This morning, the Edmonton Oilers announced that they have released forward, Anton Burdasov, from his professional trying, reducing their pre-season roster to 29 players.

After signing a PTO with the Oilers in the hopes of securing a spot, the @Anton Burdasov experiment has officially ended in Edmonton. Last season, Burdasov scored 19 goals in 50 games for Ufa Salavat Yulayev of the KHL and that offensive touch drummed up interest for a few NHL teams. When we first heard about Burdasov through Twitter, it was said that he would be gunning for a job in the top-six and that left Oilers fan intrigued by the 28-year-old winger, though it wasn’t until late in camp that he was finally able to join the team and maybe that hampered his ability to beat someone for a job.

Personally, I thought that Burdasov looked good in the games he did play in, but, clearly, those brief flashes weren’t enough for Dave Tippett and his staff. What will be interesting to see is whether one of the other teams that were rumoured to be interested in the forward will take a flyer on him or if he’ll end up back in Russia where he’s spent his entire professional career. Either way, the Oilers are inching closer to their opening night roster and they’ll be doing so without Anton Burdasov.