Edmonton Oilers name Rick Pracey new amateur scouting head, replacing Tyler Wright

From left, Colorado Avalanche number one pick in the NHL Draft, Matt Duchene, who was the third overall selection, joins second-round pick, Ryan O'Reilly, the team's director of amateur scouting Rick Pracey, and the Avalanche's other second-round selection, Stefan Elliott, for a photograph during a news conference in the team's locker room in Denver on Tuesday, June 30, 2009. Photographs of the players stand behind the new additions. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

There's a new scouting guru on the Edmonton Oilers scene.

The NHL team named Rick Pracey its director of amateur scouting on Tuesday, replacing Tyler Wright.

Pracey, 52, has experience in the role, having worked as the amateur scouting director for the Colorado Avalanche from 2008-14, overseeing the draft selection of such players as Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Matt Duchene, Ryan O'Reilly and former Oilers defenceman Tyson Barrie.

Pracey, a former collegiate and minor-pro goaltender, had been working for the Philadelphia Flyers for the last nine years as an amateur scout. He started in the NHL scouting ranks in 2001 with the Avalanche.

The 50-year-old Wright, a former NHL player who was a first-round pick of the Oilers in 1991, spent four years as Edmonton's head of amateur scouting. Shortly after Oilers general manager Ken Holland started work in Edmonton, he lured Wright away from the Detroit Red Wings, his former club.