Drake Caggiula is back in Edmonton as Viktor Arvidsson and Zach Hyman's statuses are in question.
Drake Caggiula is back in Edmonton as Viktor Arvidsson and Zach Hyman's statuses are in question.
The injury bug has come for the Edmonton Oilers.
With Darnell Nurse and Viktor Arvidsson already out, Zach Hyman missed the third period of Tuesday's game against the Ottawa Senators. While Josh Brown's demotion on Wednesday seemed to indicate one of those three players would be ready to go on Thursday, that's no longer the case as the Oilers have recalled Drake Caggiula from the AHL.
This will be Caggiula's second tour of duty with the Oilers this season, having played two games with the team in early November when Connor McDavid was injured. Caggiula produced one assist in those two games in strictly fourth-line minutes.
The 30-year-old Caggiula has had a strong start in Bakersfield, sitting second on the team with 9 points in 11 games. He'll likely slot in on the fourth line once again in Edmonton, next to Derek Ryan and either veteran Corey Perry or newcomer Kasperi Kapanen.
It's difficult to predict what Caggiula's recall will mean for the Oilers' lineup, not least because we don't know the nature or seriousness of either Hyman or Arvidsson's injuries.
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Arvidsson has missed the past four games with a still-undisclosed injury, despite early reports that he was a 50/50 shot to be right back in the lineup against Nashville last Thursday. Arvidsson has a lengthy injury history -- he's missed games due to injury in every season of his career and only got into 16 games last season with Los Angeles.
As for Hyman, there has been almost no news about his injury status, partly because the Oilers had the day off yesterday. If the Oilers are using their meagre cap space to claim Kapanen and call up Caggiula, however, it can only be because Hyman won't be able to go tonight against Minnesota.
Kris Knoblauch will have to do some creative line juggling tonight without his top two right-wingers. Hopefully, he won't have to for long.
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