Sunday morning, the Edmonton Oilers announced three more players that were placed on waivers. Raphael Lavoie, Lane Pederson, and Ben Gleason have been waived in what should be the final round of roster moves before the team can submit their official roster by the 5 PM EST deadline on Monday.
The submitted roster is not necessarily representative of who will be on the ice on Wednesday night’s season opener against Vancouver Canucks, however it’s easy to read between the lines.
No pun intended.
What these moves mean for the Edmonton Oilers opening night roster
Although it may seem shocking to see Lavoie on waivers after it was anticipated he’d make the team for the season, there is a high likelihood that this is a paper transaction for the Oilers to be able to submit a cap compliant roster for the previously mentioned deadline.
He still has the ability to be placed on the opening night roster, if the team has cap space to do so and he isn’t claimed first.
Gleason had a very strong showing through the preseason and almost made the team, but was passed over in favour of Markus Niemelainen, who the Oilers a bit more familiar with. He should be the first player called up, however, if the need were to arise.
It is notable that the Oilers are submitting a roster with 11 forwards and eight defenders, as both Niemelainen and Philip Broberg have made this roster submission since they were not placed on waivers today.
However, shortly after the team released the news of the players placed on waivers, we learned that Niemelainen is currently injured. This impacts what the Oilers can do with their roster submissions here, as he is not able to be sent to the AHL while injured and is not eligible for season opening IR, so his cap hit counts to Edmonton’s cap.
Mattias Ekholm missed the entire preseason dealing with a hip flexor injury, leaving his opening night status a massive question mark. Is the composition of this roster purely cap related, or is it representative of an injury that will keep last season’s prized trade deadline acquisition out of the lineup for a period of time?
We will soon know tomorrow what his status will be, whether good or bad, but for now the team waits 24 hours to see what will happen with these three players; mainly Lavoie.
3 Comments