Having Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins locked in for over a decade makes it easy to feel set at center. Edmonton's recent trade history suggests that comfort might have cost the organization real depth.
The question carries extra weight this season given renewed talk about playing McDavid and Draisaitl together on one line. Jason Dickinson holds down checking center duties, but who actually plays 2C and 4C is a real open question.
Nugent-Hopkins has been part of Edmonton's core for 15 straight seasons, but his best path forward likely isn't a second-line center job. It's sliding to the wing alongside Dickinson on the third line instead.
Josh Samanski profiles as a defensively responsible option at fourth-line center, though it's unclear whether the new coaching staff sticks with him. If he's being judged as lacking physicality, that would be a real mistake given what he actually brings to the position.
Trading McLeod and O'Reilly looks costly in hindsight
All of this points toward Edmonton likely needing to find one or two centers via trade as this season progresses, which carries a painful irony given the organization's recent history.
Edmonton has already traded away two promising young centers, Ryan McLeod and Sam O'Reilly, both dealt for smaller scoring wingers instead.
Matt Savoie, acquired for McLeod, is developing into a scrappy, effective top-six winger, but he's not the same caliber second-line center McLeod has become in Buffalo.
O'Reilly could realistically work his way into a center role with Tampa Bay this season. Edmonton moved him for Isaac Howard, who may or may not stick with the Oilers, but strictly as a winger, not a centerman.
That leaves Edmonton's center pipeline leaning heavily on a handful of names still developing in Bakersfield, most notably AHL rookies Owen Michaels and 20-year-old William Nicholl, currently ranked 14th overall in the Cult of Hockey's prospect rankings.
Nicholl was a seventh round pick, technically a long shot by draft position alone, but he's built a real following because of pure speed.
Elite Prospects described him before the draft as a forward who "shows unrelenting pace, textbook details, and flashes of high-level offence," someone who wins body positioning in every situation on the ice.
Dobber Hockey's Mark Henry saw a similar profile after his 2024-25 season, projecting him as "more of a bottom-six, two-way physical type" with a real knack for finding the net.
The Athletic's Allan Mitchell noted Nicholl was third in OHL team scoring that same season despite being a seventh round pick, calling it notable given how deep that league actually is.
Oilers prospect expert Bruce Curlock detailed how Nicholl was buried on a stacked London roster in his draft year, managing just 20 points in 65 games before finally getting real opportunity the following season once other players moved on.
A shoulder injury and subsequent surgery cost him the first half of his next OHL season, but Edmonton still signed him to an entry-level deal and sent him to Bakersfield once he returned.
Curlock's most recent read on Nicholl, shared with Bob Stauffer on Oilers Now, zeroed in on one specific tool.
"His speed is just eye catching, almost on every shift... He has one NHL skill. And I don't mean that he can't develop more, but he has one right now and he can fly."
The realistic bar for this season has Nicholl winning the 3C job in Bakersfield outright, playing a real two-way game, and chipping in an even-strength point every couple of games.
That's a tall order for a 20-year-old seventh round pick. But given how thin Edmonton's actual center depth looks right now, developing Nicholl properly in Bakersfield may end up mattering more to this organization's future than it looks today.
Did the Oilers make a mistake trading away Ryan McLeod and Sam O'Reilly for wingers?
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