When it comes to top prospects, it’s no surprise that the Edmonton Oilers don’t have any.

After all, they have few opportunities to draft such players, given their late-round picks — if they have any at all. Such is life for a team who’s Cup or bust every year.

While Matt Savoie graduated out of Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis’ top 75 NHL-affiliated prospects list, one Oilers prospect fell off the list entirely: Isaac Howard. Listed No. 59 on Ellis’ 2025 list, the winger was spoken highly of coming off a Hobey Baker Award as the top college hockey player, while also winning a World Championship gold with the USA.

Howard’s drop off the list isn’t so much about him as a prospect, more so about the next emerging crop of players, Ellis told me.

“Howard dropping off the list didn’t necessarily mean he massively fell as a prospect and more that there were just a bunch of other players who joined the market through the most recent draft, among other reasons,” he said.

Howard had a good season last year after turning pro. Acquired in exchange for Sam O’Reilly, Howard started the year with the Oilers and would go on to play 29 games, scoring two goals and five points. While he struggled to adapt his game quickly to the NHL, he would find much more success with the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors.

Across 47 minor league games, he would rack up 24 goals and 50 points, finishing third in goals among rookies, and fourth in points.

But still, there’s more room for the 22-year-old.

“The big thing about his game is that it still feels like he lacks a true ‘B’ game,” said Ellis. “Scouts have always viewed him as an offensive player or bust. When discussing his game throughout the past year, many evaluators were concerned that if he’s not in a top-six scoring role, he’s not going to be a high-end producer.

“And that’s typically the pathway forward for most players who win the Hobey Baker in an upperclassman year. If you look at the history of players who won the award in their third or fourth season, most of them never became impact NHLers. That could still change here, because I still see a pathway for him becoming a top-six goal-scorer. But he’s kind of at that point where he isn’t adding really new elements to his game, and what you see is what you get.”

When it comes to Howard, he will forever be intrinsically attached to O’Reilly — one-for-one trades will do that.

Much noise has been made about O’Reilly in the Edmonton market after a strong 2025-26 campaign in which he totalled 29 goals and 72 points in 56 games between the London Knights and Kitchener Rangers. An impressive six goals and eight points in seven games with the bronze medal world junior team helped, too.

It was all exacerbated when, with the Rangers, he scored 17 goals and 28 points in 18 playoff games, helping the team win a league championship and earning playoff MVP honours.

“He’ll often get compared to Sam O’Reilly because of the trade, but there was a reason that deal was made,” said Ellis. “The Oilers needed somebody who, in theory, would be closer to making the NHL, and Howard did that this past season, albeit to mixed results.

“My stance on him was that he should have always spent the first half of the year in the AHL getting comfortable playing pro hockey. But the reason I bring up O’Reilly here is because he has a clearer path to a third-line role where he serves as the ultimate two-way centre. He can play with talented forwards, but I think what we saw from him at the World Juniors is more what we’re going to see from him in the NHL. I don’t see him as a top six forward, but I see him as a guy who could still put up decent production while being defensively responsible. Howard, however, isn’t as good physically and isn’t defensively dominant, which limits his potential.

That being said, he was the 77th-ranked prospect on my list. I don’t think there’s a huge range from 60 to 77.”

Howard is expected to make the Oilers roster out of training camp, and could even have an early look in the top-six in the wake of Savoie’s injury.

Zach Laing is Daily Faceoff Edmonton’s managing editor and The Nation Network’s news director. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.