The Oilers found out some things they already knew last night. Everyone in the hockey world knew the McDavid line would flatten buildings, and they did. Everyone knew Evan Bouchard’s pairing would be efficient and productive. They were. Then what happened? Please read this.
LAST NIGHT
- Draisaitl-McDavid-Podkolzin 13:03, 14-4 shots, 2-0 goals, 87X
The line didn’t have much stopping them and the group was fresh and ready, like the bread at a bakery at 5am. No one should ever argue this unit will be average. The quarrel comes when we discuss what comes after. Podkolzin had four high-danger chances, fitting since he was in the Zach Hyman spot.
- Formention-Dach-Joseph: 10:37, 5-4 shots, 46X
- Nicholl-Michaels-Griffith: 8:49, 1-4 shots, 4X
- Howard-Samanski-Jones: 7:57, 1-4 shots, 0-1 goals, 4X.
The second line was quality when running with Shea-Bouchard, pedestrian elsewhere. Formention was the best forward (three shots) outside the top line to my eye, his speed and hands on display during his Oilers debut. Formention was 3-1 shots with Evan Bouchard, 3-5 without. I thought the rest of this group ranged from flawed to poor, and I like many in the group. I knew Ike Howard was going to have a tough night when they put him on the Samanski-Jones line. Howard can score, but he needs skill. Max Jones did have a HDSC at five-on-five.
- Shea-Bouchard: 17:01, 14-4 shots, 2-0 goals, 92X
- Stastney-Emberson 14:15, 5-5 shots, 1-0 goals, 24X
- Stillman-Brown 10:28, 3-5 shots, 0-2 goals, 21X
- Tristan Jarry 15 of 16 stops, .938SP
- Matt Tomkins 4 of 5 stops, .800SP
Ryan Shea (1-2-3) and Evan Bouchard are bona fide. I see lots of Shea love and my goodness I believe that was a great acquisition, but Evan Bouchard is over there lifting tall buildings (four points last night, all assists) so we should tip our chapeau to him as well.
Spencer Stastney and Ty Emberson had good nights, as they should against something less than NHL opponents. Josh Brown, who has been mentioned as a roster option by the rights-holder media in recent months, delivered a predictable performance. If Mike Babcock heads north with Josh Brown, then you can’t really defend the coach as saviour.
I feel the same way about McDavid-Draisaitl on the same line five-on-five. If Babcock can figure that out, and find a second scoring-outscoring line, he is a hockey genius. I don’t believe he can.
Five Edmonton Oilers prospects to watch closely in 2026-27
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7610401/2026/09/20/edmonton-oilers-prospects-2026-27-season/
Leon DraisaitlCenter700+Connor McDavidCenter600+Evan BouchardDefenseman300+Mathieu JosephForward300+Joshua BrownDefenseman300+Tristan JarryGoaltender250+Max JonesForward200+Ty EmbersonDefenseman178Vasily PodkolzinForward150+Riley StillmanDefenseman150+Spencer StastneyDefenseman117Alex FormentonForward100+Ryan SheaDefenseman100+
After two corrections the Google NOTAI came up with this list of Oilers who played in game 1 who can only play in one more exhibitions game.
My uneducated, uninformed and unimportant opinion is that the players that a lock for the opening lineup will not play again until exhibition game 4.
The same will go for game 2’s Certain Oilers.
There’s going to be Slim Pickins in one of the two middle games.
Great to see the boys on the ice. Winnipeg resembled a junior/AHL team, so not really sure what takeaways we can take from that game. Sure the big line skated circles around a very poor roster.
But Babcock got to see some of the guys he will have to. Make decisions on. Putting Howard with Samanski kind of showed ( albeit 1 game) , That Samanski is nowhere near a playmaker that you want centering Howard. Like to see Howard on McD and Drai’s line and put Nuge, Pods and Hyman together. Pods was passing too much and you need someone whom likes to shoot with those 2 .
Even from his post game presser, you can tell Babcock wants Dach to work out as a C man and probably with those 2 wingers or possibly with Frederic and Formington if Dickinson is not good to go to start with. He sure likes Formington and even stated he will be something special.
