Rookie Camp Roster Announced

The Edmonton Oilers gave us a piece of news on this late August day. It’s not huge news, but it’s better than no news right? The Oilers rookie camp, young stars tournament and game against the U of A is right around the corner, and we now know who will be tugging on the orange and blue for those events.

The Oilers announced on Wednesday the complete roster that will be going to Penticton BC at the start of September for three games. The roster is as follows:

FORWARDS:

1. RW: Cam Abney
2. LW Brandon Baddock (invite)
3. RW Ty Bilcke (invite)
4. C Greg Chase
5. C Travis Ewanyk
6. LW Austin Fyten (AHL contract)
7. RW Jackson Houck
8. LW Kale Kessy
9. LW Jujhar Khaira
10. C Andrew Miller
11. LW Mitch Moroz
12. C Reid Petryk (invite)
13. RW Kyle Platzer
14. RW Marco Roy
15. C Chase Schaber (invite)

DEFENDERS:

1. Ben Betker
2. Brandon Davidson
3. Martin Gernat
4. Oscar Klefbom
5. Joey Leach (AHL contract)
6. Martin Marincin
7. David Musil
8. Darnell Nurse

GOALTENDERS:

1. Tyler Bunz
2. Philippe Cadorette (invite)
3. Ty Rimmer (invite)
4. Franky Palazzese (invite)

Thoughts: Overall, there are a lot of good things to like about this Oilers rookie team. The obvious strength is the blue-line. Martin Marincin is close to NHL ready and should easily dominate and be the best defender at this tournament. Oscar Klefbom will be using this tourney to prepare for camp and to get back into game shape after last year’s injury. That said, we should see Klefbom star at this event.

Darnell Nurse might not play a huge role on this team due to the depth on the blue-line, but he should still get some chances. Nurse, outside of Klefbom, is the most interesting player to watch from an Oilers perspective here. Brandon Davidson will be interesting as well, he is coming off of a roller-coaster 2012-13 season, and should be energized and ready to go. David Musil and Martin Gernat will be fighting for time too, while AHL’er Joey Leach makes the trip as well.

Up front, there aren’t many sure things. Andrew Miller should dominate the tournament, while forwards Marco Roy, Jujhar Khaira, Greg Chase, Jackson Houck and Travis Ewanyk will be worth watching and should be good enough to score enough goals in front of this solid defense.

There aren’t many sure things up front, but there is some potential here for the young forwards on this roster. The real question comes in net. Tyler Bunz had a brutal season last year and ended the year with some concussion issues. He’s been disappointing so far, but he should be motivated this coming year. After Bunz, the Oilers have three invites coming to the camp, and none of them appear to really have NHL potential. The most interesting one, in my mind, is Palazzese.

It will be interesting to see these young players in action, and how they will be used. There isn’t a Taylor Hall or a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in this group, but there are still some really good prospects worth watching.

The action starts up on September 5th against the Calgary Flames. Soon my friends, soon we will have hockey.