Oilers Recall Pitlick and LeLeggia

The Edmonton Oilers have recalled defenseman Joey LaLeggia and forward Tyler Pitlick from the Bakersfield Condors, and placed both Rob Klinkhammer and Justin Schultz on the IR. 

The Oilers roster gets a little bit lighter experience wise with Schultz and Klinkhammer being replaced by LeLaggia and Pitlick. Last night, we all saw Rob Klinkhammer go down in the game against the Wild so seeing him on the IR isn’t all that much of a surprise. Justin Schultz, on the other hand, confuses me because we aren’t even sure how he got hurt in the first place. 

I asked Jason Gregor if there was any news on Schultz…

“It looks like it’s in his hips/abdominal area but there hasn’t been much of an update.” I guess the Oilers are keeping things clear as mud.

To me, the interesting/unfortunate bit of news in all this is that Griffin Reinhart must not be close to returning. Reinhart was eligible to come off the IR as early as tomorrow, but it doesn’t look like that will be happening and the Oilers defensive corps gets a little bit greener. Exactly what they need right now!

I can’t help but wonder what Leon Draisaitl is thinking right now? Draisaitl isn’t exactly ripping it up in Bakersfield right now, but he’s one of the best prospects the Oilers have which means having him play developmental minutes in the AHL is more important than icing the best possible NHL team. That’s not a method of prospect deployment that we’re used to seeing around here, and it will take some time to get used to. Even so, it’s confusing to see that Pitlick and LeLeggia are the two players the Oilers chose to recall.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens because the Oilers aren’t exactly giving us much in terms of injury details.