Edmonton Oilers Place Caggiula on Injured Reserve, Recall Malone

The Edmonton Oilers have placed forward Drake Caggiula on the injured reserve and recalled forward Brad Malone from the Bakersfield Condors, the team announced Sunday.

Caggiula has played in two games so far this season and hasn’t recorded a point. He last played on Oct. 7 in the Oilers’ 3-2 loss to Vancouver and suffered an undisclosed injury. The severity of the injury is unknown at this time, as is the timetable on his return.

Edmonton Oilers

Along with Caggiula, Leon Draisaitl is out of the lineup with concussion-type symptoms following a hit from Jacob Trouba in the team’s 5-2  loss to Winnipeg Monday. Moving into these next few games, the team will have to cope with two of their big-name players shelved with injuries.

Malone had a strong performance with Edmonton in the preseason and has two goals and three points in three games with the Condors so far this year. He last played in the NHL during the 2015-16 campaign with the Carolina Hurricanes, where he registered two goals, six points and 75 PIM in 57 games.

The 6-foot-1, 213-pound centre will be expected to compete for one of the Oilers’ current vacancies while also bringing his ability and edge to the lineup. He is a big, physical winger who can add a lot of grit and aggression to the forecheck.

Though his scoring hasn’t translated well to the NHL level over the years, he will likely bring something new to the table, and can also help backcheck. Plus, Edmonton needs more competitiveness on their forward lines, and could also use another centre to have on the bottom-six, especially with Caggiula and Draisaitl drawing out. Not only that, his style of play could fit in well on the main roster, and the team could start to see more results.

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The Oilers are 1-3 to start the season and haven’t seen much production or offensive effort from all of their forward lines. Moving forward, they need to see more shots on goal and more dominance in the offensive zone. And with two strong players out of the lineup, Malone will need to be one player who steps up to the plate.