Once again, the Oilers have been hit by the injury bug this season and that means guys have had to step up their games to fill the void left by their injured comrades. In this week’s WWYDW, I want to know what kind of roster moves you’d make once guys start getting healthy again.

If there’s one thing the Oilers have been consistently great at accomplishing is getting hurt. Over the past few years, the Oilers have had the worst kind of luck in terms of injuries and this year has started off in much the same fashion. So far this season, the Oilers have already lost 27 man games (and counting) to injury with the likes of Brandon Davidson, Matt Hendricks, Drake Caggiula, Mark Fayne, and Iiro Pakarinen all spending time on the shelf. If this string of injuries wasn’t so sad I would say it’s almost impressive considering the season is only two weeks old. 

Matt Hendricks – Lower Body

Brandon Davidson – Upper Body

Drake Caggiula – Hip

Iiro Pakarinen – Knee

Mark Fayne – Leg 

One of the biggest difference we’ve seen, this year, is the ability of the replacement players to fill the void left by their injured teammates. Guys like Tyler Pitlick have come in and played admirably, which will make the decision of who gets sent down to Bakersfield/sent to the press box/traded more difficult when guys start getting healthy. Frankly, some of the guys that are filling in have probably earned a spot rather than getting sent down, but, luckily, that’s a decision I will leave for you guys to make. 

Tyler Pitlick – Three goals in six games 

Anton Slepyshev – One goal in three games

Anton Lander – One assist in five games. 62% in the faceoff circle

Eric Gryba – Averaging just over 16 minutes per night on the third pairing

In this week’s WWYDW, I want to know what you would do when the injured players start coming back. I want to know what kind of roster moves you would make to clear the necessary space required for the players coming back off the IR. Obviously, we don’t know the order these guys will be able to come back but let’s pretend that they’ll start trickling back relatively soon. The tricky part will come with the guys that have been filling in, and doing it well.

When Drake Caggiula comes back do you put him at 3C and move Draisaitl up to the wing? When Matt Hendricks comes back do you send a guy like Tyler Pitlick down despite the fact that he’s having the best start to an NHL season that he’s ever had? What about Puljujarvi? Slepyshev? Does Eric Gryba stick around? These are the questions that you’re going to have to tackle in this week’s WWYDW.