It didn’t take long for Matt Savoie to make his impact felt for the Edmonton Oilers.
After months of grinding away in the American Hockey League, working on his game and doing everything asked of him, Savoie got recalled to the big club this week, making his Oilers debut on Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers.
The winger had a few good shifts early, but it was halfway through the first period when he made his mark.
Oilers defenceman John Klingberg, who had already scored minutes before, chipped the puck into the offensive zone, where Savoie went to work. The 5’9″ winger dug in hard against a much larger, 6’4″ Rasmus Ristolainen, boxing the blue liner out behind the net, firing a no-look backhand pass that landed right on Leon Draisaitl’s stick.
Draisaitl did the rest, corralling the puck and flipping a backhander past Samuel Ersson.
Matt Savoie makes a great play to find Leon Draisaitl in front of the net and he buries his 41st goal of the season!
That is Savoie's first point as an Oiler in his first game!
🎥: Sportsnet | NHL#LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/gfXlw7IxLa
— Oilersnation.com, Oily Since ‘07 (@OilersNation) February 22, 2025
The old saying goes “it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog,” and the size of the fight in this dog is big. Oilersnation’s Bruce Curlock highlighted Savoie using his “powerful stance and low centre of gravity to make plays” in the AHL this season, and that’s exactly what he did here against Ristolainen.
He’s generated lots of offence in Bakersfield this year for the Oilers affiliate, scoring 13 goals and 37 points in 45 games, good enough for third in rooking scoring, and second on the Condors. That’s clearly translated to the NHL quickly playing alongside Draisaitl, but if he has hopes of sticking through the remainder of the season, his 200-foot game is going to be imperative.
The good news is that’s also a strength of Savoie’s game, and a focus during his time with the Condors. When Curlock revisited his top-20 prospect rankings from last summer, he highlighted how Savoie, who was his No. 1 ranked prospect in the Oilers system, has “a defensive game that NHL coaches can rely upon.”
Time will tell whether or not his time in the NHL will be just a quick stint, a tryout, of sorts, similar to what Noah Philp had in January, or if he will be able to stick.
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.
