Oilers Injury Round-Up

The Oilers battle the Nashville Predators tonight, but will be missing three players due to injury. Up front, forward Luke Gazdic is still battling back from off-season shoulder surgery, while on the back-end defender Nikita Nikitin is battling a back problem, and goalie Viktor Fasth is dealing with a groin problem.

Gazdic:

Gazdic suffered a shoulder injury late last season, and underwent off-season surgery to repair the damage. He had to change up the way he trained over the summer, and wasn’t able to participate in training camp back in September. He hasn’t really taken a full run at practice yet either, but is making progress according to coach Dallas Eakins.

Gazdic is currently listed as day-to-day, and was slated to meet with Oiler doctors at some point earlier on Wednesday. Gazdic is a fourth line winger that can best be described as an enforcer. He’s not going to do much of anything offensively, and isn’t a great defensive forward, but he can fight, likes getting physical, and is well liked in the locker room.

Personally, I’d send Gazdic down to the AHL for a two week conditioning stint, and then bring him in as the 13th forward for the team moving forward. It’s too bad, because he was hurt, but he’s lost his job to two much more effective forwards in Matt Hendricks and Jesse Joensuu. I could see a mid-November return to game action for Gaz.

Fasth:

The goalie suffered an injury back two weeks ago in Los Angeles after getting lit up in the early parts of a game against the Kings. Fasth injured his groin, and was forced to leave the game. He was quickly placed on the IR following the game, and has yet to be activated. He’s back skating, and is currently listed as day-to-day. He’s likely to meet with doctors soon, and could return to action as early as Saturday against Vancouver.

Fasth’s injury is one to keep an eye on, because he’s dealt with groin injuries before, and they took a chunk out of his season last year. Groin injuries can be something that reoccurs, and Edmonton can’t afford to lose a player like Fasth for an extended period of time. He’s a guy that is in a contract year and was expected to compete for the starting job against Ben Scrivens.

Previous injury concerns aside, this one was not major, and as mentioned above we are likely to see Fasth again relatively soon, which is good news for Edmonton. Ben Scrivens will need a rest eventually, and the Oilers have back-to-back games coming up soon.

Nikitin:

This injury, in my mind, is the one to pay the most attention too. Nikitin is a solid defender who has come to Edmonton and played the role of mentoring Justin Schultz and covering his mistakes. Yes, Nikitin has made his fair share of mistakes, but he’s still been pretty good for this hockey club, and has moved his way into a top-four role on the defense.

Nikitin injured his ankle in the pre-season, but eventually got over the injury in time to be ready for opening night. He was banged up and missed morning skate on Monday, then eventually missed the game Monday night. Word came down on Wednesday that Nikitin was suffering from a back injury, and that he wouldn’t be playing on Wednesday night either.

Nikitin underwent a MRI on Wednesday and the results are currently unknown at this time. Coach Dallas Eakins is hopeful that it is only a day-to-day kind of thing with Nikitin, and that they might be able to have him back for the club’s trip to the east coast starting on Tuesday in Philadelphia.

Nikitin’s back injury was rumored to be back spasms.

The Overall Thought:

Edmonton is about to get some players back from injury, in the form of an extra forward in Luke Gazdic and a back-up goaltender in Viktor Fasth. Fasth is clearly the more valuable piece here, and should be able to give Ben Scrivens a rest when the professor eventually cools down a little bit.

As for Nikitin, the extent of the injury is currently unknown. It’s too bad, because Nikitin is becoming a major part of Edmonton’s blue-line, and seemingly has established some chemistry with Justin Schultz. Hopefully the injury isn’t too severe here, and Nikitin can return to action either Saturday or Tuesday.

Edmonton is a better team, but still does not have a lot of depth. Avoiding injuries is going to be huge, so we should be keeping our eyes on the status of Nikitin in the coming days. The Oilers can only hold off so much with Brad Hunt for so long.

More injury info as it comes in.