According to Twitter, the Oilers have waived the newly acquired Nathan Walker, recalled Anton Slepyshev from Bakersfield, added Oscar Klefbom to the IR, and get set to activate Andrej Sekera off the injured reserve.
OILERS WAIVE WALKER, RECALL SLEPYSHEV
With the Oilers finally starting to get healthy it was only a matter of time before the math wouldn’t work out anymore, and it was Nathan Walker that drew the short straw. That said, it wasn’t exactly surprising that the Oilers would waive Walker over anyone else considering he hasn’t exactly been a world beater (or even noticeable) in the two games he’s played since being claimed on waivers. Let me put it this way, aside from the DDT he gave a defenceman last night (which resulted in a power play goal for the Sharks btw) would you even have noticed he was playing?
Walker will be replaced by Anton Slepyshev who was briefly assigned to the Bakersfield Condors only yesterday in what amounted to a paper transaction. Now that the dust has settled and the roster picture becomes clearer, it makes sense for the Oilers to recall Slepyshev and have him as depth on the right side. From where I blog, I don’t see any situation where having Slepyshev over Walker isn’t an upgrade for the team. What will be interesting is to see how many games Slepyshev gets into considering he was used quite sparingly over the past couple weeks.
KLEFBOM TO THE IR
The biggest surprise of the morning comes with the news that Oscar Klefbom was added to the Injured Reserve. With that said, should we really be surprised? While this news was perhaps unexpected, seeing Klefbom placed on the IR could explain a lot when you think about how he has looked like a skeleton version of the player he was last year. Knowing that he was playing through injury answers a lot of questions.
Then again, Peter Chiarelli did hint that Klefbom was banged up when he held his first press conference of the year a few weeks back so this moves starts to make more sense. Considering the injuries on the back end and the players fighting above their weight class, pulling Klefbom out of the lineup would have been tough. Having Sekera set to return means that Klefbom can take the next couple games off to recover and get himself healthy again over the Christmas break. Here’s hoping that will be enough time.
OILERS SET TO ACTIVATE SEKERA
On the bright side, we’re finally getting closer to having Andrej Sekera back in the mix will add a calming influence with a little bit of offensive touch to a defensive group that is finally starting to find its way. While it will definitely take Reggie a couple games/weeks to get himself back up to speed, his addition will go a long way in ensuring that the other five defencemen are properly slotted and also to ease the pressure of losing Klefbom. Sekera should also help to boost the special teams as he will likely see time on both the power play and penalty kill, an area the Oilers desperately need assistance in.
Source: Edmonton Oilers, Official Twitter Account, 12/19/2017, 10:10am MST
Well…I guess we now know who comes out when Sekera is activated…sad. But at least we got a little depth going!!
Yeah, Klefbom is suffering from can’t-hit-the-net-ittus
Very good
I mentioned in a couple treads back that as soon as Larsson and Sekera were ready that Klefbom would be going on LTIR, I still think its a labral tear of the shoulder.
Dr.Slipknot
Would make sense, poor passing, no velocity on the shot, trouble boxing guys out leads me to believe that he has a shoulder injury, you can still play with a torn labral and maybe rehab fixes it. hopefully, its not the surgery type tear.
Torn labrum??? You wouldn’t be able to hold a cup of coffee let alone make a pass in the NHL…
I sure hope not. That sounds like months rather then days or weeks
Yes, we’ve known that Klef has been “banged up” since the first week of the season – both the GM and the coach have mentioned it (numerous times by Coach).
The timing makes sense – they are getting Sekera back and, with the upcoming schedule, he would be eligible to return after missing only 2 games.
I don’t imagine he misses any more than 2 games.
The Fayne move likely predicts a Gryba re-assignment after Klef is off the IR.
While there is no roster limit in the AHL, there is a max number of veterans that can be in each lineup – they will want Gryba to play if/once re-assigned.
Fayne move? Sorry, missed that one
Loaned him to Springfield (I believe them). He still belongs to us and we are responsible for his salary and contract count just means he isn’t playing in Bakersfield.
Let’s hope klefs injury doesn’t keep him out for too long. To get reg back, but then lose klefbom is like someone giving you a bowl of ice cream, then kicking you in the shins right after. Dick move world
Injuries have held the Oil back from producing a lot of Wins so far.
I would like to see more depth on defence; is this the roster move strategy?
Have you noticed they are at 500 over the last 20 games.
Everybody looking at Ottawa as trade partners but nobody’s mentioned that Buffalo is entertaining offers on EVERYONE not named Eichel. I’d rather deal for Rasmus Ristolainen than Mike Hoffman.
That would be a Nuge type of Ask for Ristolainen wouldnt you think? That’s not a price I would be willing to pay. A Benning and a good draft pick I would be ok with.
I think Evander Kane will move out of Buffalo before Ristolainen.
And then he’ll likely move again as free agent July 1. As a UFA at 27 he should get a 40 million plus long term deal…
With Shleposhev is just proves the lack of talent in the Oiler system. How many more chances do you give this guy?? Not many in my books!!
Slepychev has performed well. He just has had the injury bug this year, who else would you rather have from bakersfield take his spot?
Making room for big bad GRIFFIN REINHART acquisition
Hopefully the Oilers don’t dun goof, mishandle assets badly, and screw themselves over for the foreseeable future. I’ll believe that when I see it (Pronger trade, to get him, is about the only good Oilers trade I remember in my life). It’s really a comedic tragedy that fans have to endure here but let’s hope not this time!
Come on, the Oilers have never mishandled assets, or screwed themselves for the foreseeable future. Look at how well the farm teams are doing, how many players are representing Canada at the World Juniors. How else can the Oilers guarantee a lottery draft pick every year.
Oilers have 3 prospects in the World Juniors. Why does it matter if they are on team Canada?
Also gotta say they should have straight up went for the cup last year once they knew they were playoff bound (which was early in the year) and then done the same this year, even if it meant holding onto assets that would be given away at the end of this year (like Ebs for example). How can it not be logical to hang onto a roster that almost brought a cup when you can one more time with McDavid on ELC. Was getting Strome worth it?
This team has an awful lot to prove before I start caring enough to watch or buy tickets again.
Could Bear be on his way to NHL club ?
Bear is injured so no is my guess.
Again? Didn’t he just come back and put up an assist on the 16th?
Klefbomb for Taylor Hall
Interesting tid bit since the trade and signing of Lucic both players have the same number of goals – 31. However than time period Hall has 10 assists more. By all the talk in E-town you’d expect Hall to at minimum have more goals than Lucic…