With the Edmonton Oilers getting back to town from Minnesota late Saturday night, the team held an optional morning skate on Sunday ahead of their game against the Vegas Golden Knights.

It didn’t glean any information about what the Oilers lineup would look like, but when Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch met with the media an hour and a half before puck drop, he dropped a bomb.

Trent Frederic, 36 games into an eight-year, $3.85-million AAV contract with two goals and three points through them, would be a healthy scratch.

It was a culmination of struggles along the way that led the Oilers’ bench boss to take the “very drastic measure” to sit Frederic, Knoblauch said.

“I believe Trent is going to come back into the lineup and be a big part of our team moving forward, whether that’s next game, a week down the road or whenever it is,” he said. “But I think it’s really important Trent has a reset just to step away.

“You see it a lot of times in the playoffs where a lot of guys underperform during the regular season, but the first game of the playoffs, it’s a new season, then they’re fantastic… I think with Trent — I’m not sure he comes in next game — but eventually, he’ll be back in the lineup, and he just needs a bit of a break, find his game, and come back, because I think he has a lot to offer this team.”

His tenure with the Oilers has been far from smooth.

After being acquired from the Boston Bruins ahead of last year’s trade deadline, his regular season debut lasted just seven minutes, suffering an ankle injury against the Los Angeles Kings. It would shelve him until the playoffs, and while he played in all 22 of the Oilers’ playoff games, it was clear he was far from 100 percent.

Now, three full months into this season, and 10 months after he suffered the injury, Knoblauch said it might still be lingering.

“I don’t know if it’s fair for me to say that he’s 100 percent over it,” said Knoblauch. “I know he’s cleared.

“I shouldn’t say that it’s not bothering him, but from what I know, it’s fairly healthy, he’s fairly healthy, but maybe there are some side effects to it. But Trent’s a pretty proud guy. I think he plays through a lot of pain, and under circumstances, I don’t think there’s pain from this injury, but I don’t think it’s fair for me to absolutely say, for certain, that he’s not having some side effects of that.”

To recap: the injury may still be lingering, and he’s playing through pain, but it’s not from this injury, but he isn’t not having some side effects from the injury.

Clear as mud.

Whatever is going on, it’s clear Frederic just hasn’t been himself this season. While he’s laid half a hit more per game this year than his prior career average, virtually everything else has declined. The offence has dried up, he’s taking less shot attempts and even fewer are hitting the net, while his goal share and expected goal share numbers have all dipped.

After three years of being anywhere from a high-end third-line player to a low-end first-line player, according to HockeyViz, he’s impacted the game this season as a player who meanders between a low-end third-liner and a high-end fourth-liner.

That’s far from a player the Oilers were optimistic about coming into the year, so much so that he started the season on the top line.

If the high-ankle sprain still ails Frederic, then the Oilers are wise to shut him down for the time being because he’s clearly not the player they need him to be.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s managing editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the Daily Faceoff DFS Hockey Report. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.