Oilers Wednesday Morning Randoms

The Oilers looked strong in a pair of Monday night wins, beating the Flames 4-2 in Edmonton and 2-1 in Calgary. Tonight, they travel to Vancouver to battle the Canucks, a team that played last night in San Jose against the Sharks to kickoff their preseason slate.

I’m not concerned about wins and losses in the preseason, but I am interested in seeing how certain things play out. While we don’t yet know the lineup that will battle the Canucks, I’m intrigued to see Lucic-McDavid-Eberle and Pouliot-RNH-Puljujarvi in game action. I’m not sure we’ll get either line tonight.

I also think Kris Versteeg looked very strong on Monday and I believe he is inching closer to a contract for the season. He had a great finish on his goal and he was buzzing all night long. I know footspeed was a concern going into camp for some people, but he looked a-okay to me.

Ryan Vesce, who I touched on here and who Lowetide talked about here, is also pushing and might make things interesting. I’m very interested in seeing him again as this preseason rolls along.

Ice Time A Tell:

While we don’t know for sure how Edmonton’s defensive pairings will play out this season because Andrej Sekera is still at the World Cup, we did get a few hints on Monday night from the organization. We saw the Larson-Klefbom pairing anchor things down in Edmonton and we saw a youngster get a large role in Calgary.

It wasn’t a surprise to see Adam Larsson lead the Oilers in TOI in the Edmonton game, logging 24:08 on the top pairing. To my eye, Larsson looked extremely solid, making the smart play throughout the night and handling defensive zone situations quite well. Preseason opener, but he looked good.

Oscar Klefbom played 22:11 and looked fast, which is an awesome sign after last year’s foot infection. While there likely will be a period before Klefbom is back on his A-game, he looked really strong on Monday and doesn’t look like he lost a step at all. His transition game was tremendous for the Oilers.

Interesting that Matt Benning registered 21:36 on the night and picked up an assist on the powerplay. Still don’t think he makes the roster out of camp, but the Oilers clearly like him.

Here’s the number that stunned me on Monday night. Darnell Nurse led all Oilers in TOI by playing 28:01 (!!) in Calgary. That’s an absurdly high number for a defender who, at this stage, is best suited for third pairing action during his sophomore season. This also came against a much, much stronger Flames lineup than the one that traveled to Edmonton.

Nurse logged 5:14 on the PK, but maybe more interestingly he played 3:46 on the PP. For a player with limited offensive ability, that’s a rather hefty chunk of time on the man advantage.

He wasn’t terrible on the night, but Nurse did look a bit overwhelmed with those minutes from what I saw. I’d hope Edmonton tones it down a bit with him and let’s him play a little further down the lineup while he develops.

That said, it’s quite clear that this organization values Nurse quite a bit and is expecting him to take a step forward this season. There’s no doubt, at least from this angle, that Todd McLellan expects him on his roster come October 12th. There’s no other explanation for that ice time unless the team is showcasing him for someone like, oh I don’t know, Jacob Trouba?

Brandon Davidson played 22:46 and saw 3:56 on the PP. Maybe the Oil let him use his big shot from the point this year on the man advantage? There is no other clear answer to that position on the roster as we speak.

Seven Cut:

Jon McLeod touched on it yesterday here, but the Oilers made seven more cuts to their preseason roster. This came just days after Dylan Wells (OHL), Kevan Bouchard (released) and Kayle Doetzel (released) were sent packing.

AHL-only players such as Frankie Simonelli, Joey Benik, Scott Allen and Jaedon Descheneau were assigned to Bakersfield, while Caleb Jones (WHL), Ethan Bear (WHL) and Markus Niemelainen (OHL) were returned to their junior clubs.

I don’t think Allen or Simonelli have much of a future in terms of NHL hopes with this club, but I’ll be interested in watching the other two at the AHL level this year. Benik was a strong college player and had a pretty solid rookie camp. Personally, I wouldn’t be shocked if he earned an entry-level deal in the coming year.

Descheneau is a little known player, but he’s very talented. Before injuries struck, he posted strong offensive numbers in the WHL. He may not pan out, but the Oilers are gambling on a very skilled player here and he’ll be worth watching as a result.

As for the CHL’ers, Jones and Bear both have big years ahead of them. They both dominated the WHL last year and took massive strides, but they can’t get complacent. If both of them can build on last season with strong junior years and then AHL tryouts in April, I suspect we’ll see both last deeper into camp next year.

Interesting that neither played a preseason game last season but got into the first one this year before heading to juniors.

From this angle, these cuts bring the roster down to a much more manageable number, and I wouldn’t be shocked if more came on Thursday after tonight’s game in Vancouver. Todd McLellan appears interested in getting his NHL guys more reps than junior players, and I’m on-board with that decision.