According to the Edmonton Oilers, the team has recalled defenceman Ryan Stanton from the Bakersfield Condors and assigned Brad Malone to the Bakersfield Condors.

After last night’s debacle in St. Louis, you had to wonder if the Oilers were going to do something to mix up the lineup but I don’t really know how much this will change things. Whether or not anyone would have expected the Oilers to bring up Ryan Stanton as their ticket to improvement is another story, but that’s where we are. I guess when the ship is sinking as fast as the Oilers are right now it makes sense to bring in some fresh blood.

What I don’t understand is why bring up Stanton rather than a forward? Is someone hurt? Is one of the other defencemen unavailable for today’s game against Detroit, or is Todd McLellan so unhappy with his top six that he thinks bringing in an AHLer is actually going to help? I mean, if Stanton is the answer over the guys that we have playing on a nightly basis then this team could be in more trouble than we think.

That said, I’m going to give Stanton the benefit of the doubt and hope that he can improve the third pairing because right now the Gryba/Russell combo isn’t working, but that can be said for basically anyone on defence. Though, it’s not really fair to single those guys out when the rest of the defence is sieve-like as they can possibly be, but let’s see what pulling Gryba out can do there.

In 120 NHL games played, 28-year-old Stanton has collected four goals and 23 assists. So far this year, Stanton has played in eight games with the Condors and has collected 10 PIMs.

It looks like Matt Benning is questionable after suffering “an injury” last night against the Blues. That would put Russell back up on the second paid and have either Auvitu/Gryba or Stanton/Gryba as the third pair. Yikes.

Source: Edmonton Oilers, Official Twitter Account, 11/22/2017, 10:00am MST