Thankfully, the Edmonton Oilers pre-season is halfway done, and head coach Kris Knoblauch has started reducing the roster. Edmonton trimmed the roster by 16 players in the past few days. There weren’t many job openings when training camp began, and there are another fairly obvious 10 cuts coming by next Tuesday. The final few cuts will create the most discussion amongst the management, coaching staff, and fans.

Much of the discussion will revolve around the fourth line. The top two lines are set with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Connor McDavid, and Zach Hyman as a trio, and Jeff Skinner, Leon Draisaitl, and Viktor Arvidsson will start together. Mattias Janmark, Adam Henrique and Connor Brown are locks to make the team. I think Vasily Podkolzin is as well. Corey Perry and Derek Ryan are the front runners to secure the 11th and 12th forward spots, with Raphael Lavoie, Noah Philp, Lane Pederson and James Hamblin in the mix.

But what about rookie Sam O’Reilly, the 32nd pick in the 2024 NHL entry draft? Conventional wisdom says he will go back to junior. And he probably will, but he’s getting an extended look in camp and has looked good. Do you remember when an 18-year-old with the exact same surname, who was drafted 33rd overall in 2009, cracked the Colorado Avalanche roster at 18 years of age? Ryan O’Reilly surprised many when he made the Avalanche roster. And he didn’t just make it, he played 81 games and averaged 16:46 of ice-time per game. The Avalanche finished second in the Pacific that season and finished 8th in the West with 95 points. The top seven teams all had 100 points. O’Reilly wasn’t playing on a terrible team, but he contributed on a playoff team.

The 2024-25 Oilers have much higher aspirations than finishing in 8th place in the West, and I understand it is highly unlikely O’Reilly stays, but he has yet to look out of place. Last night in Winnipeg, Kris Knoblauch played him with Janmark and Brown. O’Reilly took a team-high 20 faceoffs, while Noah Philp (11), Lane Pederson (10), James Hamblin (seven) and Derek Ryan (three) took the rest.

O’Reilly played his most minutes against Mark Schiefele and Adam Lowry. They wanted to see how he’d handle things. O’Reilly is someone I’m going to keep an eye on. The scouting reports stated how much he improved in the second half of last season, and he’s carried that over into training camp. He has to be gaining confidence by the day and should be very proud of how he’s performed thus far. The more you watch him, the more you see why the scouts were willing to trade the 2025 first round pick for him.

The Bakersfield Condors head coach hired two new coaches this off-season: Kelly Guard is the new goalie coach, while Adam Krug will be an assistant coach. Krug was the head coach at Adrian College in NCHA for the past eight seasons. I spoke to Colin Chaulk after the rookie camp about the coaching changes, Matt Savoie, Max Wanner and got a scouting report on some players who are pushing for a spot on the fourth line.

Chaulk: Well, we show them through lots of use of video, how we do things, why we do things, and then we ask them what they think and how they’ve done things in their past places. So that helps them understand the why. I think when they come in, in these rookie tournaments, you get in a few days and three games in four nights and travel, it’s really kind of they get thrown in the fire, but we’re just giving bits and pieces to them and to the players.

So, we definitely have them, their main focus this weekend and in these two weeks, aside from getting acclimated with myself, Chris Horn and Keith McCambridge, is getting to know the training staff, getting to know our staff on a personal level, but then also watching the players and getting to know them on a personal level too. And it’s a different optic, as you know, from when you’re up high instead of when you’re on ice level. So, you know, then getting acclimated with the players and starting to build that personal relationship is really, really vital.

Chaulk: Yeah, it’s interesting that generally on your team, you have two goaltenders, and you have one goalie coach. You want to be really clear with your goalie coach on what a good goal is and what a bad goal is. You want to be on the same page on what an A, just for layman’s terms, what an A, B, and C scoring chance is a game. So, those are areas that we go through with the interview process and Dustin Swartz was very helpful in going through and helping select that process.

Is it any more important to have a relationship with the goalie coach? I think all relationships are important to your point. And then also allowing guys to do their job and then allow them to do what they’re hired for. So, I will lean heavily on him to build that relationship with the goaltenders, but then also be that feel good guy with the other players and other staff members as well. I think Kelly’s been an excellent fit thus far.

Chaulk: Well, he’s definitely an explosive player who can make offensive plays. He was the one who had a great stick on the forecheck and set up the goal versus Calgary. He had multiple scoring chances, he set up multiple guys, and unfortunately it was just one of those weekends where we were around the net, but unfortunately, we couldn’t finish. I thought he played very well.

