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EDMONTON, AB - July 24, 2024: Edmonton Oilers CEO Jeff Jackson addresses the media at Rogers Place. Photo Credit: Oilers TV
November 2, 2025 by Ryan Lotsberg
The Edmonton Oilers announced that they have hired Andy Slaggert as the Director of North American Recruiting on Saturday. Slaggert comes with a wealth of experience after 32 years with the NCAA’s Notre Dame Fighting Irish in various coaching roles.
Note the word “Recruiting” in his title. He’s not being brought in to coach or even to scout the league that he has so much familiarity with. No, his job is to attract NCAA players to the Oilers organization.
According to the press release from the Oilers, Slaggert was a part of the recruitment process for 70 NHL drafted players while he was with Notre Dame. Recruitment is how college teams get their players, and the coaching staff plays a big role in recruitment. We’ve even seen footage on The Drop of Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch being prompted to call Andrew Mangiapane as part of the recruitment process to sign the unrestricted free agent this past Canada Day. Slaggert clearly has ample experience in recruitment.
Slaggert’s title is significant because you don’t often see the word “recruitment” in the titles of NHL Front Office positions. The Oilers are now one of four teams that have someone with the word “recruitment” in their title along with the St. Louis Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Washington Capitals. The Vegas Golden Knights employ two people with the words “Amateur Free Agents” in their titles, which I assume entails the recruitment of NCAA free agents.
“Recruitment” is a rare word in NHL Front Office titles because recruitment has traditionally been left up to the scouts. It’s just a part of their job description. The emergence of these new recruitment roles in a handful of NHL front offices suggests that scouting and recruitment are becoming more differentiated.
The Oilers are among the early adopters of this role differentiation. The Oilers being early adopters of anything is totally atypical of the organization, but that was before Oilers CEO Jeff Jackson came along. Jackson has done a lot to reshape the Oilers front office. Much of that work has been done in the Amateur Scouting and Player Development departments.
Jackson’s first move was to bring in Rick Pracey to replace Tyler Wright as the Director of Amateur Scouting. Later, Kalle Larsson was brought in to oversee Player Development. Now, Slaggert has been added with a title that’s new to the organization. Jackson was brought in for his progressive mentality, and the Slaggert hiring is the latest example of Jackson’s progressive thinking in action. Having one person solely focussing on recruitment means that there will be a unified organizational recruitment strategy going forward. The pitch will become stronger, which is huge for an organization that has always had trouble attracting free agents. Less so in the Connor McDavid era, but that trouble hasn’t totally dissipated in this era of championship contention.
Related: Oilers hire Kalle Larsson as Senior Director of Player Development
What this move tells us about the Oilers’ strategy for player procurement going forward is clear. The Oilers have a depleted prospect pool from years of trading away draft picks in pursuit of a Stanley Cup and from poor drafting and development under the previous regime. The Oilers are still in a Stanley Cup window, so we can expect draft picks to continue being traded away. The Oilers will have to find quality prospects from other places aside from the draft. That means more of what we saw this spring, which is European and NCAA signings.
Slaggert has a long and storied past with the NCAA, which tells me that the NCAA will be a major focus for the Oilers in their pursuit of prospects. Quinn Hutson and Damien Carfagna are just the beginning. Bob Stauffer has dropped several hints that point to the Oilers going after State College defenceman Mac Gadowsky, and Stauffer also recently dropped a hint about the Oilers going after a 23 or 24-year old right-handed centre out of the NCAA to replace Sam O’Reilly, who was used to acquire Ike Howard this past summer. I’m sure the Oilers will be in on all of the prominent NCAA free agents when that time comes in March 2026 and every March for the foreseeable future.
Related: Did the Oilers pay too much for Howard?
The hope is that Slaggert gives the Oilers the upper hand in the pursuit of top NCAA free agents because his experience and clout in the NCAA carry weight.
