The Oilers announced their first cuts of training camp today, sending back seven players with junior eligibility.

The list is as follows:

There are no real surprises in the group that got sent out, and it aligns pretty closely with my guesses on Saturday. I had thought that Marco Roy might stick around a little bit longer – given his draft pedigree and impressive Penticton showing – but the fact that he was culled with the rest of the team’s most recent non-first round picks shouldn’t be held against him.  

Clearing this first hurdle are the two non-NHL 2012 draft picks in camp – Mitch Moroz and Jujhar Khaira – who might also have been sent back to junior. Likely that will happen soon, but the coaching staff evidently feels those players will benefit from a slightly longer stint with the parent team. Darnell Nurse, the seventh overall pick in 2013, stays as well, which isn’t a real surprise given his draft pedigree; it would take a miracle for him to make the team but he is a developmental priority and it makes sense that he’s still around.

Also surviving the initial cuts is goalie Ty Rimmer, a graduating junior who played his first professional game with the AHL’s Manchester Monarchs last season. His resume suggests he may be an ECHL option for the Oilers’ organization this season, and given his age it’s not a big surprise that he’s still with the team but it’s encouraging for him all the same.

In summary, there weren’t any hard decisions made today; this simply pares down the roster to a more manageable number and lets the youngest guys in the mix head back to their junior teams to gear up for 2013-14.

Kevin McCartney – who did some fantastic work for this site at the recent Young Stars tournament in Penticton – asks and answers whether Evander Kane and Devin Setoguchi are a good match at the heart of the Jets’ second line:

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