This in from Edmonton Oilers insider Bob Stauffer of Oilers Now, the line-up for tonight’s game against Seattle:
RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Podkolzin-O’Reilly-Perry
Lavoie-Ryan-Hoffman
Pederson-Philp-Savoie
Ekholm-Bouchard
Dermott-Stecher
Gleason-Kemp
Pickard
Rodrigue
My take
1. There might be one or two jobs open for Edmonton Oilers forwards, and there are most definitely one job open on defence, most likely two.
2. Travis Dermott, Troy Stecher, Ben Gleason, Phil Kemp, Josh Brown, Connor Carrick are all in the running for those jobs on defence. I’d suggest there’s also a job open in the Top 4 on defence, but d-man coach Paul Coffey has now openly talked about Ty Emberson having that spot, and based on his play against Winnipeg, Emberson is ready for this test.
3. At forward, Derek Ryan is the likely player to win the the fourth line centre job but Noah Philp is making a hard push. If the carry an extra forward, Philp and James Hamblin would be the front-runners, though it’s likely the Oilers would prefer to have Philp playing regularly, which would mean the job of 13th forward isn’t best suited to his development path.
Staples on politics
At the Cult of Hockey
McCURDY: Preseason shifts into over-drive
McCURDY: The axe falls on a dozen as Oil make first round of cuts
McCURDY: Review of the dreaded “Winnipeg game”
STAPLES: Oilers defence is both terrific and terrible