Oilers send 13 players to AHL Bakersfield, forward James Hamblin on waivers

The Edmonton Oilers just made a handful of cuts. 

A few hours before the start of Friday evening’s game, the team announced that they’ve trimmed their pre-season roster by 14. 

Seven players have been loaned to the Bakersfield Condors of the American Hockey League: Connor Clattenburg, Jayden Grubbe, Matvey Petrov, James Stefan, Brady Stonehouse, Beau Akey, and Nathaniel Day.

Moreover, Matt Copponi, Seth Griffith, Rem Pitlick, Rhett Pitlick, Mason Millman, and Luke Prokop were released from their tryouts with the Oilers and will report to the AHL on their minor-league contracts. 

James Hamblin is headed for waivers. If he clears like he did last year, the Edmonton native will join the players listed above in Bakersfield.

Of the 14, Clattenburg was by far the most noticeable. The 20-year-old scored a handful of goals throughout the NextGen and pre-season games, all while agitating the opponents. While he’ll head to the Condors to begin the season, he’s certainly raised his stock quite a bit.

Petrov also had a good showing, picking up a goal and an assist in the Oilers’ 3-0 win against the Calgary Flames in the split-squad games. Akey showed the ability to move the puck, and it’ll be interesting to see how he does in his first professional season.

Day, a teammate of Clattenburg with the Ontario Hockey League’s Flint Firebirds, had a solid showing in the games that he played. The 20-year-old netminder began his professional career at the end of the 2024-25 season, posting a .981 save percentage and 0.43 goals against average in three games with the ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets.

Of the players released and sent to the Condors, Copponi is the most interesting. Drafted in the seventh round of the 2023 draft, he played 40 games with Boston University in 2024-25 (his senior year), scoring six goals and 24 points. In his three games with the Condors, Copponi picked up two assists.

This was the second wave of cuts, as the Oilers sent both Tommy Lafrenière and David Lewandowski to their respective Western Hockey League teams on Sep. 22. With 16 cuts in total, just 39 players remain on the Oilers’ training camp roster, the most interesting of which is 2022 fifth-round pick Samuel Jonsson, who’ll serve as the backup on Friday evening.