With the start of the 2025-26 regular season just over one week away, the Edmonton Oilers are getting closer to their opening-night roster.

Forwards James Hamblin and Roby Järventie and defenceman Josh Brown cleared through waivers over the weekend and were assigned to the Bakersfield Condors of the American Hockey League. Now, goaltender Matt Tomkins is on waivers en route to the AHL.

The Oilers inked Tomkins to a two-year, two-way contract on July 1 with a minor-league salary of $400k. Assuming he clears through waivers, the 31-year-old Edmonton native will be the primary starting goalie on the Condors and a mentor to a rookie goalie in Bakersfield.

General manager Stan Bowman is familiar with Tomkins because he was the seventh-round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2012 draft. After four seasons with The Ohio State University, Tomkins played for Chicago’s AHL and ECHL affiliates on minor-league deals for a couple of years before finally signing with the Blackhawks in January of 2020.

Tomkins played only 28 games in the AHL over the course of his two-year deal with the Hawks and never appeared in an NHL game for the club. He joined Frolunda HC in Sweden for the 2021-22 season and was named to Team Canada at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, where he posted a .963 save percentage over three games.

The Tampa Bay Lightning liked what they saw from Tomkins during his two seasons in Sweden, so they signed him to a two-year, two-way contract in May of 2023. He went 15-12-2 with a .904 save percentage with Tampa’s AHL affiliate in 2023-24, and went 3-2-1 with a .892 save percentage in six games with the Lightning. Tomkins didn’t play any NHL games in 2024-25, and went 12-10-5 with a .907 save percentage in the AHL.

Given his experience in the AHL and in Sweden, Tomkins seems like an ideal goalie partner for top prospect Samuel Jonsson, who’s making the move to North America in 2025-26 after winning Goalie of the Year in AllSvenskan last season. Also in the mix to share the net with Tomkins in Bakersfield are rookie Nathaniel Day and former Brock University standout Connor Ungar.

The Condors will open the AHL season on Saturday, October 11, on the road against San Jose. Bakersfield’s first home game will be on Saturday, October 19, against Coachella Valley.

Forwards: Leon Draisaitl, Trent Frederic, Adam Henrique, Isaac Howard, Quinn Hutson, Zach Hyman, Mattias Janmark, Max Jones, Kasperi Kapanen, Curtis Lazar, Andrew Mangiapane, Connor McDavid, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Noah Philp, Vasily Podkolzin, Josh Samanski, Matt Savoie, David Tomášek.

Defencemen: Evan Bouchard, Damien Carfagna, Cam Dineen, Mattias Ekholm, Ty Emberson, Brett Kulak, Atro Leppänen, Darnell Nurse, Alec Regula, Troy Stecher, Riley Stillman, Jake Walman.

Goaltenders: Calvin Pickard, Stuart Skinner, Connor Ungar.

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