Oilers add Jason Garrison on PTO

The Edmonton Oilers are continuing their pursuit of an Andrej Sekera replacement. The team announced today that they’ve signed veteran defender Jason Garrison to a professional tryout offer to attend training camp.

Garrison is a left-handed shooting defenseman who most recently played for the Vegas Golden Knights. During his prime, Garrison was a very solid two-way defender with a booming shot from the point on the power play. That said, it’s been a few years since Garrison was a high-quality player at the NHL level.

The Tampa Bay Lightning gave the Vegas Golden Knights a second-round pick in order to take on his contract at the expansion draft in 2017. With Vegas, Garrison only appeared in eight games as the Golden Knights buried his cap hit in the AHL for the majority of the season.

Still, this is a decent flyer for the Oilers to take on a defenceman who could potentially help them out on the power play. A few years back, Garrison was one of the league’s better offensive producers from the point, so the Oilers could potentially use him in a limited, sheltered special teams role.

Ultimately this doesn’t cost the team anything so there’s no risk in bringing Garisson into camp to see if he has anything left. He’ll be competing with Jakub Jerabek and Kevin Gravel for the final roles on the blueline, though those two have the upper hand because they’re already signed to contracts.