If Dickinson is healthy and good to go I see the Oil running
McD
Nuge
Dickenson
Dach
down the middle, but do they keep Samanski as the 13th forward or send him to Bako so he plays lots?
Looking forward to seeing Levi on Wednesday. Pretty sure the Peg dresses most of the good lineup. So will probably be a way bigger test. Expect to see Nuge/ Hyman and ? As the top line.
Tuesday for the next game, FYI.
Keeping Jones over Samanski would be egregious – different level of players as far as being able the help the NHL team.
I just don’t like Dach at center over Samanski in order to get both Formenton and Joseph in the lineup – keep the center at center.
I haven’t heard or seen anything on how Tralmaks has looked so far, anyone have any insights?
There’s just a pile of people who are going to get sent down with very little playing time in such a small number of games. If you look at the wingers who are on the bubble, completely possible Tralmaks doesn’t see a game (or limited minutes in one game).
He’s been on an “AHL line” for all of camp and, presumably, will be on a similar type line for Tuesday’s game in Winnipeg and then likely to Condors’ camp.
Summarizing!
Camerons did indeed get the start, stopping all but one of the 26 shots he faced in a 4-1 win.
Prospecting takes a break until Freya’s Day.
Great game by Shea. Obviously, he received a huge push as far as linemates go. It would be great if he could fill in on the first pair and have Ekholm anchor pairing two.
Agreed. Ekholm is fantastic but he’s starting to age out.
I keep hearing about how old Eckholm is getting and it wont matter till it matters. Until then, Im loving Eckholm and his slow slow slooooooowwww decline.
Ekholm is a beast he’ll easily cover his contract if healthy.
$4MM – less than some third pairing d-men are getting. Less than Ceci, Kulak, Deharnais, Doumolin, etc.
I wasn’t sure why Bowman had to rush to get this done a year early but I am a fool and am sure glad he did.
Yes Sir I would take 6 Ekholm at 24 million on my scorecard. Offensively speaking he almost matched his career high in points last year coming off groin problems.
Ah, you must be young. 🙂
Those of us who have been around a while know that the average 70 year old Swede is in as good shape as the average 20 year old Canadian.
That’s why we participacted.
Haha some of us participated. Others have aspired to life long couch potato-hood
Starting to but I agree with Ek who seemed annoyed at all the talk about his demise. I mean, last season, Ek:
Of course, Bouchard floats all boats and, while his mobility is down a bit and he can get best to the inside, he has a legit top pairing d-man season last year.
Of course, starting to fade some of his leverage minutes is likely a good idea but the man has remained legit as a 1LD with Bouchard.
Best trade Holland made it seemed to have also gutted the Preds as well. Besides health what’s stopping him from playing till he’s 40. His footwork hasn’t demised his mitts are as good as they’ve ever been. I know we’re talking the Oilers and we like whining but I mean you have to be impressed and give this man his due.
I would think the daily copy-paste posts with Ekholm’s stats from last year is a strong signal OP is giving the man his due.
OP and most of us can see with our eyes and look at the numbers to know Ekholm still has it. I’m sure Ekholm can handle the teasing remarks about his age but I can see why he gets testy when someone is trying to roast him.
I type them out every time.
I think they are very prudent when he conversation on Ek and his decline comes up, which is often.
I know where you’re coming from (and you’re not wrong), but at the same time I see that you fail to grasp my point.
To be clear, I don’t think Ekholm is declining. I just think the team has more options if it’s two best defence man can anchor two different pairs
I don’t think the quality of his play is declining, but his body is. And when he has issues which seem to largely groin, he drops off a lot. I would like to see Walman and Shea carry the load and keep Ek as fresh as possible for playoffs, mentoring the young guys on 3rd pair
Walman needs to be given more responsibility. Besides Bouchard I do hope Babcock doles out minutes to the D or D pairing that’s playing well that game which I think he will.
Babcock did say post game that Ekholm will be back with Bouch. He said Bouch will need multiple partners given the amount of minutes he plays.
Load management.
RNH is getting older but he isn’t, at the age of 33, exactly ancient.
If you believe in the Athletic modelling, they have four players in the NHL’s top 150 — McDavid, Draisaitl, Bouchard, and Hyman.
