After a significantly-shortened training camp, the Edmonton Oilers have announced their opening-night roster. This comes ahead of tonight’s opener against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Place. The Oilers went unbeaten in preseason action for the first time in franchise history.
Three forwards and a defenceman begin on IR
Right away, what stands out is that the roster contains 16 forwards and 10 defencemen. Part of that is due to the face that, as expected, the Oilers will kick the season off with a few guys unavailable. Frederik Anderson, in net, had been the most obvious, but now we have a clearer picture for the others.
Matt Savoie was an expected name to see, and it became obvious in recent days that Jason Dickinson would join him on the shelf. Neither Mattias Janmark nor Alec Regula are ready to go, either. The former two, however, will be the biggest challenges to overcome.
Injuries notwithstanding, that’s still 22 skaters being carried. In previous seasons, 22 was an entire roster for most teams. There’s a lot of subtle differences about this NHL season than seasons past.
The 20 that are likely to dress tonight won’t include Nuge
Based off of what we were seeing yesterday, this seems to be a solid guess as to how the Oilers will line up against Vancouver tonight. This is from yesterday’s practice, with extras listed as bottom pairs.
Just as this observer was musing about the rhyme and reasoning, it’s announced that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will be an edit made, as he’s out due to a lower-body injury. That’s not great news at all, unless you’re Max Jones because you’ll now get to play tonight. It’ll be interesting to see if Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl start on the same line after all, in light of this news.
If McDavid and Draisaitl stay together, expect Kapanen to possibly move over to centre. He has played for Head Coach Mike Babcock before, and probably holds enough trust to move to the 2C slot in a pinch. The wingers would then move up accordingly.
Michaels and Leppänen the surprises of training camp
If the Oilers were going to carry an extra forward and defenceman, it would have been logical to guess names like Connor Clattenburg and Josh Brown. Both do have NHL experience, and Clattenburg especially received praise from Babcock. But as they say, this is why you play the games– preseason, in this case.
Atro Leppänen and Owen Michaels put together impressive showings at camp, and have now been rewarded. Leppänen is listed as “injured/non-roster,” which is curious. Not sure if Owen Michaels will play, but it would be epic to finally hear Jack Michaels call a Michaels playing for the Oilers.
Either way, that’s a special moment for both skaters. Congrats to them!
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