Vertical excitation energies belonging to some different Rydberg series of hydrogen chloride have been determined with a coupled-cluster theoretical approach. These excitation energies have allowed us to calculate electric dipole transition intensities in HCl and allow additional assessment of the calculation approach presently used to provide an adequate description of the valence and Rydberg states of HCl. The molecular quantum defect orbital has been applied to the calculation of oscillator strengths. In particular, new insight is given on the assignment of states as the R1Pi, the 1Delta(4dpi and 5ppi), the 1Sigma+(4dpi), and the nddelta(1Pi, 1Phi) and 4f states.