It appears Ty Emberson has the best shot at being Cody Ceci’s right-shot shutdown replacement, but the low-key Ceci’s three years as an Oiler defender left many good memories.
What will Leon Draisaitl miss with Ceci now in San Jose?
“His character,” said Draisaitl, who saw Ceci and his $3.25 million cap hit moved for the younger Emberson and his $950,000 in mid-August.
“Quiet guy, tremendous human being. On the ice he’s so steady, you know exactly what you’re getting every single night. He took great pride in playing for us, in killing (penalties), in defending, doing all the things that aren’t the most sexy or the most fun,” said Draisaitl.
“He was really, really good at it (defending with no fanfare). We’re, of course, going to miss him but it creates opportunities for others.”
Ceci was heart-broken like every other Oiler to lose Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final in Florida, but he was back training a month later.
“It’s more mentally exhausting because you are locked in for that long (playoffs),” Ceci told reporters in San Jose.
SPEED HAS MOVED ON
With the trade of centre Ryan McLeod to Buffalo, winger Warren Foegele signing a three-year free-agent contract (AAV $3.5 million) in Los Angeles and young Dylan Holloway moving to St. Louis with the unmatched offer sheet, the Oilers have lost three fast skaters from their forward group.
How will that change the Oilers team?
“One way of doing that is puck movement. The puck moves faster than anyone out there,” said Draisaitl. “We’ve got a good passing team and a lot of really smart hockey players who at times are smart enough to let the puck do the work.”
“Yeah, I’m not worried about it.”
McLeod will be centering the third line in Buffalo, Foegele has been playing right wing with centre Quinton Byfield and left-winger Kevin Fiala in LA and Holloway could be left wing on the third line with former Dallas centre Radek Faksa and winger Mathieu Joseph with the Blues.
SCOUTING PROPS
London Knights centre Sam O’Reilly isn’t making the Edmonton Oilers but 10 days into training camp, he set to play his fourth exhibition Saturday with Seattle Kraken here, a feat unto itself because while a first-round draft pick, O’Reilly, only 18, was the 32nd name called — the last one on the first night.
We’re not talking top 10.
This was a flier, and not because they traded with the Flyers.
It looks like a very smart draft-floor move by Oilers’ head of amateur scouting Rick Pracey and their president of hockey ops Jeff Jackson opting to give up their 2025 first-round pick to Philadelphia to secure O’Reilly with just the one OHL junior season (68 games, 56 points) to his credit.
The suspicion is the Oilers were worried that San Jose, picking first in the second round, might take the O’Reilly, so traded with Philly.
“I don’t think there’s been a time I was saying ‘oh, he’s out of position or he doesn’t know where to be or he doesn’t read what’s going on at the NHL level,’’’ said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch, who will put O’Reilly in between Vasily Podkolzin and Corey Perry in the Seattle game.
O’Reilly has only missed one London Knights’ junior game so it’s not like their GM Mark Hunter and brother-coach Dale Hunter have been on the phone to Oilers GM Stan Bowman twisting the Oilers’ arm for his return. But O’Reilly figures to a key piece for the Knights, who won the OHL championship last season.
This ‘n that
Mike Hoffman can’t complain about his camp tryout. He’s getting game looks, even if in Group B (prospects, farmhands) for practices this week. He was slated to play right wing with Derek Ryan and Raphael Lavoie for the Kraken game.
Same story with Travis Dermott on D. He will be partnered with Troy Stecher for Saturday’s game.
As Oilers chief amateur scout Bob Green surmised earlier this week, winger Connor Clattenburg, who opened eyes with his never-ending aggressive attitude in Oilers camp, has been named Flint’s OHL junior captain.
Clattenburg, 19, a fifth-round draft pick, got the C from Flint coach Paul Flache, who once-upon-a-time (2000) was also a fifth-round Oilers draft pick defenceman. Flache never played for them.
Seattle is one of two NHL teams (Utah is the other) without a captain. It could be one of the two ex Oilers — winger Jordan Eberle, 34, or top pairing D Adam Larsson, who just signed a four-year extension.
Bakersfield opens it’s training camp on Monday and so far, Oilers have dispatched 12 forwards from their camp to their AHL affiliate (Matvey Petrov, Max Wanner, Noel Hoefenmayer, Jayden Grubbe, James Stefan, Cameron Wright, Evan de Jong, Connor Corcoran, Alex Kannok-Leipert, Jasper Weatherby and goalies Connor Ungar and Brett Brochu. Expect more players heading to the Condors after Saturday’s game.
Interesting dynamic in Oiler second-round draft pick goalie Eemil Vinni’s journey. The 18-year-old Vinni is now playing in the second-tier Finnish Mestis League for Jokipojat and his net partner is Jussi Markkanen’s son Juho, the former Los Angeles Kings’ draft pick, who was born in Edmonton in 2002. Jussi is general manager and part-owner of the Finnish Elite League SaiPa team in Lappeenranta.
William Nicholl, the other London junior taken in this June’s draft, returned his OHL club after camp and had three points in the loss to Flint.
Former Oilers forward Kailer Yamamoto, who has playing with Utah’s first-round pick Cole Beaudoin and fellow small winger Michael Carcone, in exhibition games, didn’t sign his PTO there until Sept. 10. He may have had European contract offers over the summer but balked at those. He isn’t ready to give up on his NHL journey. Yamamoto realistically has to add more layers to his game, though, to stick in the NHL. He probably has to learn how to be an effective penalty-killer if he’s a fourth-liner. Being a tryout player is no fun.
“I’m not on the roster yet so there’s more nerves, more pressure,” said Yamamoto, in a Utah radio interview.
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