Isaac Howard’s next step in the Oilers organization is shaping up to be one of the more interesting storylines to watch this season.
The 2022 first-round pick is coming off a pro debut that showed exactly why Edmonton was so intrigued in the first place. Howard, 22, lit up the AHL with the Bakersfield Condors, putting up 24 goals and 50 points in 47 games.
That kind of production suggested his scoring touch from his Hobey Baker Award-winning NCAA run could carry over. But the NHL side of the ledger was much quieter: just two goals and five points in 29 games with the Oilers.
That gap is why the conversation now turns to role. The Athletic’s Alan Mitchell wrote that the Oilers “should deploy Howard in a prominent role this season,” and added that the team’s “analytics department should be recommending that the coaching staff play Howard on a line with [Leon] Draisaitl.”
It’s easy to see the logic there. Draisaitl, 30, is one of the league’s elite playmakers and a former Hart Trophy winner, and lining Howard up next to him could give the winger a cleaner runway to show his offensive instincts at the NHL level.
Whether new head coach Mike Babcock sees it the same way is another question.
Elsewhere in the hockey world, Vienna has turned to a familiar, decorated name in goal. The ICEHL’s Vienna Capitals announced Friday that Adam Reideborn has signed a tryout contract that runs until mid-October, a move made necessary by injuries to the club’s incumbent goalies.
Reideborn, 34, spent the last three seasons as the No. 1 goaltender for SC Bern in Switzerland and was sharp again in 2025-26, finishing with a .919 save percentage in 35 league games and a .906 mark in seven Champions Hockey League appearances. His résumé is a strong one: former SHL Goalie of the Year and a two-time Gagarin Cup champion in the KHL.
Even if his stay in Austria ends up being short, the Capitals are clearly counting on him to steady things as they try to avoid another slow start. Vienna beat HK Dukla Trencin 3-0 in a preseason game yesterday and next faces Hydro Fehérvár AV19 on Friday.
And in the junior-to-college pipeline, Boston College landed a major name for its future. Benjamin Veitch, one of the top prospects for the 2028 draft, has committed to play NCAA hockey at Boston College after his run with the Newfoundland Regiment in the QMJHL.
Veitch was the No. 5 pick in the 2025 QMJHL Entry Draft and recorded 11 goals and 21 points in 58 games as a rookie. At 6’3″ and 201 pounds, he already fits the power-forward mold, and Elite Prospects scout Lassi Alanen wrote in a game report last month that Veitch “looked like a potential first-rounder for 2028” in a game against Sweden at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup.
In Other News...
Oilers Depth Gamble Suddenly Has A Real Opening To Make Noise
Eduards Tralmaks has spent a winding pro career proving he can score wherever he lands, whether that was in the Czech leagues, the NCAA or the AHL, and now the 29-year-old undrafted forward is getting a fresh look with the Oilers after signing as a free agent on July 1, 2026. He also brought that touch to Team Latvia at the Olympics, which helps explain why Edmonton was willing to add him as another depth option for a group that is always searching for usable offense beyond the stars.
The opening may be bigger than it first looked a few weeks ago, because injuries have thinned the competition among the bottom-six forwards and created a real lane for Tralmaks to press his case for NHL minutes. The one thing that has long trailed his scoring profile is skating, so the question now is whether he can do enough in camp and early-season looks to make the Oilers keep him around when the roster starts to settle. [Read more 🡒]
Connor McDavid Faces One Oilers Question That Could Shape Everything
Edmontons offseason conversation has drifted beyond the usual questions of depth and special teams and landed on a far bigger one: how Mike Babcock will handle Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl at five-on-five. The pairing has obvious offensive upside, but it also sits at the center of the Oilers defensive concerns, especially with a new coach inheriting a roster that has already spent plenty of time trying to balance scoring with structure.
For McDavid, the discussion is not just about who skates beside him, but what version of his game the Oilers will get if the alignment changes. His 2016-17 numbers are part of the argument, as are the defensive and offensive trends that have followed him into the 2025-26 season, and a recent fan survey leaned toward splitting him and Draisaitl at even strength. The result is a familiar Oilers tension heading into the new season: whether a different lineup arrangement can unlock more balance, or whether the team is simply asking its best players to solve a problem that keeps coming back. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Prospect Situation Suddenly Feels Bigger Than Routine Draft Chatter
The Oilers track record with draft picks from Russia has been a mixed one over the last decade, with Edmonton cycling through several selections between 2010 and 2019 and getting only limited NHL returns from that group. That history gives extra weight to every new prospect update, especially when it comes to players whose paths to North America already carry more uncertainty than most. Maxim Berezkin remains part of that broader conversation, but the more immediate intrigue now sits with another young player whose development has started to matter in a bigger way.
Paul Fischer has drawn attention because his play has been encouraging, yet his contract situation still hangs there without a resolution. The Oilers brought him in through the August 2024 offer-sheets trade, but he still has not signed, and that leaves his long-term fit with the organization feeling less routine than draft churn usually does. For a team that has already learned how hard it can be to get talented players to stay and succeed in North America, the next step with Fischer carries a little more urgency than it might have a few months ago. [Read more 🡒]