Hyman is a very effective player who still has high end speed (~85th percentile last season). In a sense, Babcock isn’t truly “loading up” the first line, because he is putting Hyman on the second line.
I can see some plausibility in pairing RNH with Hyman and Howard (another guy with ~85th percentile speed). RNH himself is in the 80th percentile, so that’s going to be a pretty fast line.
I do wonder if RNH will be more effective at C, even though we didn’t see it last season. It goes contrary to the popular thinking, but he has an excellent release and is a good passer and not so great (IMO) winning pucks in the corner. I wouldn’t mind seeing him get a bit lost in the coverage in the upper / middle ice in the offensive zone.
The other question is Hyman’s health. He remains a substantial player even at 34, but he did miss 24 games last season.
“It’s not the years, it’s the mileage.” -Indiana Jones
I think 18 of that was at the beginning recovering from the prior year’s injury?
If that number is right, it was just 6 with an injury sustained last season.
With that said, yes, injury is a concern with much of the team: McDavid, Drai, Ekholm, Walman, Hyman
Drai has been hurt ALOT recently and we know about Walman.
The old man, Ekholm, was the one that played 82 games last season.
It understandably took 7 games for Hyman to hit the twine he then scores 31 in the next 49 games as he was shutout the last three games. I don’t think there’s an Oiler fan alive and that includes Super-Fan who wouldn’t have taken 30 plus goals for Hyman last year.
Howard on his off wing with a useless player like Max Jones is setting Howard up to fail.
Samanski and Howard were assigned the task of trying to carry Jones, Brown, and Stillman all night.
AHL+ players tasked with playing with AHL defencemen against AHL players.
Don’t get me wrong, I hope I never have occasion to watch Josh Brown on ice again.
But this isn’t the level of competition that should be giving the likes of Samanski or Howard the yips.
Babcock could have made it a fair fight and went Howard Samanski Hutson, but he did not. He tossed Samanski and Howard a literal boat anchor, and put Howard on his off side.
Pretty clear neither is going to make the team. Babcock was fabricating the evidence last night.
He also talked up Dach as a center. I’m not an expert, but Dach didn’t do much to earn those flowers, in my opinion. I think the coach has already made up his mind, though.
Yup, I was a bit taken aback by Babcock’s glowing praise of Dach and that line last night. I mean they had great speed and energy in the offensive zone but they played most of their time in the defensive zone and it was running around without structure – at least to my eye.
I’m not sure Babcock believes his own verbal to the press post-game….
lol this is good.
Sometimes I feel like I’m one of a handful of Hutson’s supporters on this blog, so you’ll get no quarrel from me there, but my read on the situation is waiver status will play the biggest role in roster decisions.
It was only game one.
THERE ARE FOUR GAMES!
Yes and Howard will play all FOUR.
So can Dach & Samanski. But if they want Dach to play center Samanski might need to play on the wing.
Why wouldn’t they play Samanski, the center, at center and Dach, the winger, at wing?
It seems like Babock want to have each of Formenton and Joseph and Dach in the lineup over Samanski so is trying to make a center.
I’m not sure both Formenton and Joseph are required in a game if it means making up a central.
By ghosting Howard last year I’ve already came to the conclusion that Howard is a bad fit. Last year he was used in an energy line role when the games were in doubt. He recieved garbage minutes with Hopkins-Roslovic when they were getting smoked by the likes of Dallas-Colorado’s etc Howard needs to be packaged up and traded for a speedy big forward someone like the Ottawa Formenton. There will be early season injuries to smaller PP1 skilled players. Howard Hobey Baker award and his skilled ability to score with 2 years left on his ELC will still have value even if Howard is sent back to Bakersfield.
Howard was developed last year.
Good grief, the October 2025 Howard would have been cut by Babock already.
Not the way I see it Howard is either going to do what’s he’s done his whole career which is score or he’s going to be a flop. All this develop in the AHL is bunk he should have been learning on the job like Savoie was. When you keep hearing he needs to learn to play without the puck is jive for he’s not a good fit.
Ummmm, Howard spent a full season in the AHL (longer than Howard) as a rookie pro prior to learning on the job in his second year. Not sure why Howard isn’t permitted to have a similar development path – for crying out loud Savoie has the MUCH higher pedigree.
