Cult of Hockey prospect series 2026: #14, William Nicholl
20 years old, 6-0, 180 lbs., drafted 196th overall in 2024
When you have Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on your team for more than a decade perhaps it’s normal to feel you’re set at the centre position.
But has this embarrassment of riches at that key position caused Edmonton Oilers management to get overly complacent in recent years and to fritter away their best young options at centre?
This is a major question for the 2026-27 season, mainly because there’s talk of a renewed emphasis of playing McDavid and Draisaitl on the top line. The Oilers also have veteran Jason Dickinson at checking centre, but who will be the 2C on the Oilers and the 4C?
RNH has been a Core-12 Oilers player for 15 straight years, but the best bet to extend his career in productive fashion isn’t to put him at 2C, it’s to make him a third line winger with Dickinson.
There’s young defensively responsible Josh Samanski to play fourth line centre, but it’s not clear if the new coaching regime is going to stick with him. Could it be he’s been judged to lack the necessary physicality to win them over? If so, that would be a mistake.
All this leaves the Oilers likely/possibly looking for one or two centres in trade as the season progresses, the painful irony being that in recent years Edmonton has traded away two top young centres, Ryan McLeod and Sam O’Reilly, in deals for smaller scoring wingers.
Matt Savoie, acquired for McLeod, is shaping into a scrappy and effective Top 6 winger, but he’s not a solid 2C like McLeod has become in Buffalo. Junior hockey champ O’Reilly could work his way into the Tampa Bay line-up in the centre slot this year. The Oilers traded him away for Ike Howard, who may or may not break in with the Oilers, but as a winger, not a centre.
Added to the mix are a handful of Bakersfield centres who may help down the road, most notably AHL rookies Owen Michaels and 20-year-old William Nicholl, the prospect du jour of the Cult of Hockey’s prospect rankings, counted as 14th overall in the current class.
Nicholl
Nicholl was a seventh round pick, so by definition he’s a long shot to make the NHL. But he’s got his backers, in large part because he’s got wings on his skates.
The kid is a speed burner. He’s also got a good amount of grit.
Before Nicholl was drafted last year, Elite Prospects said of him: “Nicholl is a forward who shows unrelenting pace, textbook details, and flashes of high-level offence. He wins body positioning on everyone in every situation: Net front, along the boards, on the backcheck, on random opponents in open ice. His physical skills enable him to beat defenders off the wall, get inside, and fire off chances.”
After his strong 2024-25 sesaon, Mark Henry at Dobber Hockey had this to say about Nicholl’s game: “An explosive center who creates scoring opportunities using his speed and is not afraid to be physical…. Nicholl projects as more of a bottom-six, two-way physical type, but his knack for finding the net will boost his notoriety and rostered percentage in your leagues.”
That same season, The Athletic’s Allan Mitchell said of him: “Nicholl is on fire in the OHL, generally regarded as the world’s best junior league… We’re a long way from calling Nicholl a home run, but a recently chosen prospect (from the seventh round) who’s third in (OHL) team scoring is notable. He’s rolling with top-end talent and the play isn’t dying on his stick.”
In July 2025, Oilers prospect expert Bruce Curlock said of him, “In his draft season, Nicholl was buried on a very deep London team and spent a lot of time on the bench. The result was a season where Nicholl recorded 6-14-20 in 65 games. This season with a few players moving on, Nicholl was given an opportunity to take the next step and did he ever… In short, Nicholl developed a scoring touch without seeing a lot of powerplay time…. His confidence with the puck. His pace. His touch. His finish. William Nicholl has some tools he can use. Nicholl uses these tools in combination with a really strong commitment to playing responsible hockey.”
But then came a shoulder injury and surgery, which knocked Nicholl out for the first half of the OHL’s 2025-25 season. When he came back, he played well, with the Oilers signing him to an Entry Level Contract and assigning him to Bakersfield to finish out the season.
Most recently, Curlock said to Bob Stauffer of Oilers Now in regard to Nicholl: “His speed is just eye catching, almost on every shift. And he plays with some chaos, so sometimes your eye gravitates to him anyways, but his pace is unbelievable… 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. Absolutely fly.”
Reasonable expectations for 2026-27. Job one is for Nicholl to win the 3C job for the Bakersfield Condors this year and play a solid two-way game, while putting up an even strength point every third or second game or so. That’s a tall order. Then the Oilers have to hang on to him, keep developing in Bakersfield in the hopes he can help the big team in a few years. Too much to ask?
work and the Edmonton Journal. $1 for six months, $20 for one year. Let’s do this!
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Cult of Hockey prospect series 2026
#14. Beau Akey: Can this former top Edmonton Oilers prospect shake the injury bug and realize his full potential?
#15. Damien Carfagna: ‘Outstanding’: Big hockey brain drives Edmonton Oilers newcomer to new height