So with Connor McDavid hurt, and as of now no medical update on his left leg injury, the Edmonton Oilers have called up, not one, but two players from the farm.
Centre Noah Philp, the surprise of training camp, and Drake Caggiula, who hung around until the last cuts before the season opener against the Winnipeg Jets, have both been summoned from Bakersfield. At least one of the AHL forwards will suit up in Nashville Thursday, and maybe both, if head coach Kris Knoblauch, who has been carrying just 12 forwards, decides to take out one of his bottom six players.
Philp, 26, who took last season off after one pro year in Bakersfield, and stunningly did enough in camp to make the Oilers but for salary cap reasons and uncertainty with how much he would play, was sent to the farm team. But he always seemed the most logical first call-up forward. The right-shot centre who played at the University of Alberta before signing as a free-agent deal with the Oilers, has two goals and an assist in six games there, playing with Matthew Savoie and Caggiula on a line.
Caggiula last played in the NHL March 2, 2023 for Pittburgh Penguins, a road game in Tampa — one of his four games that 2022-23 season. One of those games was here against the Oilers, on Oct. 24, 2022, the team he originally signed with out of the University of North Dakota in 2016, when Peter Chiarelli was the team GM.
Caggiula played 146 games with the Oilers, then was traded to Chicago just after Christmas in 2018, for defenceman Brandon Manning, which always seemed a tough sell because it was Manning who had taken McDavid hard into the end boards in 2015, with 97 breaking his collarbone, when Manning was playing for Philadelphia.
Caggiula has bounced around from the Hawks to Arizona to Buffalo to Pittsburgh and now back with the Oilers organization. He signed a two-year free-agent deal in 2023, broke his hand in Bakersfield last season but still had 37 points in 43 games. With the five points this month in the AHL, he has 42 points in 48 games on the farm team.
“Drake’s been very good for us. Lots of energy and he gets after the puck,” said Keith Gretzky, the Oilers assistant GM who looks after the farm team. “Both Drake and Noah have been used on the PK and the PP with us.”
Philp and Caggiula could suit up on the fourth line against the Predators, maybe with Corey Perry. If one of the healthy bottom-six forwards comes out, it could be centre Derek Ryan, who was minus-3 in the 6-1 loss in Columbus Monday. He doesn’t have a point in 10 games.
McDavid slid hard into the boards with his left skate on his first shift in Columbus and flew home Tuesday for evaluation of his injury. It appeared he may have hurt his ankle on the play when tripped by Zach Werenski. Best-case scenario, it’s only a sprain if it’s his ankle.
This ‘n that: Gretzky said Roby Jarventie, the winger the Oilers got from Ottawa for Xavier Bourgault, might play his first Bakersfield game this weekend. He missed all of the Oilers training camp with a knee issue. Bourgault has been playing for Senators’ farm team in Belleville … Savoie is second in points on the Oilers farm team, with four.