I decided to build my own rankings for the Oilers' prospects as I'm finding that the uncertainty surrounding half of the league's cap situations makes publishing good AGMs difficult. My rankings are based off of NHLe, age (U24 for the most part, only Niemelainen breaks this rule due to lack of NHL games played), and a few makeshift corrections as defensive defencemen were rather punished by these rankings relying so heavily on scoring. I'll also follow the Steve Dangle pyramid format (S-, A-, B-, C-, D-, E-Rank) as a rough means of distinguishing who is/is not a specific caliber of player.

S-Rank

Nobody. Typically reserved for generational talents.

A-Rank

1. Philip Broberg
2. Dylan Holloway
3. Xavier Bourgault

B-Rank

4. Carter Savoie
5. Matvei Petrov

C-Rank

6. Stuart Skinner
7. Maksim Berezkin
8. Ty Tullio
9. Dmitri Samorukov
10. Reid Schaefer

D-Rank

11. Maximus Wanner
12. Jake Chiasson
13. Maxim Denezhkin
14. Nikita Yevseyev
15. Ryan Fanti
16. Markus Niemelainen
17. Filip Engaras

E-Rank

18. Luca Munzenberger
19. Michael Kesselring
20. Philip Kemp
21. James Hamblin
22. Raphael Lavoie
23. Noah Philp

Everyone Else

24. Olivier Rodrigue
25. Skyler Brind'Amour
26. Shane Lachance
27. Samuel Jonsson
28. Jeremias Lindewall
29. Tomas Mazura
30. Joel Maatta

I won't write a full blurb for any of the players lest this post end up a novel. I suspect that I'm a lot higher on names like Berezkin, Wanner, and Yevseyev than most. I'm super low on Maatta and really don't like that pick. I get that it's a late-round gamble, but gambling on a forward that cannot score seems short-sighted at best. Math is really high on Savoie, Petrov, and Tullio while the law of averages expects only one of those men to make the NHL full-time. I'm admittedly bearish on Niemelainen too: I don't think the puck skills are there to justify a full-time gig but his size and physicality will ensure him NHL employment for the next half-decade at least.

Let me know your thoughts and rankings down below!

I’m not sold on Petrov above Skinner but other than that it’s pretty good

Hamblin could be a lot higher,

In retrospect to his body of work in the pre-season, absolutely. Keep in mind this was made quite literally following the draft. Math was not kind to Hamblin after his 2021-22 season. If he maintains the pace he built this fall throughout the season, he'll absolutely fly up these rankings.