Top Oilers prospect could earn early promotion to NHL due to offer sheet situation

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Liam McCormick
August 17, 2024 (9:59 PM)

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Earlier this offseason, Oilers President Jeff Jackson made an adept trade to acquire Matthew Savoie from the Buffalo Sabres for Ryan McLeod.

Savoie, the ninth overall pick of the Buffalo Sabres in the 2022 NHL Draft, instantly became the Edmonton Oilers best prospect when he arrived on the team. It was believed he could see time with the Oilers as soon as this year already, but if Dylan Holloway leaves the organization with his offer sheet in St. Louis, Savoie could have a shot at the roster in training camp.

Savoie is an extremely skilled forward prospect with a gifted scoring touch. In his age 17 season, he scored 90 points in Junior hockey, and followed it up with more impressive campaigns as he's gotten older. Last season was a weird one for Savoie, playing for four different teams in one season, but hopefully he'll benefit from some continuity this year with the Oilers. Now turning 20 years old, Savoie can't return to junior, and was likely to start in the AHL.

However, the Oilers are currently $7M over the salary cap limit while faced with these two offer sheet from the St. Louis Blues. If the Oilers believe they can get more from Savoie now and in the future than from Dylan Holloway, perhaps they let the latter walk and promote Savoie sooner than expected. Edmonton Journal writer Jim Matheson brought up the team could turn to Savoie to fill the gap.

The Oilers only have 3 days left to match the offer sheets from St. Louis, or allow their RFA players to leave the organization. The roster moves coming in the next few days will dictate their path forward, but the team is surely considering all possibilities - including that Savoie could fill the gap that Holloway would leave.

Source for Savoie Stats: HockeyDB