Here comes the cavalry.

As the <a href="http://oilersnation.com/combinations">Edmonton Oilers</a> wait for their first round series <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/04/18/edmonton-oilers-los-angeles-kings-playoff-preview-fourth-straight-year/">against the Los Angeles Kings</a> to kick off Monday night, the team hit the ice in San Jose for their first pre-playoffs practice.
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It saw a number of players return to the ice after the team dealt with a plethora of injuries towards the end of the season. Most notably, all of <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/04/12/four-points-connor-mcdavid-edmonton-oilers-playoff-berth-loses-mattias-ekholm-zach-hyman/">Zach Hyman</a>, Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/03/23/evander-kane-might-not-return-oilers-begin-playoffs/">Evander Kane</a>, Trent Frederic and Jake Walman all returned to practice.
Hyman skated on the top line alongside Connor McDavid and Connor Brown, according to The Athletic&#8217;s Daniel Nugent-Bowman, while the second line featured Draisaitl centring Vasily Podkolzin and Viktor Arvidsson. The third line saw Ryan Nugent-Hopkins up the middle with Adam Henrique and Jeff Skinner on his flanks, while Kasperi Kapanen centred the fourth line with Mattias Janmark and Corey Perry.
On the blue line, Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard were on the top pairing, Brett Kulak and Jake Walman on the second, and Ty Emberson and Josh Brown on the third.
Trent Frederic skated as a 13th forward wearing a bottom-six blue jersey, Nugent-Bowman noted, while Max Jones, Derek Ryan and Evander Kane wore grey jersey&#8217;s as extras, sometimes signifying non-contact jerseys. Cam Dineen and John Klingberg were the extra defencemen.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Oilers lines and pairings at practice in SJ: Hyman-McDavid-Brown Podkolzin-Draisaitl-Arvidsson Henrique-RNH-Skinner Janmark-Kapanen-Perry Frederic (wearing blue) Extras: Jones-Ryan-Kane (wearing grey)
Nurse-Bouchard Kulak-Walman Emberson-Brown Dineen-Klingberg 
No Troy Stecher
&mdash; Daniel Nugent-Bowman (@DNBsports) <a href="https://twitter.com/DNBsports/status/1913307821418119324?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Oilers top line will see Hyman re-join McDavid for the first time in a while, as with him out of the lineup, Jeff Skinner held that spot. It&#8217;s curious to see Brown remain there, but he&#8217;s found some offence as of late with five goals in the Oilers eight final regular season games. The second line spent a bunch of time this season together, the second most common line the Oilers ran at five-on-five this season, and had success, outscoring the opposition 11-9. Arvidsson, much like Brown, with five goals in the Oilers final 10 games of the regular season.
<a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/04/17/edmonton-oilers-first-round-schedule-los-angeles-kings-starts-monday/">Game 1 between the Oilers and Kings</a> is set for Monday night at 8:00 p.m. MST in Los Angeles, the latest start for any game in the first round. Game 2 goes Wednesday night at the same time, before the series shifts back to Edmonton next Friday at 8:00 p.m MST for Game 3. Game 4 has a slightly earlier start time for Sunday, April 27th, kicking off at 7:30 p.m. MST.
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Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QX_QCiZyIo&amp;list=PLRSWOpthKmdtmFOKQDd7TQdTU2KSKXYvX">DFO DFS Report</a>. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at <a href="http://www.x.com/zjlaing">@zjlaing</a>, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.
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Edmonton Oilers Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman

Here comes the cavalry.



As the <a href="http://oilersnation.com/combinations">Edmonton Oilers</a> wait for their first round series <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/04/18/edmonton-oilers-los-angeles-kings-playoff-preview-fourth-straight-year/">against the Los Angeles Kings</a> to kick off Monday night, the team hit the ice in San Jose for their first pre-playoffs practice.
<div class="bam-inline-promotion-block" data-max-length="2" data-placement-id="2107" data-context="web-content-promocard" data-property-id="325"></div>
It saw a number of players return to the ice after the team dealt with a plethora of injuries towards the end of the season. Most notably, all of <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/04/12/four-points-connor-mcdavid-edmonton-oilers-playoff-berth-loses-mattias-ekholm-zach-hyman/">Zach Hyman</a>, Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/03/23/evander-kane-might-not-return-oilers-begin-playoffs/">Evander Kane</a>, Trent Frederic and Jake Walman all returned to practice.

Hyman skated on the top line alongside Connor McDavid and Connor Brown, according to The Athletic's Daniel Nugent-Bowman, while the second line featured Draisaitl centring Vasily Podkolzin and Viktor Arvidsson. The third line saw Ryan Nugent-Hopkins up the middle with Adam Henrique and Jeff Skinner on his flanks, while Kasperi Kapanen centred the fourth line with Mattias Janmark and Corey Perry.

On the blue line, Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard were on the top pairing, Brett Kulak and Jake Walman on the second, and Ty Emberson and Josh Brown on the third.

Trent Frederic skated as a 13th forward wearing a bottom-six blue jersey, Nugent-Bowman noted, while Max Jones, Derek Ryan and Evander Kane wore grey jersey's as extras, sometimes signifying non-contact jerseys. Cam Dineen and John Klingberg were the extra defencemen.

https://twitter.com/DNBsports/status/1913307821418119324

The Oilers top line will see Hyman re-join McDavid for the first time in a while, as with him out of the lineup, Jeff Skinner held that spot. It's curious to see Brown remain there, but he's found some offence as of late with five goals in the Oilers eight final regular season games. The second line spent a bunch of time this season together, the second most common line the Oilers ran at five-on-five this season, and had success, outscoring the opposition 11-9. Arvidsson, much like Brown, with five goals in the Oilers final 10 games of the regular season.

<a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/04/17/edmonton-oilers-first-round-schedule-los-angeles-kings-starts-monday/">Game 1 between the Oilers and Kings</a> is set for Monday night at 8:00 p.m. MST in Los Angeles, the latest start for any game in the first round. Game 2 goes Wednesday night at the same time, before the series shifts back to Edmonton next Friday at 8:00 p.m MST for Game 3. Game 4 has a slightly earlier start time for Sunday, April 27th, kicking off at 7:30 p.m. MST.

<hr />

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QX_QCiZyIo&amp;list=PLRSWOpthKmdtmFOKQDd7TQdTU2KSKXYvX">DFO DFS Report</a>. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at <a href="http://www.x.com/zjlaing">@zjlaing</a>, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.

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