With only two preseason matchups (including tonight’s) before the Oilers season opens on Oct. 12 against the Calgary Flames, it is down to crunch time for players on the cusp of making the roster.
Yesterday, the team reassigned Jordan Oesterle, Dillon Simpson and Laurent Brossoit to the Bakersfield Condors leaving the training camp roster at 30 players. 18 forwards, 10 defencemen and two goaltenders remain competing for the 23 spots on the NHL roster.
Right now, the battles in camp are coming down to the bottom-six, as well as the bottom pairing of the defense. Kris Versteeg and Eric Gryba are both on PTO’s and fighting for some of the final spots on the team.
Versteeg has a groin injury and will be out for at least a week, while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has come down with the flu and won’t be in the lineup.
Earlier today, rumors began swirling of a potential trade involving Nail Yakupov and the Chicago Blackhawks. Megan Fowler took a look at the potential deal in an article here.
Tonight, the Oilers will need to key on their penalty kill, which only killed off one of the team’s five penalties in their Sept. 30 preseason game. The Jets have won four in a row, and have outscored their opponents 17-4 in thanks to their super hot fire powerplay, which is 9 for 21 (42.9%) in those games.
The Lines
Edmonton:
Milan Lucic – Connor McDavid – Jordan Eberle
Benoit Pouliot – Leon Draisaitl – Jesse Puljujarvi
Patrick Maroon – Drake Caggiula – Nail Yakupov
Tyler Pitlick – Mark Letestu – Zack Kassian
Oscar Klefbom – Adam Larsson
Andrej Sekera – Matt Benning
Griffin Reinhart – Eric Gryba
Jonas Gustavsson
Jets:
Patrik Laine – Bryan Little – Joel Armia
Kyle Connor – Mathieu Perreault – Alexander Burmistrov
Brandon Tanev – Adam Lowry – Chris Thorburn
Chase De Leo – Andrew Copp – Anthony Peluso
Josh Morrissey – Dustin Byfuglien
Ben Chiarot – Tyler Myers
Mark Stuart – Paul Postma
Connor Hellebuyck
Predictions
After being embarrassed by the Jets earlier in the preseason, I would imagine that the Oilers will want to get some redemption. The Oilers have only got two preseason games remaining, so there is little time left for players to impress. I would imagine that following tonight’s matchup, the team will trim their roster to get closer to the 23-man limit.
In my opinion, this has been one of the most well run camps in recent history. Credit to Todd McLellan, Peter Chiarelli and co. for not shying away from trimming their roster and keeping the most competitive players in Edmonton.
This will pay dividends as the season begins.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