Chaulk: For Max, we’d like him to continue being a hard player to play against because I think the Edmonton Oilers would be happy to add someone who has a good stick, is physical, block shots, clears the puck from the net, and those are things that he did really well, especially in the second half of the season. We’d like him to continue to defend. He led our team in plus-minus last year, and for a young 20-year-old defenceman, that’s difficult to do.

Areas we’d like to see him improve is move the puck a little bit quicker to the forwards. And not that he didn’t move the puck to the forwards, he did, but we’d like him to add another layer to that and find a forward with speed. So, if he could find a forward with speed through the neutral zone, that will help us get some more controlled entries.

I think if he focuses on that and continues his physical play, it’s hard to go against a 26, 27-year-old grown man and be physical against him. He did that and he needs to continue to be confident that he can keep that layer in his game. So, the three main ones would be finding a forward with speed, moving pucks quickly and making clean plays in that area. 

Chaulk: He’s always in the right spot. Always. He’s always where he needs to be. And he’s not the biggest guy, not the fastest guy, doesn’t have the strongest shot, but he’s always in the right spot. And he’s managed to score 20 goals in the American League without being on power play. He embraces his role.

He knows the systems and he’s just a great teammate. So that’s James Hamblin for you. He’s always in the right spot.

Chaulk: Well, right shot, I guess the difference would be James is a left shot. Lane is a little bit more offence, a little bit flashier as far as skill set and that kind of stuff. He definitely has a scoring ability. Two years ago, he had 17 goals in 18 games in the American Hockey League before being recalled to the NHL. He scored 22 goals and 52 points for us last year and is a power play guy. So, depending on the makeup of what the big club wants, if they’d like some more scoring or they want a right shot versus a left shot, I think Lane’s a little bit larger in that combination

But as far as defensive awareness and that kind of stuff, definitely knows how to play the game, knows where to be. But I would say a little more offensive flair based on previous history.

Chaulk: Noah had 19 goals in his rookie year. It was a little slow start, like any young player is, but we had some good conversations and once he understood what he needed to do, we solidified him at the center position. He had a great, great rookie season. Noah has a good stick, is a good penalty killer, tough, different from Pederson and Hamblin that, he can fight, and he’s got a little bit of an edge to his game.

He has, I wouldn’t say explosive and sneaky speed like Hamblin who kind of darts into the spots, but Noah’s more built-up speed, underneath speed and that tall, lanky frame, different from Lane and James, allows him to take up more space. He took big faceoffs for us. He scored almost 20 goals, played in all scenarios and was an impactful, impactful player.

And you could feel it on the bench as a coach. I could watch his progression and saw it coming. The one intangible will be how he does in camp and preseason. Being off for that long is the unknown on how fast he can get back to the level of two years ago.

It was an expected tough night in Winnipeg last night. The Jets had most of their NHL forwards and D-men dressed, and they won 6-1. O’Reilly took 20 faceoffs (7-13), while Philp went 4-7, Hamblin was 3-4 and Pederson was 5-5. Derek Ryan took three draws (2-1). Faceoffs are one small detail, but Hamblin and Philp will need to improve in the dot to really push Ryan for a roster spot.

Knoblauch said he will play his expected top three lines together in games and practices now. He’s also mentioned his skaters (healthy ones) each playing four pre-season games. And if that is the case, then I expect McDavid and Draisaitl to play one of the next two home games (Saturday v. Seattle and Monday v. Vancouver) and then both of the road games in Seattle and Vancouver next Wednesday and Friday.

So far, McDavid, Draisaitl, Hyman, RNH, Arvidsson, J. Skinner, Henrique, Janmark, C. Brown and Corey Perry have played one game. Podkolzin and Ryan have played two. On the blueline, Ekholm, Bouchard, Kulak, and Stecher played once, while Emberson and Brown played twice. They are hopeful Darnell Nurse will get in two of the final four preseason games. Skinner and Pickard have each played half a game and will likely split the final four games.

Starting Saturday, you will see more NHL-like rosters for the Oilers. Usually Knoblauch, and previous head coaches like having Draisaitl and McDavid’s lines play the same pres-eason games, so they can work on the power play. I could see them both playing Saturday, take Monday off, and playing next Wednesday and Friday.

And a tough break for the LA Kings last night. This is every coach and fan’s worst nightmare about preseason hockey.

Drew Doughty will be missing some playing time. That is a big loss for the Kings. The Oilers don’t play LA until December 28th, so Doughty might be back by then if it is only a fractured ankle.

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