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The Athletic snubs Isaac Howard as Oilers prospect pool ranks 31st in NHL

By Michael Menzies

Aug 18, 2026, 16:00 EDTUpdated: Aug 18, 2026, 16:15 EDT

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It shouldn’t be a shock, but The Athletic is grading the Edmonton Oilers prospect pool poorly.

Corey Pronman, senior prospects writer at The Athletic, released a ranking of all 32 NHL teams’ best prospects and 23-and-under players. The Oilers finished 31st, which was the same spot in 2025. It’s only better than the Colorado Avalanche, and just behind the Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars. For the 2026 draft, Pronman assigned Edmonton a C- grade.

That makes sense considering all of those teams are competing for a Stanley Cup.

What’s most shocking is that Isaac Howard, who is routinely ranked as the best Oilers prospect among various scouts, is ranked fourth amongst Edmonton’s youth.

Some of that is due to which players Pronman deems as eligible. For example, Matt Savoie played all 82 games with the Oilers last season, but is listed at No. 1 on the Oilers list, since it includes every player taken from the 2022 to 2026 NHL drafts.

“This is done to include a team’s top prospects without aggressively graduating players who have a lot of prime development years ahead of them, even if they are already in the NHL,” writes Pronman.
“This does have the effect of, at times, including star NHL players while leaving off players who are still in the minors and have a chance to make the league. There is no perfect way to create player eligibility for a prospect ranking.”

But even with that caveat, it seems shocking that Howard would fall below other players in the Oilers system. However, with that in mind, the Oilers list goes as follows:

Matt Savoie
Rudolfs Berzkalns
Asher Barnett
Isaac Howard
David Lewandowski

The big riser on the list is Asher Barnett, who is getting a lot of positive attention for his rise within the Team USA ranks, captaining his team at the World Junior Summer Showcase. Meanwhile, netminder Samuel Jonsson was No. 3 a season ago, but didn’t rank this time.

David Lewandowski was just ranked as the 16th best prospect in the Oilersnation countdown, which so far features:

20. Owen Michaels
19. Tomas Cibulka
18. Eemi Vinni
17. Connor Ungar
16. David Lewandowski
15. Damien Carfagna
14. Zack Sharp

Spencer Pomoty’s list continues throughout the month.

Michael Menzies is an Oilersnation columnist and co-host of PreGaming and Oilersnation After Dark. He’s also been the play-by-play voice of the Bonnyville Pontiacs in the AJHL since 2019. With seven years of news experience as the Editor-at-Large of Lakeland Connect in Bonnyville, Menzies collects vinyl, books, and stomach issues. Follow him on X at Menzies_4.

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