The Edmonton Oilers are going through some minor injury troubles. With the exception of Evander Kane who’s been out long-term, a handful of Oilers have missed time in the season. Of course, there was Connor McDavid’s injury where he miraculously returned well ahead of schedule, Viktor Arvidsson’s been day-to-day and has missed the last two games, and now it looks like Darnell Nurse may miss time with his hit to the head from Ryan Reaves.
Oilers recall Josh Brown
While Nurse’s injury wasn’t too serious, it looks like the Oilers may be taking precautionary measures with their roster with their latest transaction being recalling defenceman Josh Brown from the Bakersfield Condors.
The Oilers have recalled defenceman Josh Brown from the @Condors.
@EdmontonOilers on X
Instant analysis of Brown recall
This move doesn’t exactly make sense for the Oilers as there are better options on the Condors blueline at the moment. Brown has featured in 12 AHL games and had a scoreline of zero goals and two assists. He’s been held scoreless until his latest game on Saturday night where he posted two assists.
While his utilisation at the NHL by the Oilers is yet to be known, one thing is certain: he won’t be eating up a bunch of minutes on the blueline. The Oilers will likely turn to Brett Kulak, Troy Stecher, and Ty Emberson as more probable candidates to give more ice time to if Nurse is to miss time.
The only “upside” to re-calling Brown is that he might bring some fighting prowess into the Oilers’ lineup if he slots in, but this is not the solution the Oilers need for their blueline. Brown did not have a good preseason with the Oilers and sending him to the AHL was very much performance-based. His play in the AHL hasn’t stood out in ways that merit a recall, so it does raise the question of what the Oilers are thinking here.
Does Brown come in as a big-body deterrent so the team doesn’t get roughed up? Other players would have provided either more offence or better defence, but the team elected to go with Brown as the call-up.
The Oilers wrap up their quick three-game Eastern Canada road trip with a back-to-back, first against the Montreal Canadiens on Monday followed by the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.
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