October 14, 2022 by Ryan Lotsberg

The Edmonton Oilers officially announced several hockey operations staff updates for the 2022-23 season on Friday

The Oilers appointed Duncan Keith as Player Personnel Consultant, Milan Tichy as Director of Amateur European Scouting, Warren Rychel and Jason Pietrzykowski as Professional Scouts, Jeff Salajko as a Goaltender Scout, Katie Doyle as Director of Team Services and Hockey Operations, Tina Johnson as Nutritionist Consultant and Tania Kenny as Executive Assistant in Hockey Operations.

Keith, who retired during this past off-season, joins the recently hired Steve Staios in the player development department. The two-time Norris Trophy winner brings tons of experience at the highest level and his perspective will be invaluable for Oilers prospects.

Tichy was appointed as Director of Amateur European scouting. He was previously a European scout for the Nashville Predators and the Columbus Blue Jackets. Christian Vermette was added as an Amateur Scout. Vermette was a scout for the Saint John Sea Dogs from 2005-2013, when he was promoted to Head Scout. He became the Assistant General Manager for the Quebec Remparts in 2014, where he worked the past eight years. Salajko was a Goaltending Coach for the Grand Rapids Griffins from 2013-2016 before holding the same position with the Detroit Red Wings from 2016 through 2022.

The most intriguing announcements today were the additions of Rychel and Pietrzykowski to the scouting staff. Rychel played 406 NHL games before becoming a scout for the Phoenix Coyotes from 2000-2006. He became an owner of the Windsor Spitfires in 2006 and sold his interest in the team in 2019. He then spent one season as the Head Coach of the Barrie Colts. Pietrzykowski is entering his fourteenth season with the Oilers. He was a Video Assistant with the club previously.

The changes to the Professional Scouting team are the most fascinating to me because of this summer’s retirement of Archie Henderson, who was the Director of Professional Scouting for the Oilers from 2019 until this past July. Henderson only had two Professional Scouts on his staff, Paul Messier and Chris Cichocki.

The following is a list of players that joined the Oilers under Henderson’s watch:

Josh Archibald

Riley Sheahan

James Neal

Theodor Lennstrom

Mike Green

Adam Cracknell

Kyle Turris

Seth Griffith

Tyler Ennis

Tyson Barrie

Dominik Kahun

Alan Quine

Anton Forsberg

Devin Shore

Troy Grosenick

Dmitri Kulikov

Andreas Athanasiou

Slater Koekkoek

Duncan Keith

Zach Hyman

Cody Ceci

Derek Ryan

Warren Foegele

Brendan Perlini

Colton Sceviour

Alex Stalock

Evander Kane

Brett Kulak

Derrick Brassard

There are some players on this list that are contributing pieces of the current Oilers roster, but the Oilers were unable to find players that could keep their heads above water at the bottom of the forward group under Henderson. That has been a major problem for the Oilers for many years.

Only Cichocki remains from Henderson’s original Professional Scouting team. Assistant GM Brad Holland had “Professional Scouting” added to his title after Henderson’s retirement this summer. Mattias Janmark and Ryan Murray were both added after Henderson’s retirement. Janmark was a cap casualty at camp and Murray has looked good thus far. The Oilers need this group of professional scouts to have better results when acquiring new talent that could propel the Oilers over the hump on their way to becoming Stanley Cup Champions.