With the news that Tristan Jarry is now an Edmonton Oiler, and longtime starter Stuart Skinner and defensive stalwart Brett Kulak headed to the Pittsburgh Penguins, it’s been a busy week for Edmonton Oilers fans.
The Oilers also received a second player in that trade. This player is former 2019 first-round Samuel Poulin. He’s expected to be with the Bakersfield Condors, but the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) alum is an overlooked part of the trade, who adds more experience and depth to the Oilers’ NHL-ready prospect pool.
Poulin’s career before being drafted
The 2001-born fringe prospect has found moderate success everywhere he’s gone. The first stop in his hockey journey was with the Collège Esther-Blondin Phénix where the young forward posted 30 goals and 38 assists across just 39 games, which led to him being a fixture on the QMJHL’s radar.
This attention led to Poulin being selected second overall in the 2017 QMJHL draft by the Sherbrooke Phoenix. The then 16-year-old forward would go on to make the team out of training camp the following year.
In his rookie season in the offensive-heavy QMJHL, he had an admirable showing as an all-around responsible two-way forward, with hints of a playmaker, allowing him to post 45 points across 55 games.
His QMJHL career is highlighted by being named a top CHL prospect in 2018–19 and being a member of the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup gold medal game in that same year. Additionally both of those accomplishments led to him being drafted 21st overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins at the 2019 NHL draft.
After being drafted by Pittsburgh
He would go on to play parts of two seasons with Sherbrooke before being dealt to the Val-d’Or Foreurs a quarter of the way through the 2020–21 season. Overall, across four seasons in the QMJHL, Poulin would appear in 192 games and post 229 points in that span.
The Quebec product would then go on to make his American Hockey League debut during the 2021–22 season. Since the 2021–22 season he has appeared with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for the past five seasons, appearing in a combined 207 games, and posting 137 points across that span.
He has also appeared in fifteen NHL games with Pittsburgh across four seasons with the big club.
Prior to his trade to the Oilers, Poulin was leading all Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins players in points with 20, and tied for first in goals with nine across just 22 games.
What does Poulin bring to the Edmonton Oilers organization?
Poulin is a soft-skilled, playmaking forward who thrives as an opportunist and passing expert. With a particular skillset as a rush attacker that uses pace, timing, and quick play processing to generate chances.
Poulin’s game is defined through strong puck skills, capable skating, and decent offensive senses. The 24-year-old winger is the player to get the puck in the most dangerous areas of the ice for high-quality chances.
Puck skills and offensive senses
There is very little that the 24-year-old forward can’t do when he has the puck on his stick. Poulin displays high-end handling ability, where he uses his reach, hand-eye, and frame to keep his puck protection mechanics close to his body, while simultaneously dekeing around and manipulating opponents.
There also is not a single shift where Poulin doesn’t pass the puck in a smart and effective manner. This starts with quick(ish) play reading, matched by only his option identification speed, and smooth passing ability and accurate puck placement. These factors hint at good play anticipation and timing mechanics.
This understanding of timing explains why, despite mixed decision-making, he still has a 79% pass accuracy. Overall, in every breakout, he displays good play processing, high frequency scanning, and offensive awareness that blend with his puck skills to make him a quality playmaker.
It’s through this passing and quicker skating that the 6’2” winger generates consistent zone entries. There are a few shifts where the QMJHL alum doesn’t try a centring pass to the slot, which can be good, but also quite predictable.
Matter of fact in the 2025–26 campaign, the Pens draftee has more playmaking passes (24) than he does shifts in a game (20). This playmaking frequency really demonstrates both his spatial awareness and play facilitation ability.
His senses and puck skills combo is best explained by his 1.88 high danger scoring chances per game, and why he averages 3.3 shots per game with 1:58 of power play time per game this season. He sees the offensive game at an NHL level already.
Additionally, his shooting looks around average by all regards, but has below average shot placement, accuracy.
Skating
Poulin isn’t the smoothest skater out there, and has a shorter mechanical stride, which compensates by employing effective stride recovery, clean depth, and an okay posture. These allow Poulin clean bursts of acceleration and some evident separation speed.
This acceleration speed is also furthered by beneficial lane creation ability, which means on any offensive transition play the forward is a force to be reckoned with. Poulin stars as a rush attacker due to his edgework, elusiveness, and deception. These elements are obvious in his changes of pace and well-timed cutbacks.
This skating upside is the pure reason why he gets 1:47 of penalty kill time a game, as being the opportunist he is, he can generate relatively frequent breakaways that can be a dagger for opponent power plays.
Limitations to his game
The former Sherbrooke forward has some evident limitations that will restrict his effectiveness, coach trust, and utility in all three zones. These elements that lack include a below average compete level, absent physicality, and a lack of defensive senses.
Compete level/physicality
Compete level-wise, Poulin is quite mediocre in terms of hustle, pressure exertion, motor, and any sort of tie-up or energy elements. He also prematurely cheats and waits for play to catch up to him instead of supporting plays, which further hints at a below average motor.
At his base, Poulin isn’t a workhorse, but fans can’t tell that from his 0.96 PPG rate.
Poulin doesn’t have any physical element to his game. Simple as that. From a complete absence of physical engagement, to poor hit absorption, and shot blocking only by accident, Poulin’s use outside of the offensive zone is limited.
The former first-rounder engages in board battles by backing up from the boards and poking his stick into them, which isn’t stellar in terms of effectiveness. Overall, Poulin engages in 19 puck battles a game, but only has a 26% win percentage due to this limited engagement, willingness, and body positioning.
The former CHL top prospect also gets run over frequently facing on average 1.04 hits per game compared to only handing out 0.69 hits a game.
Physicality and compete level are two important traits that are hard to compensate for in the NHL.
Defensive senses
The positives? He only has a 0.04 errors leading to a goal, and has a routine active stick. The negatives? His defensive game is a non-factor, from defensive transition, where he does not have a consistent role on either the forecheck or backcheck, to his entirely passive nature in the defensive zone.
He has baseline defensive awareness, risk awareness, and positioning, but remains disengaged from plays and exerts no meaningful defensive pressure. Poulin has a marginal impact on every defensive play he is involved showing struggles with risk mitigation and lane management.
These factors make his defensive upside at the NHL level extremely limited.
As mentioned earlier, the Quebec-born player is an opportunist and can generate breakaways on the penalty kill regularly through his timing, speed, and offensive awareness, but his defensive instincts make him a liability in his own zone. This also demonstrates why he only starts 9% of his shifts in the D-zone.
Overall Poulin should add some upside
Poulin is now the newest member of the Edmonton Oilers prospect pool, and expect him to be an offensively productive member of the Bakersfield Condors. For the entire 2025–26 campaign Poulin averages 17:24 of TOI, and looks to be the newest linemate for Marjala, and Jarventie in Bakersfield top six.
Expect him to continue to be a solid playmaker and offensive point scorer, but the compete level, physicality, and defensive senses will likely keep him from seeing significant NHL time this season. In the same breath it is entirely possible Poulin gets a couple of games up with the Oilers.
NHL ETA: 0.5 years
Potential: Likely AHL top-six scorer, with the possibility of a bottom six secondary scorer
Are you excited about the Jarry trade? What do you think about Samuel Poulin? Let us know in the comments below.
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