Tyler Pitlick Done for the Year

This morning, it was announced that Pitlick is done for the year with a torn ACL in his left knee. If Pitlick didn’t have bad luck he would have no luck at all.

Aside from the miracle that is the Oilers being in a playoff spot going into the Christmas break, one of the biggest stories of the season, for me, was the emergence of Tyler Pitlick. Back when he signed another one-year deal in the summer, a lot of us were confused as to why the Oilers would want to bring Pitters back into the fold. That’s not to say that we thought re-signing the 2010 draft pick was a bad idea, but it didn’t seem to be the kind of deal that would make a difference to the Oilers. Obviously, depth is important but to this stage in his career Pitlick has never been able to stay healthy let alone have an impact at the NHL level. 

Despite the doubters, Pitlick showed up to training camp in shape and prepared to make the most of his opportunity, and he accomplished exactly that. Pitlick played a simple game and took advantage of the ice he was given, turning himself into the impactful depth player that we had all doubted he could be. To quote Robin Brownlee, Pitlick was SIUTBSOHC and found himself in the midst of a career year that no one could have ever predicted. Unfortunately, Pitlick’s injury luck continues to plague him as he will miss the remainder of this season due to a torn ACL in his left knee. Although the Oilers haven’t officially announced that surgery will be required you just know that we’ll be adding another notch to our surgery punch card.

In the end, this news is a pretty shitty Christmas gift for a player that was working hard to earn every minute of ice he was given. Tyler Pitlick has never scored more than eight goals in a professional season but he had that many already with the Oilers, and it looked as though he was going to become one of the feel stories of the year. Instead, Pitlick has months of rehab ahead of him in the hopes that he will be able to get back to the level he was trending this season. After signing a one-year deal you also have to wonder what plans the Oilers will have to bring him back for the 2017-18 season. I’d hope that the work he put in this year has earned him another deal with the team, but professional sports can be a cold mistress and we’ll have to wait and see.

Either way, I’m sure Tyler Pitlick has a few Festivus grievances about the hockey gods that he’d like to air out, and I don’t think anyone would blame him. All the best, Tyler. We wish you a speedy recovery.