With the calendar winding down on preseason, Edmonton Oilers announced more player cuts on Sunday afternoon, releasing five players in four different ways.
C Sam O’Reilly
The youngster made a very strong first impression, playing no fewer than seven games including all three in the Penticton tournamnet and the maximum four possible in the preseason to this point. It always made sense that he would play the majority of his games early on so he could be returned to London Knights as expediently as possible.
In his four appearances O’Reilly played a few ticks under a full hour against a creole of NHL players, experienced minor pros, and fellow under-agers and performed well. He scored a terrific goal on just his second shift, fired 5 shots on net and drew 2 penalties. He had his struggles on the dot (21/55=38%) and 7 official giveaways, neither of which is too surprising for an 18-year-old playing against men. The Oilers #2 prospect on the Cult of Hockey summer rankings was always expected to return to major junior; perhaps the only surprise is that he is doing so without a contract in his hip pocket just yet but don’t be surprised if that comes sooner than later.
F Matt Savoie
He played the same 7 games as did O’Reilly, with similar results: one point in Penticton, one point in 4 NHL preseason games (an overtime assist vs. the Jets). He showed flashes of the talent that made him a top-10 draft pick not to mention Edmonton’s #1 prospect, but not enough of them to insert himself into the conversation to make the big club. The first-year pro is waivers-exempt for this and two more years, and the likeliest path always had him spending time in the AHL to make the transition.
D Cam Dineen
He’s the guy who scored that OT winner against the Jets a week ago today, and can be seen celebrating it with Savoie in the feature image up top in what was for both, the highlight of camp. Dineen is a solid minor league pro but it’s not surprising that he got caught in the numbers game. In three games he scored a goal and an assist and generally showed pretty well. The 26-year-old blueliner is subject to waivers, and technically will have to clear them before reporting to the Condors. The chances of him being claimed are vanishingly small.
D Connor Carrick
Same applies to Carrick, a 30-year-old right shot defender who was signed for organizational depth on Jul 01. He was OK in 2 games (0-1-1) but like Dineen always in deep against the likes of new Oilers Ty Emberson, Joshua Brown, and Troy Stecher who remain the favourites to win the three available jobs on the back end. For now, veteran Condors Ben Gleason and Philip Kemp survive as does PTO Travis Dermott; barring injury, those three are outsiders to make the team but they are still here with likely one more game to play.
RW Seth Griffith
He was the only player specifically on a minor league contract to survive the first wave of pro cuts, though he never did get another game beyond the 2 he had already played when those cuts were made. His preseason was a forgettable one, with boxcars of 0-0-0, -4 in just 25 minutes of action. He won’t need waivers as he doesn’t have an NHL contract to waive.
With today’s cuts, the Oilers have 32 healthy bodies left in camp, including 18 forwards, 10 defencemen, and 4 goalies.
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