Raphaël Lavoie is here.

On Friday evening, the Edmonton Oilers announced that they’d be calling up Lavoie.

The 23-year-old winger was drafted in the second round of the 2019 draft and has spent the past four seasons with the Bakersfield Condors. The Chambly, Quebec native broke out during the 2022-23 season, scoring 25 goals and 45 points in 61 games while scoring a goal in Bakersfield’s two playoff games.

Lavoie had a great pre-season but was ultimately sent down to the American Hockey League, where he tore it up in Bakersfield’s five games. Lavoie has four goals and seven points in those five games. Furthermore, Lavoie picked up a Gordie Howe hat trick this past week.

For his American Hockey League career, he has 47 goals and 88 points in 141 games, so this call-up is well deserved.

It’s expected that Lavoie will replace Connor Brown in the lineup, as he left Thursday’s game with an apparent injury. The 29-year-old has had a rough start to his season, totalling no points in nine of Edmonton’s games. In reality, Brown looks like a player who missed the previous season with an ACL injury.

So this begs the question, where will Lavoie play on the forward core? Well, since the Oilers are up against the cap and Mattias Janmark is also out, the Oilers are expected only to have 11 forwards and six defencemen play on Saturday unless Janmark is set to play.

After a two-goal game on Thursday, Gagner moved up to the second line with Evander Kane and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, according to Jack Michaels, leaving a mix of Dylan Holloway, Ryan McLeod, Warren Foegele, and Derek Ryan on the third line. If I were a betting man, Lavoie will play on the third line with McLeod and Foegele, while Ryan and Holloway will make up the shorthanded fourth line.

Either way, it’ll be exciting to watch the 23-year-old’s National Hockey League debut on Saturday afternoon!

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