The Edmonton Oilers rookies closed their 2026 rookie camp with a 6-1 win over the Calgary Flames rookies on Monday night at Scotiabank Saddledome, the prospect edition of the Battle of Alberta that Calgary stages as its NextGen showcase.
Quinn Hutson, Zach Bookman, Caden Harvey, Isaac Howard, Rhett Pitlick and Kyle Heger scored for Edmonton.
Oilers 6, Flames 1. Edmonton’s three goaltenders combined for 26 saves on 27 shots, according to the club’s official recap. Hutson finished with a goal and an assist, Bookman with a goal and an assist, and forward Viljami Marjala with three assists.
Hutson opened the scoring on an Edmonton power play in the first period, beating Flames goaltender Arsenii Sergeev, with Damien Carfagna and Marjala drawing the assists. Bookman made it 2-0 late in the same period on a shot that found its way through Sergeev, with William Nicholl and Owen Michaels assisting. Oilers camp invitee Weston Cameron and Flames defenceman Mace’o Phillips fought in the closing minutes of the frame. Edmonton led 7-6 in shots after 20 minutes, The Hockey News reported from the rink.
Neither team scored in the second, a stretch in which Edmonton’s line of Howard, Josh Samanski and Hutson carried most of the possession, the Oilers said in their recap.
Edmonton pulled away in the third. Harvey knocked a loose puck past Kirill Zarubin, who had replaced Sergeev as part of a planned split, to make it 3-0. Howard then redirected a Marjala feed on the power play for a 4-0 lead. Calgary answered, Pitlick scored into an empty net after the Flames pulled Zarubin while trailing by three, and Heger closed the scoring with a one-timer set up by Marjala. Both Edmonton power-play goals were tagged as such in the club’s scoring summary.
Accounts of Calgary’s only goal differ, and this report notes both rather than choosing between them. The Hockey News, filing from the Saddledome, credited Aydar Suniev, who slipped past an Edmonton defender before tucking the puck past Samuel Jonsson at 8:55 of the third period, with Tyson Gross assisting. The Oilers’ official scoring summary credits Jonathan Castagne, unassisted. The club’s summary contains other internal inconsistencies, including goal times that do not match its own written account of the same plays.
In goal, Nathaniel Day, Eemil Vinni and Jonsson each worked 20 minutes for Edmonton. Day made six saves in the opening period, including a pad stop on a Suniev rush before the Oilers scored. The 21-year-old spent his first professional season in the ECHL with the Fort Wayne Komets, where the Oilers credit him with a 22-9-8 record, a 2.76 goals-against average and an .893 save percentage.
Vinni, a second-round pick (64th overall) in 2024 who signed a one-year AHL contract with the Bakersfield Condors in August, made his first rookie camp appearance in Edmonton colours. The Finnish goaltender opened his shift with a double save, stopping Castagne in tight on a full-ice rush before reaching back to deny Matvei Gridin on the rebound during a Calgary short-handed chance, according to the team’s recap.
Hutson is coming off a season in which he led all AHL rookies in goals with 30 for Bakersfield and scored his first NHL goal on Dec. 18, 2025, in a 3-1 win over the Boston Bruins. Harvey, a sixth-round pick (180th overall) in June, was one of four Oilers 2026 draft selections to dress at rookie camp. Marjala recorded 63 points in 70 AHL games last season.
For Calgary, Joe Iginla made his Saddledome debut in the organization wearing No. 88, the number his father, Jarome Iginla, wore during his time with the Los Angeles Kings, The Hockey News reported. The same account singled out Gridin for generating repeated scoring chances.
Rookie games are exhibitions played under camp conditions, and the results carry little predictive weight. What they offer is a first look at where prospects sit. On Monday the clearest signals were Hutson’s shot, Howard’s work on the power play and a goaltending group that surrendered one goal across three 20-minute shifts.
The win wraps the Oilers’ rookie camp. Some of the prospects now turn to the start of main camp on Wednesday, while others return to their junior clubs or to Bakersfield, the team said.
Edmonton holds its annual Fan Day at Rogers Place and Ice District on Saturday, Sept. 19, according to a club release issued Sept. 8. The Oilers open the 2026-27 regular season at home against the Vancouver Canucks on Sept. 29.
Photo: illustrative image of an NHL arena interior. It does not depict Monday’s game, Scotiabank Saddledome or any player named in this report. Credit: Anders Krøgh Jørgensen via Unsplash.
