The Edmonton Oilers raised some eyebrows on Day 1 of the 2024 NHL Draft by trading into the first round to select London Knights forward Sam O’Reilly.

O’Reilly, 18, collected 20 goals and 56 points in 68 games with the Knights during the 2023-24 regular season before adding five goals and 12 points in 16 playoff contests. The Toronto, Ontario product tacked on four points in four games with London at the 2024 Memorial Cup.

TSN’s Bob McKenzie had O’Reilly at No. 32 (exactly where the Oilers got him) on his final list, but many other analysts had the 6’1″ centre lower on their rankings. That didn’t matter to the Oilers, who traded a future first-round pick to the Philadelphia Flyers to be able to get O’Reilly with the final selection of the first round.

“The intangibles, what he brings. We like his size, we like his drive, an extremely competitive kid,” Oilers director of amateur scouting Rick Pracey told NHL.com. “We think he’s inside and hard skill. We like the way he plays diligently defensively. He’s on the right side of the puck, he wins face-offs, he wins stick battles, he wins takeaways, and he has offensive upside.

“He can shoot the puck, he’s well-rounded, he can play wing, he can play center and grew up playing defense, so from well-rounded to versatile to compete, he’s a very interesting guy.”

O’Reilly is the first player the Oilers have selected in the first round since Reid Schaefer, who they took with the No. 32 pick in 2022. The Edmonton-born Schaefer lasted less than a year in the Oilers organization before being sent to the Nashville Predators as part of the Mattias Ekholm trade.

From a pure production standpoint, O’Reilly bears a lot of similarities to his London teammate and Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Easton Cowan, who exploded for 96 points in 54 games in his D+1 season after putting up so-so numbers in his draft year.

Former No. 9 overall pick Matt Savoie is undoubtedly the Oilers’ top prospect for the time being, but O’Reilly would likely be the frontrunner for the No. 2 spot in any Oilers prospect pool ranking.

“Our staff had him ranked quite a bit higher than where he went,” Oilers interim GM Jeff Jackson told NHL.com. “Rick felt very strongly we were getting a player who fit our mold … And we have to get our pipeline going.”

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