Oilers Notes: Rookie Camp Begins and McDavid’s Plan to Score More

Savoie and Howard are the only two with a realistic shot to make Edmonton’s season-opening roster. Others might compete for a job in future seasons, but with the Oilers being a Stanley Cup contender, most new additions to the team will be experienced players. The team’s organizational depth will be filled out by unrestricted free agents playing in Europe, NCAA, or major junior, like Samanski, Carfagna, Marjala, Hutson, David Tomášek, Noah Philp, James Hamblin, and waiver wire pickups like Kasperi Kapanen and Alec Regula.

The Oilers have other young players, like Roby Jarventie and Matvei Petrov, who are 23 and 22, respectively, and might find their way to the NHL in the future, but the Oilers aren’t blessed with many first-round prospects after Savoie and Howard, whom they acquired via trades. They don’t have a 2026 first-round pick (dealt to San Jose for Jake Walman), and I won’t be surprised to see them move future first-round picks in the coming years. They are in “win now” mode.

The rookie games will still be entertaining, but I always caution against making too much of how a player plays. If Savoie and Howard don’t dominate, it doesn’t mean they aren’t ready. And conversely, if they crush it, it doesn’t guarantee they are. I prefer to look for traits and what I see as “repeatables” — plays, thoughts, and actions that a player does over and over that lead to success, like puck retrievals, board battles, how they read the play, and overall natural instincts. Most rookies will need to get faster and stronger, as those things are achievable. But if a player isn’t comfortable going to the net, it will be difficult to see them drastically alter their style in the coming years. A few have done it, but it is difficult.

I’ve seen Savoie live many times, but Howard is the one I’m most intrigued to watch. Also, Akey and Carfagna on the backend.

McDAVID LOOKING FOR A BETTER REGULAR SEASON…

Since entering the NHL in 2015-16, Connor McDavid has dominated the league. In his 10 seasons, he’s scored 1,082 points, which is over 100 points more than the second leading scorer in that time, teammate Leon Draisaitl, who has 947 points. McDavid has 200 more points than every player in the league except Draisaitl, Nathan MacKinnon (914), and Nikita Kucherov (911).

McDavid has set an incredibly high bar for himself, and he feels he can play better than he has the past two regular seasons — his words, not mine. He wants to be more assertive, so I asked him how he would describe being more assertive on the ice.

“Assertive is shooting the puck and just being more decisive with decisions,” he said. “Part of my talent is the ability to change my mind, but at times it can take away from shooting the puck, taking it to the net, taking it to the hole, whatever it is. I look back on scoring 60 goals and there was a lot more shooting, I was a little bit more assertive, aggressive around the net and that is something I can get back to.”

In 2023, McDavid scored 64 goals and 153 points in 82 games. He scored 42 goals via wrist shot, 15 on snapshots, four on the backhand, one on a slapshot, and two on wraparounds. He had 352 shots on goal, had another 88 shots blocked, and another 89 shots missed the net, which included 12 goal posts. That adds up to 529 shot attempts.

He averaged 4.29 shots on goal/game and 6.45 shot attempts/game.

In 2024, McDavid tallied 32 goals and 132 points in 76 games. He scored 17 goals on wrist shots, nine on snapshots, five via the backhand, and one slapshot. He fired 263 shots on goal, had 98 shots blocked, and 91 missed the net, including 16 off the posts/crossbar. He had a total of 452 shot attempts.

He averaged 3.46 SOG/game and 5.94 shot attempts/game.

In 2025, McDavid tallied 26 goals and 100 points in 67 games. He scored 11 goals on wrist shots, nine on snapshots, three on backhands, two on pokes, and one via a tip. He fired 196 shots on goal, had 88 shots blocked, and 86 missed the net, including 14 off the post. A total of 437 shot attempts.

He averaged 2.92 SOG/game and 5.52 shot attempts/game.

McDavid is bang on about him shooting the puck more in 2023. He’s had a steady decline from 4.29 SOG/game in 2023 to 3.46 in 2024 and 2.92 last year. He also averaged more shots blocked/game the past two seasons.

His 4.29 shots/game in 2023 was the highest of his career, so it might not be realistic to expect him to shoot that often. He has averaged 3.45 shots/game over the past nine seasons, and not surprisingly, the years he scores more goals are when he shoots more.

• 2023: 64 goals and 4.29 shots/game.
• 2022: 44 goals and 3.93 shots/game.
• 2021: 33 goals and 3.57 shots/game. He had 33 goals in 56 games (shortened season), which prorates to 48 goals in an 82-game season.

It is plausible McDavid will shoot as much as he did in 2023, but it is more realistic that he comes in around 3.5-3.9 shots/game, which would likely lead to him scoring 40 goals again.

He had 41 goals in 2018 (82GP) and 2019 (78 GP), and he averaged 3.34 and 3.07 shots/game each year.

Last season was the lowest shot total and shot rate of his career outside his rookie season, when he had 105 shots and 2.24 shots/game, so it is understandable when he says he needs to shoot more.

His description outlines how he might have changed his mind too often last season, which led to him being too passive and passing up shots or passing up lanes to attack the net. Expect that to change this season. McDavid was more active this off-season than he was last summer.

“This summer would have been a little bit different,” said McDavid. “I just never really got out of shape this year. Last year (summer), I took a lot of, not a lot, but more time off than I would normally. And this year, I kind of went with the approach of not getting out of shape, per se. So just kind of building on what last year was, and obviously, I’m healthy and everything’s good. Taking that time to rest is important, but I never really got out of playing shape this summer.”

Could that lead to a better start for McDavid? Very likely. By his standards, he’s started slowly the past two seasons.

• In 2025, he scored 3-7-10 in the first 10 games.
• In 2024, he had 2-8-10 through 10 games.
• In 2023, he scored 11-11-22 in the first 10 games and carried that pace much of the season.

Last fall, the Oilers were still devastated from the 2024 Stanley Cup final. It was understandable. The last 10 Stanley Cup losers averaged 5-4-1 in their first 10 games of the season after losing. The Oilers went 4-5-1 after losing their first three games of the season. The team started slow, as did their Captain.

This season, the aura around the team at the Captain’s Skates wasn’t as dreary. Of course, the players are upset, but I sensed more of a chip-on-their-shoulder, rather than grief like last September.

They’ve started slowly the past few seasons. Last year, they were 4-5-1 out of the gate. They were an ugly 2-8-0 in 2023-24, which resulted in a coaching change. They were 7-3-0 in 2022-23, but they started 2-3 before winning five in a row.

The Oilers begin the season with seven of their first 10 games against teams that missed the playoffs last season. They open up at home against Calgary and then Vancouver, then they are on the road against NYR, NYI, NJ, DET, and OTT. After that, they’re home for one game vs. MTL, then on the road in SEA and VAN.

Seven of their first 10 are on the road, which isn’t ideal, but only Ottawa and New Jersey made the playoffs last year.

An angrier team attitude and a Captain who wants to shoot and produce more should allow them to get off to a better start than the previous two seasons.