Oilers Send Out Six; Battles Remain

We had been told to expect cuts today, and the Oilers didn’t disappoint, releasing one player and ticketing five others for Oklahoma City.

The player released was Jared Aulin, while the five sent to the minors are as follow:

None of this is especially shocking, although the release of Aulin surprised me a little. He played some NHL hockey back in 2002-03, and last season was a solid player with Syracuse of the AHL. Still, he would have taken up one of the Oilers’ veteran spots in Oklahoma. 

Speaking of veteran spots, both Stewart and Moran need to clear waivers before they arrive in the AHL, but the probability of either being claimed is really close to the “none” side of the slim-to-none spectrum. Stewart adds muscle to the line-up while Moran may be the top scorer in Oklahoma this season; he’s been a minor league impact player stretching back to before the NHL lockout.

Taylor played for the Oilers down in Springfield last season, and it’s no surprise to see him returned. The two legitimate prospects – Hartikainen and Motin – are still a year or more away and need time to develop on the farm, but the fact they’ve been sent down relatively early doesn’t say good things about their training camp, particularly given some of the names still at Oilers camp.

The real surprise today comes from looking at those names. At the top of the list is Colin McDonald, who isn’t even on an NHL contract, but somehow remains in camp.  28 year-old Ben Ondrus, who has spent most of his professional career in the Leafs’ AHL system, also remains in camp, although he is expected to start the season in Oklahoma. Those two players are both guys that Hartikainen might have expected to outlast. On defence, the fact that Motin was demoted while Alex Plante, Jeff Petry and Taylor Chorney remain tells us that he’s a bit behind that cluster of prospects.

As for the key battles, today’s cuts don’t tell us much because the players sent out weren’t really expected to compete for those spots. As I read it (assuming that Steve MacIntyre is a sure thing and Ryan Jones isn’t), there are two available spots up front and two available spots on the back end, with heavy competition for both. Here’s how I expect the battles to play out:

Naturally, that also assumes the NHL guys from last season are joined by the three star forward prospects, that Colin McDonald’s AHL contract puts him out of the running for a job (though given the role available there’s a temptation to think he has an outside shot) and that the Oilers carry 14 forwards, seven defencemen and two goaltenders. How does everyone else see training camp turning out?