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All eyes on Isaac Howard as newly acquired top prospect makes debut with Oilers
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Michael Menzies
Sep 12, 2025, 16:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 12, 2025, 15:55 EDT
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Nothing hits quite like a dynamic rookie about to debut for your team.
Isaac Howard enters the season as an exciting x-factor for the Edmonton Oilers, but everything you see, you like. 
As the kids say, Ike has aura. And why not? The Hobey Baker Award is not a participation trophy. It’s one of the hardest awards to win in all of hockey. 
He’s reclaiming a nickname last used to describe Eisenhower. 
The kid looked at the Tampa Bay Lightning and said, nah, I’m good. You know what sounds better to me? Edmonton. 
What a fever dream for fans of the northernmost professional sports team. 
Howard represents a jolt of new energy around a team with Lord Stanley in mind, but he hasn’t played in the pros yet. 
Tonight will be our first look at Howard in Oilers threads against Flames rookies. 
“I think my game is winning hockey. I think that’s why I’m excited about this fit. I think I’m ready, ready to take this on, play both sides of the puck and then just play my game,” Howard told reporters at his media avail on Thursday. 
Howard is set to line-up with Matthew Savoie and Josh Samanski and if, or when, he scores, OilersNation is going to get fired up. 
His offensive numbers exploded last season. After scoring six and eight goals, respectively, in his freshman and sophomore seasons, he tripled his totals for 26 goals and 26 assists as a junior. 
This is a nice test for Howard to play amongst his peer age group, before the start of the preseason. 
If anything, the brass wants to turn down the hype, and remind everyone that the NHL is a whole other beast. 
But dare to dream, Arnold, dare to dream. 
“With the exhibition season and rookie camp, we’ll get to see where they’re at, and then from there, really, they’ll make the decisions. But they’re dynamic offensive players and that’s difficult to teach and takes longer to teach,” said Bakersfield Condors head coach Connor Chaulk on Thursday. 
“It’s a lot different playing against men and that’s why we have to watch with our eyes and see how he does tomorrow.” 
Does Connor McDavid have a new toy? Is he the guy ready to be slotted with Leon Draisaitl? Is this the refresh the team’s power-play needs? 
We won’t find any of that out tonight. 
But that’s OK. Hockey is back, and we can all watch something and speculate, as opposed to recycling the same McDavid contract talking points. 

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