Developed for what we all know he can score when he’s put in the top 6 and on the PP. Either Babcock has to commit to this especially with Savoie out or else trade him.
Why do you even ask? You know the answer, its been talked about in detail for months.
Do you honestly think he would have played in the NHL without having developed a level of play away from the puck, a level of commitment to the back-track and defensive zone structure and a competitiveness to retrieve pucks, all major deficiencies at this time last year.
Babcock has done NOTHING but commit to him in the top 6 and even on the PP to this point.
Babcock reminds me of MacT when he was coach in Edmonton. I drew the parallel over the summer when looking back on some of Babcock’s Toronto teams.
Kevin Lowe would talk up Jason Chimera at the start of every camp, and MacT would send him out at the end of every camp. We all have our biases, Babcock is no different.
And it doesn’t mean the coach is wrong. A guy who can play responsibly has high value. However, Oilers need Howard if they’re going to get that second line going. jmo.
I see O’Reilly has his first point of the preseason well on his way to making the team. Sam was my Jarret Stoll 3-C for the next 10 years. With the Hyman injury I get why they made the trade. 21 year-old Hobey Baker shoot first skilled smallish wingers can and should be inserted into the league immediately in a position to succeed just just like many of his teammates from the USA development team that he outpointed. Howard is not a project he is what he is either play him in the top 6 or trade him for a 3rd line player before his value craters.
Next game Howard will be on the first line with Nuge & Hyman and we’ll see if his game improves. He’s probably going to play all four pre-season games. Both of Nuge & Hyman can only play two. Howard no matter who he plays will needs to show he can play without the puck if he’s going to play for Edmonton.
Oh and it wasn’t as if Winnipeg was playing their NHL roster.
Babcock is going to ice the team he wants with the players he’s given. It would not surprise me to see Formenton move up the food chain as he regains his NHL pace.
Howard’s camp linemates, Nuge and Hyman were not playing last night so Babcock through Howard in the lineup in a different spot. Babcock put Howard on the 2nd line to start camp for a reason and he’s going to play him in that spot in an exhibition game, at least I’m confident in that
I do hope that’s the case.
I think we know Babcock’s opening camp lines were not for shits and giggles so I would be shocked if Howard/Nuge/Hyman is not a line for the road Winnipeg game (or guess the Vancouver game but think the former).
I look forward to
1) seeing Howard play with Nuge and Hyman in Winnipeg (presumably)
2) seeing Samanski centre some combination of Frederic, Formenton, Dach, Joseph
Like It or not, I think Samanski will be the 13th forward or sent to Bakersfield in Babcocks world. He seems to really want Dach to be his 4th line C man the way he is chatting him up. Now if Dickenson is hurt to start the season, I can’t see Dach being able to handle 3 rd line minutes. Not sure Samanski can either. Who knows how the Babadook’s mind works.
let’s hope Dickenson is ready for game 1.
I do wonder if they look to grab a C man off waivers Orin a trade. Stauffer has mentioned Dach’s brother. He can play the 3rd dot for sure. He did in part or most of the playoffs for Montreal.
Guess we see. He doesn’t seem high on Samanski at all thus far. Maybe that changes over the next few
I don’t like it but I don’t disagree it looks like the current plan.
Dach did not play centre from Montreal in the playoffs – maybe the odd shif or a game but he was mostly wing.
I would argue highly against him being able to play 3C “for sure” and not even sure he would make this team. I’d MUCH rather have Samanski at center.
Kirby Dach at near $4MM would be an egregious acquisition.
I agree that coach doesn’t seem high on Samanski – I think his dreams of Dach being something that, to this point, he hasn’t been or doesn’t look like he will be, is paramount for coach.
My first criticism of him.
Prospectopus!
Ryan Cameron did not play in yesterday’s season-opener, but he’s likely to get the start today as Sioux Falls wraps up their appearance in the USHL Fall Classic. Cameron is one of three goalies on the roster, the other two being Latvian (including Tommy Lafreniere’s former Kamloops teammate Ivans Kufterins). Perhaps, for consistency’s sake, he ought to be known as Ryans Camerons?
