BETKER RECALLED
By Lowetide
7 years agoThe Edmonton Oilers placed Mark Fayne on IR today and called up Ben Betker from the Bakersfield Condors. Betker in one of many lefties available, but Griffin Reinhart, David Musil, Jordan Oesterle, and Dillon Simpson would perhaps have been more logical additions based on merit and experience. What’s up?
THEY DID IT LAST SEASON
This was late October and the Oilers did have some injury issues (Justin Schultz and Rob Klinkhammer) and the recall of two prospects made sense. However, neither man played in the days after—or at any time during the 2015-16 season.
WHY DO IT?
In the cases last year and with regard to Betker this time, I think it might be a chance for the organization to reward a good soldier (Betker showed well in training camp this fall) for good work in Norfolk and Bakersfield last season.
There may also be a cap benefit—the closer to the cap Edmonton can run, the more benefit received when Andrew Ference is placed on LTIR.
The player chosen today (Betker) may not appear in any NHL games—as was the case with Laleggia. The current healthy top 6D looks like this:
- Oscar Klefbom—Adam Larsson
- Andrej Sekera—Kris Russell
- Darnell Nurse—Eric Gryba
My thought on the recall is this: None of the players who were on the AHL roster are going to play in front of these six men, and Matt Benning—who was just sent down—is probably the next defenseman in line for playing time (after these six men).
Ben Betker is being rewarded for good play, in previous seasons and in this one. I don’t think he is likely to play much or at all during this recall.
OILERS PROSPECTS NHL PRE-SEASON
- LD Griffin Reinhart 4gp, 1-1-2
- RD Matt Benning 4gp, 0-2-2
- LD Dillon Simpson 2gp, 0-0-0
- LD Jordan Oesterle 2gp, 0-0-0
- LD Markus Niemelainen 1gp, 0-0-0
- LD Caleb Jones 1gp, 0-0-0
- RD Ethan Bear 1gp, 0-0-0
- LD Ben Betker 1gp, 0-0-0
- LD Joey Laleggia 1gp, 0-0-0
- LD David Musil 1gp, 0-0-0
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