Welcome to Scott Wheeler’s 2026 rankings of every NHL organization’s prospects. You can find the complete ranking and more information on the project and its criteria here, as we count down daily from No. 32 to No. 1. The series, which includes evaluations on nearly 500 prospects, runs from March 9 to April 8.

In is Ike Howard. Out are Sam O’Reilly and Shane Lachance. And that, combined with not picking in the first two rounds of the 2025 NHL Draft, leaves the Oilers’ pool in about the same spot it has been for years now, which is among the league’s shallowest.

2025 prospect pool rank: No. 29 (change: -1)

Tier 11. Ike Howard, LW, 21, Bakersfield/Edmonton (No. 31, 2022)

Howard is a player I diverged from the consensus on in his draft year, ranking him in the front half of the first round when he was drafted at the tail end of it. After an up-and-down freshman year at Minnesota Duluth gave me some pause about whether I was a little too high on him, he got back to looking like the player I believed him to be following a transfer to Michigan State. With the Spartans, he was a top team’s top offensive player as a sophomore and junior, winning the 2024-25 Hobey Baker after he led college hockey in points per game (52 in 37, or 1.41 per game). He also scored seven goals and nine points at the Gothenburg World Juniors, where he was an important part of an excellent line and made some big plays in big moments, including the gold medal game, and was impressive on my trips down to East Lansing. This year, as a rookie at the pro level, he hasn’t impressed me in limited usage with the Oilers (after an up-and-down summer and preseason) but has looked dangerous in the AHL.

Howard is a player with the kind of track record of success that nearly always translates. Though he’s “short” at 5-foot-10ish, he’s not small, with a fairly muscular build. He has quick crossover acceleration with a hurried stride that cranks its way up ice to give him good speed. There are times when he can look like an all-offense player, but when his effort level and tenaciousness match his skill level, you’ll see him around the puck all game. (He ramped up his off-puck movement and drive at MSU, too.)

Inside the offensive zone, he’s extremely dangerous on the puck, with underrated creativity to complement his high-end skill; though he tries things occasionally at the offensive-zone blue line that he shouldn’t get away with, he also usually executes them. He makes a lot of plays under the triangles of defenders’ sticks, he navigates in and out of holes in traffic really well, and when he’s in attack mode taking pucks from a standstill into the middle of the ice to create looks, he’s a ton of fun to watch and forces opposing players to reach in on him, which draws a lot of penalties.

But he’s even more dangerous off the puck, with a scorer’s sixth sense for always arriving just in time in Grade-A locations, whether that’s hiding in coverage or just staying around the puck at the net. He’s the kind of player who finds ways to get open in the home-plate area and then makes quick, aggressive finishing plays either with his hands or a heavy one-touch/catch-and-release shot. I think some of his so-so freshman year can now be attributed to some of his struggles to create for himself, but also that they didn’t have a natural playmaker to find him in soft space and facilitate for him (a similar challenge he has faced at times early on as a pro). He needs to play in a certain role and with a certain type of linemate in order to maximize his potential, which makes him a tricky evaluation to be sure about.

Still, Howard is a player who is always going to have power-play utility, and I think he’s capable of becoming a second-line winger under the right coach. It was nice over the last two years to see him play with more jump, get to more loose pucks, move his feet to get off the wall and to the slot/net, and be above and supporting more pucks when the other team has possession. Now he has to find a way to play that game at the NHL level.

Tier 22. Beau Akey, RHD, 21, Bakersfield/Fort Wayne (No. 56, 2023)

Akey is a beautiful, flowing skater with plus-level mobility in all four directions and impressive balance and edges. He can transition pucks up ice, join in transition, walk the line and fall back onto his heels and edges whenever he needs to. He has good hands under pressure. I don’t love the term “hockey sense,” but he has that too and reads the game well. I like him defending the rush, where he uses his feet and stick to manage gaps and steer opposing carriers. I like the way he sees the ice and joins the offense. He can run a power play (though he won’t in the NHL and probably projects as more of a five-on-five guy) and likes to make himself available as a shot option at five-on-five. He has worked to add detail and polish to his game defensively.

There’s a lot to work with, and it’s built upon a foundation of mobility. An illness and a trio of injuries set him back a little after a strong start to his post-draft season and a good showing in his first NHL camp, and he missed more time early on last year, but Akey looked like a top D in the OHL when healthy over the previous two seasons, made Team Canada for the World Juniors (though he barely played) and has played to positive results to start his pro career this year. He’s a B-minus prospect who could become a useful, skating depth No. 5-8 defenseman with continued development.

3. Paul Fischer, LHD, 21, Notre Dame (No. 138, 2023)

Fischer started off strong with the national program and generated some second-round consideration early on in his draft year on a USA blue line that took some time to sort out its roles and top players. From there, he played in two World Juniors (though he struggled in Ottawa and lost his place in the lineup) and has now gone from a good college player to one of Notre Dame’s best players. He has played 22-24 minutes per game for them the last two seasons. His game is just average to above-average across the board, though, which does make it hard to identify a clear role for him up levels as a 6-foot left-shot who runs a power play in college but won’t in the NHL, and has played a supportive role for his partners (including Zeev Buium) over the years but won’t be that type in the NHL either.

Though he was one of the final cuts for my top 100 ahead of the draft, he has played in line with his fifth-round selection, producing at a respectable rate for a young D in college hockey. Again: He’s a good player. I expect the Oilers will sign him. I’m just not sure what his game will look like beyond becoming a solid AHL defenseman who can move pucks and defend well enough. Sometimes guys with his profile do make it, but often they struggle to distinguish themselves.