Puck drops at 11 a.m. Thorhild time.
For those that missed it last night, Jonsson and Day were assigned to Bako. I thought they mind split a game but Bako camp opens Monday.
It’s a bit odd that is was just them, I presume there are about 5-7 more cuts coming before the next game so not sure why they’d stager.
The likes of Nicholl, Harvey, Stonehouse, Stefan, Griffith, etc.
I agree with most of this.
I wonder if Babcock believes himself when he raved about the Dach line post-game. Formenton has some nice work but, overall, I though I saw that one get caved on 3-4 shifts, running around in the defensive zone.
At the same time, Stilman/Brown pretty much cratered every line they were on the ice with. Good grief they were bad.
I watched part of the game and saw the same thing. I agree with Alan, Howard needs skill or he’ll be ineffective. That Shea tip to Dach in the D zone for the empty net goal is what the breakout needs. He looks like a fine upgrade.
I’m starting to believe that Dach is someone Babcock is going to be stubborn about, for whatever reason. Just the regular verbal and lineup placement make this look like a guy who is get the JF Jacques treatment.
It’s because Dach is huge and can skate. He is a dream centre.
Dach is being placed as the 4C not 1C, not a top 6 winger, center, or anything else.
4C.
Nothing like JF Jacques.
To clarify, I meant he’s getting lots of rope, regardless of performance.
Every play matters.
An ineffective 4C can create an ineffective line that gets caved. Is that as bad as an ineffective first line? Of course not but it won’t lead to a Cup if its the case nightly.
To Bar Qu’s point, Babcock did talk about how important “Dacher” is for the team and how huge it would be if he could handle 4C. He did admit that he wasn’t sure if he was being fair to Dach having him play center. For me, it didn’t look great and I am pressing the Babcock was talking a different game in the media than what he actually saw – of maybe I’m wrong.
”Thufferin’ thuccotash! That is an awful comparison.
I never understood giving Brown a two year contract and I still don’t. An expensive vet for the Condors???
3 year contract with no reduction in the minors.
So, yes.
Matters little as it’s in the minors and no money towards the cap. Heck it could be 10 years for all I care, not my money
They also need some deterrent to take care of the younger guys
I think there is no chance he was signed with the intent of being an AHL player.
He was signed to be an NHL d-man (and he was for the years leading up to the signing). I did give kudos to the managers over the year, he was demoting fairly quickly that first year and has only gotten a game or two look in-season since when injuries piled up.
I knew Mike would find a young project to mold. I was hoping it would be Howard.
There’s more to work with in Dach. He’s played center all his life, has good size, can skate , has descent hands and can play on the PK. He also won 60% of his draws last night. He might beat out Samanski for the 4c role allowing for greater team depth.
Dach may be that player we dream about. Bowman drafted him and he may be the key figure in the Murphy-Dickinson trade starting immediately. He has the wheels seems to have the hockey sense needs to learn to pick his spots when to engage. Mike will be driving consistency into the kids cement head.
I don’t disagree with any of this. I also don’t think he needs to play center for this – he can 100% be this on the wing.
There’s more to work with in Dach. He’s played center all his life, has good size, can skate , has descent hands and can play on the PK. He also won 60% of his draws last night. He might beat out Samanski for the 4c role allowing for greater team depth.
He’s played 3 minutes and 20 second on the PK in his NHL career and essentially no center.
Samanski has good size and can skate and actually IS a center and IS a PK guy.
I’ll cheer like hell for Dach, he’s on the team and I want him to succeed, but this center thing didn’t make sense before last night and, from first view, isn’t off to a great start (except in Babcock’s mind if we believe the verbal).
I think Dach’s size and skating can be used very effectively on the wing, as it was last year in his time as an Oiler.
Lets not forget, Dach was NOT a good defensive player as an Oiler last year – I’m not sure how increasing defensive responsibility makes sense when the young man is still trying to establish himself.
He could be place setting. No matter how hard some folks wish upon a star every evening I can’t see Samanski making the team out of the gate.
Babcock’s assessment gives me a bit of concern too. I don’t think that there is any scenario loading up McDrai is beneficial to the season. I hope I’m wrong.