Edmonton Oilers call up a small army of AHL players, as Kane and Henrique out from practice again
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This in from TSN’s Ryan Rishaug, news that for the second day in a row Evander Kane and Adam Henrique are not on the ice for Edmonton’s practice.
Noted Rishaug: “Knoblauch said yesterday they were taking maintenance days.”
At the same time, the Oilers have added to their Bakersfield call-ups, bringing in Lane Pederson, Adam Erne, Raphael Lavoie, Cam Dineen, Ben Gleason, Phil Kemp and Olivier Rodrigue. Sam Gagner, Philip Broberg and Jack Campbell are already here.
My take
1. Edmonton has solid depth up front and in net for the playoffs, perhaps not so much on defence, though Philip Broberg was last seen crushing it in the AHL for Bakersield. He and Troy Stecher are the first two candidates if an Oilers regular d-man were to go out. Ben Gleason has also shown he can hang in there against NHL competition.
2. At forward, the Oilers have three seasoned veterans in Connor Brown, Sam Carrick and Sam Gagner ready to go in case of injury, so there’s plenty of depth there. All three had solid games for the Oilers, with Brown coming on strong as the season progressed.
3. In net, both Campbell and Rodgrique were strong-to-excellent for the Condors, so the cupboard is not bare here if Stuart Skinner and/or Calvin Pickard were to be side-line. Vancouver was down to its third-string goalie, Arturs Silovs, in beating Nashville.
4. Not included in the call-up were James Hamblin, who has held his own as an Oiler in short runs this year and last year, and former NHLers Seth Griffin and Drake Caggilua. Nor was first round pick Xavier Bourgault called up, as his AHL performance this past year was inconistent.
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