Oilers activate Caggiula, place Klefbom on the IR and reassign Marody to Bakersfield

According to the Edmonton Oilers’ Twitter account, the team has activated Drake Caggiula, placed Oscar Klefbom on the Injured Reserve, and reassigned Cooper Marody to the Bakersfield Condors. 

Last night’s game was bittersweet for the Edmonton Oilers as they not only collected two big points from the Colorado Avalanche but also lost Oscar Klefbom “for weeks” to a broken hand/finger/knuckle/something in that general area. As a result, the Oilers had to make a couple of moves today to fill out the roster. The good news is that the team will get Drake Caggiula back in the lineup after missing the last four games with some kind of hand injury suffered in practice. Lastly, Cooper Marody was reassigned to the Bakersfield Condors after spending the last week in the press box without getting into any game action.

As you can imagine, the thought of losing Oscar Klefbom for a few weeks (or more) is weighing heavy on the minds of Oilers fans everywhere as they try to figure out what comes next. Even with Drake Caggiula coming back to hopefully continue the solid season he’s having, it’s hard to be too happy when the best defenceman on the team will be on the shelf for the foreseeable future. While Caggiula will definitely help to bring more offence into the top-nine, the bigger concern will be how they keep the puck out of the net. Needless to say, we’re going to get a look at what the Oilers defensive group can do with everyone having to step up their games in 77’s absence.

As for Cooper Marody, I wrote last week that it’s very important for him to be playing games at this stage of his career, and so I was happy to see that the team sent him back to Bakersfield as part of today’s news. While I’m sure it was nice for Marody to get an NHL paycheque for the past week, it doesn’t do him any good to be sitting in the press box and not playing at all. In six games played with the Oilers so far this season, Marody has averaged 6:55 on the ice with a CF% of 51.2 while getting 67.9% of his shifts starting in the offensive zone, and I think it’s fair to say that his time would be better served in Bakersfield.