Is Caggiula More Than A Placeholder?

The way I see it, he has three games to make his case. Tops. After three more preseason games (at the most) Leon Draisaitl will return to the Oiler lineup, done with his duties on Team Europe in the World Cup of Hockey. By then, if Drake Caggiula hasn’t shown head coach Todd McLellan that he can be an effective player down the middle then he’ll probably have to wait for injuries to strike before the chance opens up again.

The Oilers in training camp split the groups in two and Caggiula is holding a spot that looks very much like it belongs to someone else.

With this configuration, it appears the Oilers are indeed going to try for three scoring lines and a fourth line that they can actually trust. This lines up well with Caggiula’s abilities. The smallish centre picked up 25 goals and 51 points in 39 games last year with the University of North Dakota.

Offense is his calling card and he’s going to need to show both that and a level of maturity to his game that makes McLellan and company comfortable enough playing him at centre and allowing Draisaitl to play the wing. Among the things bouncing around McLellan’s head has to be how much flexibility he has available right now. What Caggiula does this week is going to give him a pretty good idea.

The World Cup of Hockey has a best of three final. Leon Draisaitl will definitely have to play two games against Canada. Those games are happening tonight and Thursday, September 29th. The final game is scheduled for October 1st but given Canada’s strength, I’d wager this thing wraps up on Thursday. After that, Sekera and Draisaitl will be given a couple days off the same way RNH and McDavid were.

The Oilers have preseason games on the 28th, 30th, and 2nd. While it’s likely (from my perspective) that Leon Draisaitl does not play in that game on October 2nd. So those are the three games that I expect Drake Caggiula has to perform his best in if he truly wants to stick around.

For what it’s worth, that whole line has a lot to prove to the Oilers. Maroon lost 25 pounds this summer and no longer has the benefit of playing with McDavid. He was spectacular as a complement to the wunderkind last winter, but Lucic is going to get all the fun at the start of this year. I guarantee he didn’t lose all that weight just to prove he can still fit into his old jeans.

Yakupov is yet again being written off as someone who is barely clinging to an NHL job. He finished the year with seven points in his last 10 games, but assertions have been made many times that the Oilers want to move him and nobody is taking. His perceived value is at an all-time low despite finishing the season strongly and working on his deficiencies all summer. At the least, he needs to have a strong start of the year so that another organization will take a chance on him.

That’s a motivated third line for the Oilers. Caggiula ought to be able to take advantage of this and snatch an opportunity to play in the NHL immediately or as one of the first call-ups. It isn’t all up to him. His best chance to stay probably comes at the expense of rookie Puljujarvi. The big-bodied Finn was very quiet in his first preseason game action. Todd McLellan noted that he has to show more if he wants to make this team. No Puljujarvi means one more vacant spot that the club has to fill. That would be perfect for Caggiula either as a winger in that spot or as the 3C while Draisaitl takes the spot.

Against the Flames, Caggiula had 4 shots on goal in 18:28 minutes of action on a line with Eberle and Lucic that crushed a 90% shot attempt ratio 5v5. It was against the weakest lineup the Oilers will see all pre-season, but so far so good. That said, what he’ll do next is a lot more important and indicative of the role he can play on the Oilers during the regular season.

Even if he does everything right, there’s no guarantee he’ll earn a spot. He’s got three more games to open enough eyes that the coaching staff considers him a legitimate possibility. Three more games to prove he’s more than a placeholder.