Good morning, everyone, and a happy Monday to you all. As per tradition, I’ve got a brand new mailbag set to go after taking your questions and sending them to the crew for their takes. This week, we’re discussing Oilers training camp storylines, Tristan Jarry bouncing back, roster competition, and more. If you’ve got a question you’d like to ask, email it to me at baggedmilk@oilersnation.com or on Twitter at @jsbmbaggedmilk, and I’ll get to you as soon as I can.

Goaltending and how does the penalty kill look.

The Babcock effect is absolutely at the top. I really dont care how the goalies do or how any of the new players look… because it’s the preseason and I’ve been fooled too many times before to be fooled again. But the way Babcock handles this team is something that will set the tone for the year and carry over into the regular season.

Alex Formenton will be one to follow. He looked good in his pre-season debut, showing off his speed, and scoring a nice goal. He was on the top penalty kill unit alongside Connor McDavid, and those two could make nightmares for opposing power plays.

The story is Mike Babcock. The scrums and the quips, the demands and the combinations. He is the Cult of Personality that will excite and frustrate, but there is a must-listen quality to his press conferences.

I think the d-pairings have been the most interesting to me so far. Seeing Bouch away from Ekholm is interesting and I’m intrigued to see how long that lasts.

Frederic’s issue was he didn’t start training until August. They waited for him to heal. If you can’t train in the off-season it is extremely difficult to play well, and feel well, during the season. Playing when you aren’t 100% is standard across the NHL. Many players have nagging issues, it isn’t just Edmonton, but if a player is worried about re-aggravating an injury, that won’t change if they wait an extra week. The biggest hurdle when returning to action is their brain and not thinking about being re-injured. I don’t think it is exclusive to Edmonton.

I think it’s a sign of a competitive player. For a guy like Frederic, he wants to have a spot in the lineup and I’m sure he wants to earn every penny of that big extension, so maybe he returns before he is truly 100%. For Jarry, it’s probably pretty similar. He was on a new team last year and was under pressure to be the guy and he also probably didn’t want to lose the crease to Ingram. Ankle injuries can be tricky too, so hopefully for Frederic it’s truly in the rearview mirror and he can be the player he was a few years ago in Boston.

It was a groin injury last year for Jarry, and it sounds like it was more of a mental thing than it was a physical thing. There’s always a give-and-take of players pushing to play and the team trying to do what’s best for them, and the team.

Good enough to play, and being 100 per cent yourself are two different things. If they only played when they were 100 per cent, lineups would look much different. It’s more of a general comment on hockey than Oilers specific.

I don’t think so. Injuries happen. This is hockey, not badminton.

Jarry and Levi are the goalies.
Bouchard, Shea, Ekholm, Murphy, Walman, Mukhamadullin, Emberson and Stastney are the D.
McDavid, Draisaitl, Podkolzin, Howard, RNH, Hyman, Dickinson, Kapanen, Frederic, Joseph, Formenton, Dach and Samanski are the forwards.

Dach and Samanski are battling for a centre spot. Max Jones will be in tough to make the roster, because he doesn’t kill penalties like Joseph and Formenton.

The decisions will get interesting when Savoie returns as well as Andersen, because then two players will need to go down. Likely one forward and one D-man.

The fourth-line centre spot is absolutely up for grabs. Frederic, Dach and Samanski all seem like they’ll be given a chance to earn that job with Dach getting some early looks with the wingers that you’d think would be on the team’s fourth line. That and the battle between Emberson and Muhkamadullin for a spot on the third pairing will be interesting. Everything else seems pretty settled right now, unless a bottom-six winger really surprises in camp.

Oh, there’s plenty. If McDavid, Draisaitl and Podkolzin make the top line, it basically makes the entirety of the other nine forward spots up for grabs. Can Nuge be a 2C? If not, who can? Will Colton Dach be 4C? If not, who will? Who makes up the new penalty kill units? Will Isaac Howard make sense in the top-six?

In terms of staying with the team, very few. The Colton Dach trial at centre is underway, which should make Josh Samanski nervous. Those two seem on a collision course for playing time. I tend to think they wouldn’t be bad playing together…but I digress. Howard, too, can’t be certain of his status. Quinn Hutson and Max Jones would have to pull a rabbit, most likely. Eduards Tralmaks, Owen Michaels, and Tomas Cibulka a full-on David Copperfield.

It’s the combinations that are up in the air, depending on which napkin you steal from Babcock’s plate.

The fourth line seems wide open.

I don’t think Emberson is out of the competition yet. They know what he can do and playing Mukhamadullin with Ekholm to start is about trying to make the young guy comfortable. I suspect he will get a longer look because of his age and size, but once the season starts, he will need to play well or Emberson will get his opportunity.

First off, depth is a good thing. Having an NHL-calibre defenseman in the press box every night is a luxury for a coaching staff. With that said, I’d think that Emberson’s track record will give him an edge. I just think he’ll be more trustworthy and Babcock will value that.

It will come down to one of those two. Emberson was solid last night, and I’l sure we’ll see Mukhamadullin Tuesday in Winnipeg. Early indications are that Mukhamadullin has the inside track.

Mukhamadullin seems to be the ceiling and potential move. Emberson is the known, but decidedly unsexy, quantity. There was that brief chatter in certain circles in I wanna say February or March suggesting Emberson could blossom into a second pair guy. Credit to him. My guess today is that both will play a lot and that Shak has the inside track for No. 6 on the depth chart.

I’m sad that Ty Emberson looks like the odd man out. I like him. He’s steady defensively, and I think he could help. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s in the cards.

He must think big picture. He can’t just give in and trade him for an average return. He needs to ensure players know he will only trade them if he can get a deal that is satisfactory to the organization. I don’t see it being a distraction when Hellebuyck isn’t around the team.

I’d let him sit until three weeks into the season and hope that a true contender is getting some really poor goaltending and is willing to pay a higher price out of desperation, like the Oilers did for Tristan Jarry last season. At the same time, if this lingered into November, he will be under more and more pressure to just kill this story and simply take the best offer that he can. My guess is Hellebuyck is in a new sweater by November 1.

As Michael Menzies pointed out in his Sunday Scramble, goalie trades rarely return good value. Chevy should’ve taken Carolina’s offer of Alexander Nikishin and a first.

As Zach Laing points out above, I pointed out in the Sunday Scramble that goalie trades rarely return good value.

But seriously, Cheveldayoff has to thread a fine needle. Until either Winnipeg, or a potential suitor reaches some pressure point, either a bad start, injury, etc, I don’t see when this gets resolved. They are complicated trades. Winnipeg likely needs a goaltender back. But suggestions that they’ll get a good goalie, a good roster player, a 1st round pick, and a prospect — some four-pronged package — isn’t going to happen. Watch for the heels to dig into the ice. 

Ride it out. Wait for the best trade available and pull trigger then. Who cares if Hellebuyck doesn’t get paid? Kick rocks, home boy.