Todd McLellan and his associates took the scissors to the training camp roster once again to trim the total remaining players to 33.
The Oilers assigned C Jere Sallinen to the Bakersfield Condors, LW Tyler Benson to the Vancouver Giants, and placed D Mark Fraser on waivers for the purpose of reassignment.
None of the moves come as any surprise, with Benson returning to junior following an injury, a poor performance from Mark Fraser and the lack of playing time for Jere Sallinen.
Sallinen played decent enough and can be used at any forward position. Those traits should have him on the list of call up options as the season goes on.
Mark Fraser will likely clear waivers before heading to Bakersfield where to role of the enforcer is still valuable. He will provide veteran leadership on an otherwise young blueline.
Tyler Benson struggled with injuries all of last season which likely attributed to his draft stock falling to the second round. It would have been nice to have been able to see the young star play, but hopefully he can stay healthy the rest of the way and lead the Giants to a long playoff run in the WHL.
INJURIES
The Oilers saw the all too familiar injuries on full display again last night against the Los Angeles Kings. Iiro Pakarinen will miss at least a month, and Brandon Davidson is currently day-to-day. Add that to the list of Oscar Klefbom (day-to-day) and Patrick Maroon (day-to-day) and the Oilers have some concerns.
However, with injuries come opportunities for other players.
REMAINING ROSTER
Goalies (3): Laurent Brossoit, Jonas Gustavsson, Cam Talbot
Defense (13): Andrej Sekera, Mark Fayne, Adam Larsson, Griffin Reinhart, Andrew Ference (LTIR), Darnell Nurse, Eric Gryba, Oscar Klefbom, Dillon Simpson, Jordan Oesterle, Matt Benning, and Brandon Davidson
Forwards (20): Nail Yakupov, Kris Versteeg, Jordan Eberle, Tyler Pitlick, Patrick Maroon, Matt Hendricks, Iiro Pakarinen, Milan Lucic, Leon Draisaitl, Drake Caggiula, Jesse Puljujarvi, Anton Slepyshev, Zack Kassian, Anton Lander, Mark Letestu, Benoit Pouliot, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Connor McDavid
The Oilers will still need to cut five defensemen (not including Andrew Ference), six forwards and one goaltender.
The training camp battles will go right down to the wire. I think Caggiula, Oesterle and Pitlick have done enough to make the big club out of camp, and that may mean the likes of Puljujarvi, Gryba, Benning and Slepyshev just fall short.
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