OSHAWA, CANADA - FEBRUARY 26: Dylan Roobroeck #25 of the Oshawa Generals protects the puck from Brady Stonehouse #17 of the Ottawa 67's during the third period at Tribute Communities Centre on February 26, 2023 in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Chris Tanouye/Getty Images)
At forward there weren’t any real surprises on the Edmonton Oilers roster in terms of who was there, more who wasn’t there.
Let’s start with the former.
Connor Brown started the season on Connor McDavid’s line as expected with Evander Kane on the port side.
Related. Line Combos. light
That left Hyman and Nuge to wing it up on Draisaitl’s line.
Dylan Holloway started game one on the third line with Ryan Mcleod and Mclovin after spending all of last season moving up and down between the third and fourth lines all season long.
That left Mattias Janmark and Derek Ryan to form part of a fourth line with Nuge being double-shifted to center them at least for game one.
The Oilers are a couple of forwards short of a full roster due to their cap situation – another way in which Ken Holland continues to surprise me by thinking outside the box.
The only surprise to me is Raphael Lavoie wasn’t on the opening night roster. He had a good camp and was one of the last three cuts, but ultimately the Oilers only have $395,000 in cap space to start the season so they couldn’t afford to keep him on the roster despite the fact that he probably deserved to be there.
Lavoie will go down once again to Bakersfield and unless he absolutely bombs it there will likely have status now as the first call-up in case of injuries to the forward ranks.
Dylan Holloway left the game last night with about 10 minutes to play after getting an injury blocking a shot. He was ranked as the best forward on the ice last night by the Journal so hopefully no harm no foul for Saturday’s rematch against the Canucks.
No official word on what happened to the two PTO players remaining in camp, Adam Erne and Sam Gagner. Gagner could be signed to an AHL-only contract and then have it upgraded whenever we need him here. As for Erne? Hard to say. He didn’t earn an upgrade in his contract with his training camp as he never really stood out.
Oilers Back End
On D it was a little more significant. Evan Bouchard moved up to the first pairing as some were saying he would during preseason, which moved Cody Ceci down to the second pairing. But that’s as far down as Ceci went.
This explains to me why Brett Kulak – or anyone else – wasn’t traded before the start of the regular season despite the fact there is a glut of players at left D now.
Kulak drew in on the second pairing with Mattias Ekholm still out, which meant that Broberg drew in on the third pairing.
I wouldn’t read too much into last night’s game going forward as everyone on the team laid an egg and no one was really any good.
Hopefully, Ekholm comes back soon which will then force Holland to trade someone to clear up some cap space for us. If I were him I’d call up definitely Lavoie and maybe Ben Gleason too after cap space is freed up just so we have some guys pushing other players for ice time.
Gleason at this point has earned himself first callup honors just like Lavoie unless he absolutely bombs in Bakersfield.
Between the pipes, you have the two players you’d expect to see in Soup (Jack Campbell) and Stew (Stuart Skinner). Calvin Pickard looks to be an AHL bubble player for the rest of his career so he’ll probably never earn a roster spot permanently with the Oilers. Neither of the prospect goalies, Olivier Rodrigue or Ryan Fanti, are ready to push for an NHL spot yet.
There was a bit of rhubarb going around that the Oilers were going to lose either Lavoie or Gleason as both had to clear waivers to go down to Bakersfield, but IMO this was always overblown as every team has players like this on their roster – on the cusp of prime time but not quite ready for one reason or another. Unsurprisingly to me, both along with the other cut in camp – Lane Pederson – all cleared waivers.
Stonehouse got an invite to the Oilers camp despite the fact he went undrafted by every NHL team this past season and had put up 37 goals and 57 points in 68 games for the Ottawa 67s of the OHL.
Until you look at his size and see that he is 5’1″ and 192 lbs, so he’s much shorter than most NHL players, sort of like a heavier version of ex-Oiler Kailer Yamamoto.
But there’s no doubt that Stonehouse has potential with those numbers. Holland prides himself on finding hidden gems, and from a purely hockey goal-scoring standpoint, this is a good one. Whether this short body can stand the rigours of NHL hockey is another story, but he showed well enough in camp for the Oilers to take a flyer on him. Certainly, an unconventional way to make it to an NHL roster and become a team’s property, but hey whatever works, right?
He plays a power forward game, so the Oilers are obviously hoping he becomes the on-ice version of Theo Fleury minus all the off-ice baggage – or, as the article states, Brad Marchand. Either way, if he turns out to be a copy of either player I’m happy.
Stonehouse’s contract includes a $70K signing bonus for all three seasons with a total AAV of $845,000 ($775K plus the aforementioned signing bonus) with an AHL salary of $82,500.
He showed well in camp but obviously needs more seasoning and at the age of 19 could only be either kept up with the Oilers or returned back to junior, and as with most players his age he’s not NHL ready so the Oilers chose the latter as Stonehouse was one of the mid-round cuts in camp.
Congratulations to Stonehouse, he came to camp with nothing but hopes and dreams and leaves soon after with a contract. That’s a pretty good consolation prize for not making the NHL right off the hop – especially considering that he was passed over by everyone in the 2022 and 2023 NHL drafts.
This contract won’t take effect until Stonehouse grabs a spot in either Edmonton or Bakersfield.
This one comes as less of a surprise than Stonehouse as Akey was the player who came into camp with the highest draft pedigree from the 2023 NHL entry draft, as he was drafted by the Oilers in the second round, so naturally most teams are going to want to sign these players sooner rather than later to ensure they haven’t wasted valuable draft commodity on a guy they don’t sign afterwards so he becomes a free agent.
Akey stood out enough in camp that the Oilers signed him now rather than wait until his calendar date on the reserve list expires – essentially the encyclopedia for when the Oilers have to sign each prospect before they risk losing his rights and he becomes a free agent who can sign with anyone.
The 18-year-old Akey, in conjunction with CHL rules, had to either make the Oilers or be assigned back to junior, so naturally just like with Stonehouse the Oilers were forced to do the latter.
However, coming out of his first camp with a contract already is still a pretty nice accomplishment for the fresh-faced Akey. Hopefully, he goes back to Barrie and sets the OHL on fire, as he’s already put up 47 points in 66 games last season and 1-2-3 in four games with Barrie this season so far.
Per CHL rules he can’t play in the AHL until he’s 20 so Akey has two seasons of junior left for sure.
Per the article, his contract comes with a $95,000 signing bonus plus bonuses for games played. The salary is $859K and with bonuses brings it up to $950K. However, like Stonehouse, this contract doesn’t come into effect until he plays for either the Oilers or the Condors.
Looks at this point like good things are in store for the young man.
