This morning, it was announced that the @Edmonton Oilers have placed forward, @Tomas Jurco, on waivers, presumably with the intent of assigning him to Bakersfield.

After a strong pre-season that had some of us wondering if Tomas Jurco could be The Answer, the team has decided otherwise and has placed the 26 year old on waivers for the purpose of assignment to the AHL. Jurco was one of the cheap scratch tickets that Holland picked up in free agency with the hopes of having him add some depth scoring but, clearly, that’s not happening right now. And with players like Josh Archibald and Joakim Nygard nearing a return from injury, the team needed to clear some space on the roster to fit them in and it was Jurco that drew the short straw. That’s not to say that he didn’t deserve the demotion, Jurco hasn’t done much outside of taking a couple of costly penalties at inopportune times, and he doesn’t do nearly enough away from the puck to justify his spot at this time.

With the Oilers spinning their wheels over the past couple of weeks, it’s clear that some changes need to be made to the roster in order to squeeze some our some offence and we’ll have to wait and see if the incoming reinforcements have more of an impact. Assuming he goes unclaimed, Jurco will be assigned to the Bakersfield Condors where he will be expected to provide some scoring, something he’s been able to do at that level, while also offering a veteran presence for some of the younger prospects in the system. As Gregor mentioned in the tweet above, the Oilers will still need to make another move once Joakim Nygard is activated from the injured reserve and it will be interesting to see which bottom-six player is in line for the same fate.

In 12 games played with the Oilers so far, Jurco has put up only two assists to go along with seven shots on goal, four PIMS, and a 50.6 CF% while averaging 9:59 in time on ice.