Oilers finalizing forward spots as Campbell earns starting job

EDMONTON — Here in Edmonton, we spend the regular season talking about two of the greatest players in the game today, along with a supporting cast loaded with talent. It’s always been about the superstars and the No. 1 overalls in this town, somehow, and that’s never going to change.

But as they marched reluctantly into their summer after only two rounds of playoffs last May, the overwhelming realization here was that it wasn’t about the superstars at all. The Vegas Golden Knights dispatched Edmonton on the strength of their four-line attack and their superior systems play. 

Edmonton may have had the best players on the ice, but the Golden Knights had a better team. Hands down.

The Oilers, it turns out, were like an NBA team — top-heavy, with a support system they hadn’t paid enough attention to. Vegas was a true hockey team, sharing the Stanley Cup all summer the way they had shared the ice time, with plenty of minutes for everyone on the team. 

So we asked Mattias Janmark, a career depth forward who came to Edmonton to fulfill precisely the role of which we speak, why a good Bottom 6 is so important in hockey. 

“If you don't have the depth in a hockey team, you're going to be exposed,” Janmark said. “Because 40 per cent of the time you're going to have your third and fourth line out there. If you don't do your job, then you're gonna lose the game. Or you're going to be exposed.” 

Mercifully, the Oilers pre-season came to an end Friday night with a 3-1 win over the Seattle Kraken, as Edmonton closes their marathon exhibition campaign with a record of 5-2-1. Janmark spent the night on a line with Derek Ryan and Adam Erne, as the Oilers experiment with a fourth line featuring Janmark at centre and the veteran centre Ryan on his right wing. 

When camp began, the 4C job was Brandon Sutter’s to lose. But when Sutter's battle with long-COVID led him to retire, the Oilers shifted to Plan B. Then winger Raphael Lavoie had himself a fantastic camp, and they had to pivot to Plan C. 

Today, the plan goes like this. If Janmark can be their fourth-line centre — with some faceoff help from the right-shot Ryan when required — then Edmonton can keep the winger Lavoie ahead of the centreman Lane Pederson. 

“If we're liking and what we're seeing with Mattias in the middle, then that that opens up other types of options,” admitted head coach Jay Woodcroft. “It's something that's in his bag. When he was a younger player, that's how he came up.” 

The third line stacks up as Ryan McLeod between Warren Foegele and Dylan Holloway, a line that averages six-foot-two and 200 pounds, comprised of three above-average skaters. With a couple of cagey vets and a rookie in Lavoie on Line 4, that’s a Bottom 6 that should be able to check, and has the skill to pitch some offence along the way.

The issue, however, isn’t as much about who is going to make up the Oilers' Bottom 6 as much as whether or not Woodcroft will trust that group with the ice time needed to make them feel like they are doing more than just killing time while McDavid and Draisaitl catch their breath.

The 21-man roster leaves Edmonton using an 11 forwards and seven defenceman alignment — too often for our liking — which feeds right into the problem this team has had for years. The last two forwards get a few early shifts, but quickly get shuffled to the end of the bench as the Oilers become a three-line team, abnormally reliant on their big guns.

Then the playoffs start and a well-rounded team with an invested Bottom 6 grinds Edmonton’s overplayed Top 6 down. That’s a dragon that needs to be slayed here, finally, if the Oilers are ever going to add the most important trophy to all those individual ones they win every year. 

Goaltender Jack Campbell posted his third consecutive one-goal-against game, closing the pre-season with a .0.99 goals-against average and a .971 save percentage, not to mention a 3-0 record. He has been sharp as sharp could be in this exhibition season, and should earn the opening night starter Wednesday night in Vancouver.

“Pretty solid right now,” he said post-game. 

After a disastrous season last year, Campbell went to work on body and mind this summer. So far, so good.

“Lots of good changes,” he said. “A lot of work and tweaking some things, so it’s nice to see the pre-season paying off with the changes.” 

Stuart Skinner was OK this pre-season, but his numbers — 2.66 GAA, .886 save percentage — aren’t close to Campbell’s in what Woodcroft deemed “an open competition” for the starting assignment in the season opener. 

The Oilers will take a day off Saturday, as general manager Ken Holland informs the players who are being sent down to the AHL. They’ll be back at practice Sunday in preparation for the 2023-24 season opener, Wednesday in Vancouver.