The Edmonton Oilers have gotten a head start on sorting out the food chain of their front office next season. According to a team announcement, the Oilers have promoted Michael Parkatti to Vice President of Analytics and Technology, Kirt Hill to assistant General Manager of Player Procurement, Kalle Larsson to assistant General Manager of Player Development and Innovation, Toby Salmelainen to assistant General Manager of European Operations, Andreas Karlsson to Director of Player Development, Justin Mahe to Director of Hockey Operations and Player Experience, Michael Chan to President, General Manager, and WHL Alternate Governor of the Edmonton Oil Kings, and Jamie Jackson to Director of Scouting for the Edmonton Oil Kings.
Edmonton is placing greater emphasis on the analytical aspect of the front office through these promotions. Parkatti has been in a similar role with the Oilers since 2023. Parkatti has been relied upon to give date-driven recommendations to the team’s decision-makers. Edmonton shared that Parkatti developed the xGoals metric, which has become a widely used tool for measuring a player’s effectiveness.
Meanwhile, Hill comes to the Oilers from WHL Edmonton. He had been serving as the Oil Kings’ General Manager for the last several years. He will now work closely with Edmonton’s professional and amateur scouts, as well as recruiting undrafted free agents. Before his work with the Oilers organization, Hill served as an amateur scout with the Chicago Blackhawks beginning in the 2017-18 campaign.
In the announcement, the team stated that Larsson will mainly focus on creating development plans for prospects and current players, while Salmelainen will lead the team responsible for scouting and recruiting talent from Europe. Furthermore, similar to Larsson, Karlsson will oversee the development plans for all Oilers’ prospects in the NCAA, AHL, and Europe. Mahe will be in charge of the hockey operations budget and Edmonton’s immigration and regulation compliance.
The final two promotions of Chan and Jackson directly affect the Oil Kings, also owned by OEG Inc. Chan and Jackson have both been with the Oil Kings for the past two years; Chan serving as the team’s Director of Scouting and Jackson as an area scout.