He plays a heady, controlled game. There’s some offense there that has started to show itself more and more. Maybe he makes it as a No. 6/7 type with the right development. I think he has realized that while he plays a comfortable game with the puck, he’s not going to be a PP guy up levels like he may have thought when he was a top player in minor hockey. The adjustments he has made to his game over the last couple of years have been positive and might give him a better chance.

4. Samuel Jonsson, G, 22, Fort Wayne (No. 158, 2022)

Jonsson had a really positive season in Sweden’s second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan last year and has played very well in his jump to North America so far this season. That has been big; two years ago was a difficult season for Jonsson, who, between injuries and poor play, played just eight games (three in HockeyAllsvenskan and five in the third-tier HockeyEttan). He had a months-long unbeaten streak last year that included a three-game shutout streak in November.

He’s a massive goalie (6-5/6 depending on who you ask) who has refined his coordination, control, footwork and habits to complement his natural ability for his size. He can challenge and play sharp angles, but can also sit deep in his net and rely more on his reflexes and instincts. He’ll let the odd goal sneak through and still has work to do on his recoveries, but both of those things are common in young goalies his size, and he’s quite sound for his makeup. With good coaching and the right amount of patience, he still has some upside to tap into, too. His ELC was well-earned, and I believe in him as a future No. 3 goalie.

5. David Lewandowski, LW, 19, Saskatoon (No. 117, 2025)

After playing in his second Hlinka and starting his draft year with Düsseldorf in the DEL, Germany’s top flight, Lewandowski made the jump to the WHL with Saskatoon and registered 16 goals and 41 points in 56 combined regular-season and playoff games as a rookie last year. He also scored twice at the World Juniors as an underager, and then rejoined the German national team for U18 worlds in Texas and registered three points and 10 shots in five games as their most-used forward. Last season, he was a driver on an entirely rookie middle-six line with Zac Olsen and Cooper Williams with the Blades. This year, he has played above a point per game as their leading scorer and was solid in a relied-upon role for Germany’s World Junior team as a returnee.

He won’t wow you, but he’s an intelligent player who thinks the game well, is consistent, has pro size and is just very cerebral. He’s a reliable, almost veteran player, even though he’s still a teenager. My challenge with Lewandowski is that I don’t know if he has enough skill or speed to be more than just an AHLer at the next level. But he does seem to think and operate at a pro level, and he’s 6-2 with room to fill out. He’s a good player.

6. Asher Barnett, LHD, 18, University of Michigan (No. 131, 2025)

Barnett was one of the final D cuts for my top 100 for the 2025 NHL Draft. He wore the “C” at the NTDP last year and was a consistent top-four D on an NTDP blue line that struggled around him for the most part. He’s an average-sized D with average tools, which limits his ultimate upside and has made me wonder if he’s just a potential AHLer/solid two-way college D as an upperclassman. This year, as a freshman with the Wolverines, he has played 16-18 minutes per game on their blue line to positive results (a theme for him) and played a limited role at the World Juniors (14 minutes per game). 

He’s a decent skater who makes the right play more often than not. He seems to know who he is and how he needs to play — with a focus on efficiency and effectiveness over flash — as well. He’s got a good feel for his decision-making and a willingness to simplify when that’s what’s called for. While he’s not dynamic and doesn’t always take the right guy/make the right read defensively, he defends well and is a relied-upon player who can contribute in multiple ways at his current level. I thought he was a worthy late-round pick, and while he may just become an AHLer, coaches like him and I wouldn’t be shocked if he played a few games in the NHL at some point in his career.

7. Dalyn Wakely, C, 22, UMass-Lowell (No. 192, 2024)

The OHL’s third-leading scorer two seasons ago (behind his linemate and Vancouver Canucks draftee Anthony Romani), Wakely, despite losing his 16-year-old campaign to COVID-19 cancellations, finished his junior career with 209 points in 153 regular-season and playoff games across his final two years in the league (a 93-point 68-game pace) before making the move to the NCAA this season, where he has been one of the River Hawks’ leading scorers as a freshman.

When I watched North Bay and then Barrie over his last three years in the OHL, I often wondered whether he was less a late bloomer and more a decent prospect who was among the many in Ontario affected by the pandemic. He’s a good athlete and is strong. He has good skill. He has a motor. He can shoot it. He has good instincts and anticipation on and off the puck, which have made him a solid penalty killer. He has also been a go-to guy in the faceoff circle and has been dominant at even strength — where, in the OHL, he was among the league’s leading scorers and did the largest percentage of his damage at five-on-five among the league’s top players. He might end up as an AHL middle-sixer, but I thought he was a worthwhile late-rounder and will be interested to see if he can earn a pro deal out of college. He doesn’t have dynamic elements, but he’s a gamer.

8. Aidan Park, C, 20, University of Michigan (No. 223, 2025)

Park is a player I liked in the summer and fall of his first draft year two years ago, but whom others and I cooled on in the second half of that season. After playing his draft year at Shattuck, he then played his first full season in the USHL last year and was one of the league’s leading scorers, racking up 35 goals and 69 points in 57 combined regular-season and playoff games, showing the Oilers enough to take him at the end of the draft. As a freshman on a deep Wolverines team up front this year, he has been fairly productive in a limited role (about 12 minutes per game, and second power play).

Park is talented, smart and competitive. He plays a fairly mature game that has some two-way elements. He has a desire to win and stays on pucks and plays the game with pace, whether hunting pucks or pushing through arms and sticks to drive to the slot or the net in control of them. He then has good-to-very-good hands in tight when he gets there, which allows him to tuck and finish plays around the crease and has made him a tremendous bumper/goal-line guy on multiple power plays now. He keeps his feet moving to stay involved, get open and track pucks, and has shown he can play both center and right wing. He’s a C-grade prospect who should become an impactful collegiate player as an upperclassman. I think he has the tools to be a top-nine AHLer.