | Hutson |
| 8 | Samanski | Fischer | Lafreniere | Nicholl | Lafreniere | Hutson | Nicholl |
| 9 | Fischer | Nicholl | Nicholl | Samanski | Wakely | Nicholl | Samanski |
| 10 | Hutson | Samanski | Carfagna | Fischer | Park | Park | Fischer |
| HM1 | Park | Wakely | Samanski | Lafreniere | Samanski | Lafreniere | Lafreniere |
| HM2 | Marjala | Lewandowski | Fischer | Park | Fischer | Salonen | Park |
Do you agree with our writers? Disagree with some of the selections? Baffled why one prospect was rated higher by one writer over another? Let us know below in the comments!
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