EDMONTON — There was a time when an Edmonton Oilers training camp meant all kinds of new faces, with jobs awaiting kids who — most of the time — weren’t ready to claim them, but often were given the jobs anyhow.
Not anymore.
As the Oilers 2023-24 training camp opens this week, there’s a job open on the fourth line. And some tiering to be figured out among seven defencemen. That’s it, that’s all.
Everything else is decided, on a team that is ready to take a run at a Stanley Cup.
There will likely be a tweak or two at the March trade deadline. But as camp opens this week, the Edmonton Oilers are pretty much set.
Salary cap space: $0 ($390,793 over the cap)
GM: Ken Holland
Head coach: Jay Woodcroft
Assistant coaches: Glen Gulutzan, Dave Manson, Mark Stuart, Dustin Schwartz.
Unsigned players: None.
Key new additions: Connor Brown.
PTOs: Brandon Sutter, Sam Gagner, Adam Erne.
CAMP BATTLES
We may know who the players are, but where they shake down in the Oilers lineup is yet to be seen. Even in goal, Jack Campbell is still making starter’s money ($5 million) — despite the fact Stuart Skinner started 48 games to Campbell’s 34 last season.
That contest will flesh itself out, with the best solution being a tandem that splits the season as close to 50/50 as possible. As for the rest of the battles:
Defence: This is the year Philip Broberg must stake his claim as an NHL defenceman, though the left-shot 22-year-old will have to do it on the right side. Meanwhile, right-shot Vincent Desharnais wants to become a full-time NHL defenceman himself, after playing his first 36 NHL games last season. They’ll sort it out between them.
Wing: Dylan Holloway, 21, looks to claim a LW spot on the bottom six, and will be given every chance to do so. Same with Rafael Lavoie on the right side. Veteran Mattias Janmark would like one of those spots, and he’s an old pro making $1 million. Can two young players both earn spots in the same camp? Does Lavoie start the season as the 13th forward on a 21-man roster?
Centre: Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan McLeod are one-two-three up the middle. Derek Ryan is a fallback at 4C, but the Oilers would rather have him on the right side. That’s why Brandon Sutter and Sam Gagner are here on PTOs. If Sutter doesn’t grab the 4C job — and they would love for him to do just that — we suspect it’s a position that will be upgraded at the trade deadline, unless Gagner really turns heads at camp.
ONE IMPORTANT QUESTION
One important question becomes two, as the Oilers' questionable goaltending branches out to its sub-par defensive play.
In goal, Campbell’s .888 save percentage was disastrous last regular season, while Skinner’s .883 in the playoffs wasn’t good enough either. This team needs a goaltender who can provide playoff calibre goaltending, and when you see Adin Hill’s .932 playoff saves percentage for Vegas last year, you wonder why it can't happen in Edmonton as well?
Could it be the defensive play in front of the goalies? We believe that one begets the other, and an Oilers team that finished 17th in the NHL last season, allowing 3.12 goals per game, has to tighten up defensively if they are ever going to be happy with their goalies’ numbers.
Sure, it’s a chicken and egg thing, to some extent. But Edmonton has a history of offensive brilliance over defensive negligence, and if there is one quality that has to improve for this project ever to get over the top, it’s keeping pucks out of their net. It’s got to be about winning more games 3-1 — rather than 6-4 — and being able to weather the storms that good opponents will subject Edmonton to.
It’s fair to say that, to this point, neither Skinner nor Campbell can give Edmonton what Andrei Vasilevskiy gives Tampa, or Connor Hellebuyck gives Winnipeg. But can that Oilers tandem give their team enough wins if the workload goes decreases by 15-20 per cent?
This is the year we just might find out.
PROJECTED LINEUP
Kane McDavid Brown
Nugent-Hopkins Draisaitl Hyman
Foegele McLeod Lavoie
Holloway Ryan Janmark
Nurse Bouchard
Ekholm Broberg
Kulak Ceci
Skinner
Campbell
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