Edmonton Oilers depth chart: How the roster is shaping up for preseason
EDMONTON — The Edmonton Oilers management team and coaching staff enter Sunday's preseason opener against the Winnipeg Jets with few question marks pertaining to the roster.
The top nine isn't exactly set in stone, but the players currently occupying those spots are all locks to make the team. Four defencemen are slotted in exactly where they're expected to start the season. The goaltending tandem of Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard has been written in ink.
There really isn't much to quibble about. It's just about ironing out the details.
Let's begin up front.
Barring injury, all that's left to determine with the top three lines is if they need to be tweaked. Should Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jeff Skinner be flipped? Should Nugent-Hopkins and Adam Henrique switch? Do RNH and Leon Draisaitl simply trade places if coach Kris Knoblauch wants to load up with Draisaitl and Connor McDavid together for an extended period?
Then we get to the fourth line, which lacks an identity. There's the pesky Corey Perry , who's plodding at this point in his career yet still has some offensive chops. There's the youngster Vasily Podkolzin , 23, who's been inconsistent in the NHL but could still have some untapped potential. And there's the versatile Derek Ryan , who's an undersized and respected veteran.
All three players should break camp with the team. Perry would have to have a disastrous next couple of weeks not to make it. The Oilers don't re-sign Perry — and he doesn't choose to come back — for him not to be in the NHL. Podkolzin was acquired last month, and new GM Stan Bowman relinquished a fourth-round pick to get him. He needs to be put on waivers for an AHL assignment now, so it's unlikely the Oilers will tempt fate and expose him. Though there are other centre options behind Ryan, he just played 19 of the team's 25 playoff games and was one of their most relied-upon penalty killers last season.
There are still players to watch.
At centre, James Hamblin appeared in 31 games for Edmonton last season, Lane Pederson was the top pivot for AHL Bakersfield and Noah Philp made huge inroads with the organization in 2022-23 before setting away for a year for personal reasons.
Perhaps just as intriguing to watch is what happens with a trio of wingers — Matt Savoie , Raphael Lavoie and Mike Hoffman . Savoie and Lavoie have flanked Pederson to start camp.
Savoie was the return in the Ryan McLeod trade in July and is the team's best prospect. Because he doesn't require waivers to be sent to Bakersfield, it's all but a certainty he'll start the season there. Don't be surprised if he gets time at centre in the minors, a position he's largely played to this point, to make his game more well-rounded. The organizational view of him is that he projects as a winger and a finisher at the NHL level.
Lavoie will have to show better than he did last camp to have a real chance to make the team. There was a lot of angst about the Oilers waiving Lavoie after the preseason ended, especially after his outstanding second half in the AHL in the previous campaign. Of course, he went unclaimed. A year older (he turns 24 next week), the odds of Lavoie being nabbed by another team only decrease with a so-so exhibition showing.
Hoffman is at camp on a tryout. He's in black here and the league minimum salary is used by default. He'll likely need an injury or two in the top nine to get a contract.
The Oilers can keep an extra forward unless they're befallen by injury because they have cap space — a little more than $945,000, per PuckPedia. That's with 13 forwards (including the injured Evander Kane ), seven defencemen and two goalies. An outstanding showing over the next couple of weeks by a fringe player — particularly someone requiring waivers — could move the needle toward keeping 14 forwards (again, including Kane).
Depth and quality are abundant among the forward ranks, notably in the top nine. But there's less flexibility than there was last season without McLeod, Warren Foegele and Dylan Holloway . All three of those players could play multiple positions and Holloway got reps at centre in addition to both wings.
In their places, the Oilers added three pure wingers in Skinner, Viktor Arvidsson and Podkolzin. They all have experience on their off wings but seem destined to play their strong sides.
This leaves the Oilers with Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins, Henrique and Ryan as those who can regularly be shuffled to and from centre and wing. Mattias Janmark can also play up the middle in a pinch.
On defence, Mattias Ekholm , Darnell Nurse and Brett Kulak will make up the left side in that order, whereas Evan Bouchard 's spot as the top righty next to Ekholm is secured. Nurse and Kulak just need their partners determined.
The right side of the blue line was arguably the most highly scrutinized position last season. That remains the case after the departures of Cody Ceci , Vincent Desharnais and Philip Broberg .
Ty Emberson and Josh Brown have gotten the assignments next to Nurse and Kulak, respectively — at least for now. Emberson, acquired from San Jose for Ceci last month, has been tabbed for the plum gig beside Nurse for his skating, defending and puck-moving abilities despite having just 30 games of NHL experience. Journeyman Troy Stecher is viewed as a secondary option in that role. Brown, meanwhile, is seen as the Desharnais replacement as a physical presence and PK option.
Travis Dermott is also at camp on a PTO and, like Hoffman, is listed here in black with the NHL minimum salary. There isn't an obvious spot for Dermott if everyone is healthy, but his ability to play both sides should keep him in the mix deep into camp and potentially leave management with a tough decision on whether to sign him.
