Edmonton Oil Kings general manager Kirt Hill is moving out of his junior team office at Rogers Place and down the hall to join the NHL Oilers’ burgeoning management group as an assistant general manager in charge of player procurement.
It is an all-encompassing job title promotion for Hill, who has looked after the Oilers-owned WHL franchise for eight years and will now hand over that GM-president of hockey operations responsibility to head of scouting Michael Chan.
Hill's New Role with the Oilers
Hill, who first hired on with the Oil Kings when he was just 30 — an astute move by then Oiler GM Peter Chiarelli — will have widespread duties in his new NHL job. He will work with the Oilers pro scouting on trades, amateur scouting on the NHL draft, and on free agency, assisting them with processes and organization.
The NHL promotion for the quiet, very smart Hill is long overdue. His fingerprints have been all over the junior club in terms of trades and drafting from the ranks of Canadian bantam players as well as U.S. and European import players.
Hill's Background
After working for the WHL as manager of player development and recruitment for three years, then one season as an amateur scout for the Chicago Blackhawks, Hill replaced Randy Hansch, who left the WHL to work as an NHL amateur scout, with the Oil Kings in 2018.
The Oil Kings were last in the WHL when Hill came aboard eight years ago. The junior team made it to the Memorial Cup four years later in 2022, then started another major rebuild. They had the fifth-most points in the WHL this past season but the injury-wracked team lost in Game 7 of Round 1 of the playoffs to an inspired Saskatoon Blades team.
Hill, 38, who had also spent the last three seasons working with Canada’s U17 program as director of hockey ops, intrigued Chiarelli when he was the Oilers GM. “He had a lot of experience for his age … from what he stands for, his vision and how he wants to build the infrastructure, it was impressive,” Chiarelli said after the hire.
Before Hill was in management, he was a player. After being a second-round bantam draft of Kelowna, he played 235 junior games as a forward with the Rockets and Regina Pats. He left the WHL to play one junior season in the USHL in Lincoln, Neb., then spent four college years at University of Waterloo, graduating with a degree in recreation and sports business.
Hill goes back almost 10 years with current Oilers GM Stan Bowman, who announced a series of management moves Thursday. Hill was a scout for the Blackhawks when Bowman was Chicago’s GM.
Chan, who started with the Oil Kings as their video coach, has been their head of scouting for five years and now moves into Hill’s chair. Jamie Jackson, who was an area scout and head coach of the Northern Alberta Xtreme Hockey Academy, will take Chan’s role, in trying times for the local junior team.
