Edmonton Oilers Expecting Big Year From Matt Savoie

As the focal piece acquired by the Edmonton Oilers in the trade that sent center Ryan McLeod to the Buffalo Sabres last summer, many believed Matt Savoie would become a low-cost, high-upside option that the Oilers could put next to Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl in the team’s top-six. Hindsight being 20/20, Savoie only played in four games with Edmonton throughout the 2024-25 season, spending much of his time with their AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors.

Still, the team expects Savoie to register his rookie campaign during the 2025-26 campaign and be a potent contributor. In a recent piece by Derek Van Diest of NHL.com, Oilers’ General Manager Stan Bowman laid out his expectations for Savoie, saying, “There is some growth from within. I think Matt Savoie is probably poised to take a big step next year.”

The team’s head coach, Kris Knoblauch, shared similar sentiments, saying, “With Savoie, the one thing that I’m very optimistic about is penalty kill and how good he was in Bakersfield in that role. He didn’t have any penalty-kill time when he was with us but certainly, we saw him being a reliable two-way player at 5-on-5. The opportunity for Savoie is on the penalty kill, not that he can’t be on the power play, but I definitely see him being a big part of our penalty kill.”

Interestingly, Knoblaugh highlighted the penalty kill regarding Savoie. He’s been an efficient scorer at the AHL level over the past two years, scoring 21 goals and 59 points in 72 games between the Condors and the Rochester Americans. There’s little expectation that Savoie earns a spot on the team’s first power-play unit. Still, there’s reason to believe he should be viewed as a top candidate for the Oilers’ second iteration of their man-advantage deployments.

Savoie only has five NHL contests to his name, so it’s difficult to tell how effective he would be on the penalty kill. He finished last season with a +21 rating, which is impressive given that Bakersfield as a team finished with a -9 differential. He’s not an overly physical player, but his high pace and skating ability could be viewed as a positive variable to plug into a penalty kill unit.

At any rate, Edmonton is expected to insert some high-upside youthful talent into its group next season. Especially after acquiring the 2024-25 Hobey Baker Award winner, Isaac Howard, a few weeks ago from the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Oilers will have a lot of options to play around with in their top-six as they pursue their first Stanley Cup championship since 1990.