Oilers Flush 7

The Oilers are sending down players in spurts this season, which is fun for fans because it gives some indication about their status on the depth chart.

Some of today’s moves were obvious and predictable, but others give us a glimpse of pecking order in Oklahoma City.

Juniors Travis Ewanyk and Drew Czerwonka were sent back to their WHL teams; both were injured leading up to and during TC and didn’t get much of a chance to show their skills. Not a huge deal, their time is down the line. The interesting demotions revolved around the Barons:

• David LeNeveu is clearly behind all of Dubnyk, Khabibulin and Danis. He’ll play in front of Olivier Roy too, but the organization will elevate the kid as soon as he’s ready.
• Johan Motin is dive bombing in this organization and I don’t think he’ll see another summer as an Oiler prospect. It’ll be interesting to see if they keep him should that big Russian win a contract.
• Mark Arcobello signed a pretty good contract with the club, but he was headed for the AHL no matter how well he played. It is interesting that Arcobello really didn’t have a chance to showcase his abilities during camp.
• Hunter Tremblay will get a chance to show his skill in Oklahoma City this winter, the Oilers sending him down now doesn’t reflect on him negatively. He’s a long shot for NHL employment.
• Cameron Abney is probably headed to Stockton, at least for part of the season. The Oilers will probably bring him along slowly but as long as the organization values this player type we should expect Abney to make steady progress through the system.

Here’s the current roster:

1. G Devan Dubnyk
2. G Nikolai Khabibulin
3. G Yann Danis
4. G Olivier Roy
5. D Ryan Whitney (injured)
6. D Tom Gilbert
7. D Cam Barker
8. D Ladislav Smid
9. D Theo Peckham
10. D Andy Sutton
11. D Taylor Chorney
12. D Jeff Petry
13. D Corey Potter
14. D Colten Teubert
15. D Alex Plante
16. D Taylor Fedun
17. D Kirill Tulupov
18. D Martin Marincin
19. D Ryan Lowery
20. C Sam Gagner
21. C Shawn Horcoff
22. C Eric Belanger
23. C Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
24. C Anton Lander
25. C Ryan O’Marra
26. C Chris VandeVelde
27. C Tanner House
28. C Milan Kytnar
29. C Ryan Martindale
30. L Taylor Hall
31. L Ryan Smyth
32. L Magnus Paajarvi
33. L Ben Eager
34. L Darcy Hordichuk
35. L Teemu Hartikainen
36. L Lennart Pettrell
37. L Curtis Hamilton
38. L Josh Green
39. L Phil Cornet
40. R Ales Hemsky
41. R Jordan Eberle
42. R Linus Omark
43. R Ryan Jones
44. R Gilbert Brule
45. R Ryan Keller
46. R Antti Tyrvainen
47. R Tyler Pitlick

Junior players still around are Marincin, Nugent-Hopkins, Martindale and Pitlick. Pitlick is apparently headed for OKC and we still don’t know about Martindale’s status. Marincin has survived much longer than I thought he would, but he is likely (based on play) heading back to junior. The big story this training camp is probably Tulupov.

The skill of the forwards is very good if a little young, I think the defense is going to be an adventure and the goaltending is not clear. I think they’ll finish 13th in the conference, but if the Oilers added another NHL calibre goalie and some defensive insurance at the top of the blue this team could do some things.

Just saying.