Oilers notebook: What to do with all these forwards; Hlinka Gretzky Cup comes to Rogers Place

The Oilers are only keeping 13 forwards to go with seven defencemen because they have no choice but to have three goalies on the opening roster

If we’re looking at a far-too-early depth chart, here’s what it might be: Vasily Podkolzin-Leon Draisaitl-Matt Savoie. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins-Jason Dickinson-Kasperi Kapanen. Dach-Josh Samanski-Trent Frederic.

Extra—Mathieu Joseph. That would leave Mattias Janmark and Max Jones as odd men out. The Oilers need Dach’s abrasiveness in the line-up, and he had 219 hits in just 61 games last season, 14th overall.

They’ve floated the idea that the LW might get a look as centre on the fourth line because he had some time there in junior in Saskatoon and he did get a taste in Chicago last season, but realistically, he’s a winger, working the boards, fighting for pucks. He took 71 faceoffs last season in Chicago but only won 26 of them, so 36.6 percent. And, we heard the same thing last fall from Frederic, who wanted a shot as 3C but it didn’t work in camp and it didn’t work much on the wing, either, as we all know, with the winger very much under the gun going into this season.

The Oilers are only keeping 13 forwards to go with seven defencemen because they have no choice but to have three goalies on the opening roster unless the young Devon Levi falls on his face. He has to clear waivers and after trading for him they aren’t risking losing him for nothing to just have Freddy Andersen and Tristan Jarry. Yeah, maybe it’s a reach to have Howard, who had 50 points (24 goals) in 47 games as a rookie in Bakersfield, on 1LW with McDavid and Hyman, but Podkolzin has a lock on the 2LW spot, and the third line looks more like a shutdown type if RNH is there.

Dickinson, Kapanen and Nugent-Hopkins can all kill penalties, so where would Howard fit there if third-line LW It says here Howard has to play on the first two lines or not at all with his offensive chops. The fourth is for the bangers.

Dach waited patiently while the Oilers looked after two other RFA’s, Spencer Stastney and Shakir Mukhamadullin, and got a $375,000 bump. “Just because you’re hungry doesn’t mean dinner’s ready,” to borrow one of Dach’s agent Gerry Johannson’s favourite lines, feeling teams operate on their own timeline. With NHL teams being able to bury $1.225 million of a contract in the minors this upcoming season (league minimum salary, now $850,000 plus $375,000), it does allow the Oilers to send a forward like Dach to Bakersfield if he stumbles in camp.

He doesn’t need waivers. If not Dach, then they could bury all of Samanski ($975,000) or Howard ($973,000) in the AHL. Janmark, coming off surgery (suspected shoulder), is another story.

There’s a better chance they trade the veteran and his $1.45 million. Future stars to shine at Hlinka Gretzky Cup The Hlinka Gretzky U18 tournament starts in three weeks (Aug. 3-8) here at Rogers Place and the Downtown Community Arena, with many of the top 10 prospects for the 2027 draft.

It’s far from ideal to have a hockey event in the dead of summer, but the Hlinka-Gretzky show is where winger Podkolzin (Russia) and defenceman Philip Broberg (Sweden) dazzled here in 2018 before they were first-round 2019 NHL draft picks. Former Everett and now University of Michigan defenceman Landon Dupont, who will run an NHL powerplay someday, Saint John Sea Dogs 6’5” forward Alexis Joseph, who most scouts think has No. 1 centre written all over him, and Medicine Hat winger Noah Davidson headline the Canadian team. You’ll also have former NHL winger Niklas Sundstrom’s son Milan, a centre from MoDo, on the Swedish team, along with centre Jonah Neuenschwander on the Swiss squad.

Two other centres Sammy Nelson and Gunnar Conboy (USA), and winger Timothy Kazda (Czechia) will also bear watching. The possible top pick in 2027, towering left winger Nazar Privalov, who just signed a four-year contract with KHL CSKA, won’t be here because the Russians are banned from international competition. Unfortunately, the Oilers have no 2027 first-round pick, moving it to Chicago conditionally at the trade deadline last March so the Hawks would take winger Andrew Mangiapane’s contract.

The pick goes to the Hawks as long as it’s not a top 12 selection. If so, the Oilers keep it and transfer their 2028 first-rounder to Chicago. When will the phone ring?

Adam Henrique, who has played 1058 NHL games, has been a free agent before, but this is the first anxious time for the 36-year-old centre who sold the house here after the season that he bought from Evander Kane, knowing his days as an Oiler were likely over. Don’t see Henrique taking a training camp invite but if another team is looking for a fourth-line centre who can kill penalties and win face-offs (54 percent of 605 draws last season), he still has value if he wants a low-money, one-year deal.

Columbus needs a 4C with Isaac Lundstrom rupturing his Achilles in off-season training but the feeling is they want to give farmhand Luca Del Bel Belluz, 22, a good look there because he has to clear waivers and they don’t want to risk losing him. This ‘n that - Kasperi Kapanen played for new coach Mike Babcock in Toronto, with Babcock using him on the PK, and with some tough love from Babcock, who said the winger had to learn how to be a two-way player to stay in the league.

Took awhile, but Kapanen is exactly that now. A perfect third-line winger. - Colton Dach signed for less money than fellow RFA’s Spencer Stastney and Shakir Mukhamadullin because he didn’t have arbitration rights.

Mukhamadullin got $1.75m on his two-year deal, a $750,000 raise for a defenceman with 83 NHL games. Stastney almost doubled his AAV to $1.525m, but only for one year. Stastney is likely vulnerable to a trade if he doesn’t make the team at camp as 7thD because he’s on a one-year contract.

These D contracts dwarf Ty Emberson’s $1.3m AAV, but Emberson, who has 187 NHL games, is UFA next July 1. Yes, people are writing the left-shot Mukhamadullin into the third pair on the right side, but Emberson is a natural righty and played every playoff game. It’s his job to lose.

- Defenceman Jordan Oesterle, 34, who played 25 Oilers games after they signed him as a college free agent 12 years ago, with 157 more on their AHL teams in Oklahoma City and Bakersfield, is retiring after 409 NHL games. “He’ll play in the NHL,” former NHL coach and his Western Michigan U bench boss Andy Murray steadfastly said after the Oilers signed the small but excellent skating defenseman. - Jeff Skinner’s NHL career may be over at 34, but the short-term Oiler winger is hardly hurting for money.

His golden parachute buyout with Buffalo gives him $6.44m this season. He’s the fifth-highest-paid forward on the Sabres and he last played for them two years ago. Where do you get jobs like that?

- The Oilers were interested in Saskatoon Blades hard-working winger Zach Olsen, who had a strong playoff against the Oil Kings, in the third round of the draft in late June but Toronto got him at No. 73. The Oilers picked 84. -

Fellow UFA Evander Kane has spent a fair bit of time in Edmonton this summer, still owning property here, but whether he can get a one-year contract is up in the air. - Winger Matej Blumel, the former Oiler draft pick forward who played last season with the Bruins AHL farm club in Providence, looks like he’s decided he’s had enough of banging his head against the wall trying to make an NHL roster. He’s signed at Sparta Praha where Ladi Smid is an assistant coach.

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