Once again, Todd McLellan is making it clear that he isn’t remotely inclined to take his time with training camp decisions. Just one day after the Oilers knocked seven names off their roster, McLellan axed an additional eight players from consideration. 

Betker’s departure isn’t even a little bit surprising. The sole defenceman cut today spent most of last season in the ECHL and wasn’t in competition for NHL employment. If there’s any surprise on the blue line, it’s merely that Joey LaLeggia didn’t get shipped out with him. 

For the most part, that forward list isn’t surprising either. I listed eight obvious Oilers cuts yesterday, : 

Of the eight names on my list of expendable forwards, six were cut today. Benson survives, but that likely has to do more with his injury situation than anything else. 

The real exception is Mitch Moroz, who has earned positive reviews for his performance early in training camp. Moroz did make positive steps in the AHL last year and while he’s still not much of a scorer he does bring some unique qualities to the Oilers organization. Likely this is only a temporary reprieve, but it does seem to suggest that the coaches see something there. 

On the other side of things, the early departure for Vesce is a bit of a surprise. Lowetide had a nice piece on the player on this site yesterday, and he had history with McLellan. Vesce was in an odd position because of his age (34) but showed last year in the KHL that he’s still a competent scorer in a tough league. I wonder to what degree this decision was simply a matter of not stringing the player along when there isn’t going to be a place for him on the 50-man list. 

With a handful of exceptions, the players left in camp are ones that we can imagine finding their way into the NHL at some point this year. Yesterday we were a dozen cuts away from the interesting names; now we’re basically there.