A review of Edmonton Oilers stories you may have missed in the past week.
The Edmonton Oilers are making an impression around the league. After being the first team to have a full attendance for captain skates - many other teams reportedly followed suit.
Mattias Ekholm, Leon Draisaitl & Evan Bouchard.The Oilers captain skates gave us a glimpse at some forward line combinations as well as defensive pairings that could be utilized at the beginning of the regular season. We saw Connor McDavid with Connor Brown on his right wing, which could be the beginning of a breakout season for Brown. A notable defence pairing in Mattias Ekholm and Philip Broberg could become a standout combination this season.
Former Oiler Josh Archibald had signed a two-year contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning this past off-season. Something in his life had changed, to the point where he notified Lightning management that he wouldn't attend camp - and was promptly placed on unconditional waivers to terminate his contract.
Adam Erne.A third professional tryout contract was signed ahead of the Oilers main camp beginning. NHL veteran Adam Erne will be joining Sam Gagner and Brandon Sutter as players looking to leave a good impression on the coaching staff - and be awarded with a contract for the season.
The rookie camp started this past week with Beau Akey, Xavier Bourgault and Matvey Petrov being notable draft picks in attendance. Noah Ganske was one of 15 camp invitees who is gifted with a 6-foot-7 & 210 lbs frame. That combined with his right-handedness makes the prospect of him signing an entry level contract (or AHL deal) something for Oiler fans to monitor in the near future.
Beau Akey.The rookies have played two games in the Young Stars Classic prospect tournament. They defeated the Winnipeg Jets rookies 3-1. Akey and Jake Sloan both showed up on the scoresheet, with Akey proving that he has offensive chops to run a power play.
They dropped their second game to the Calgary Flames rookie squad - not before Petrov made his presence felt with a fantastic one-timer goal and nifty moves on the power play.
Jujhar Khaira.Elliotte Friedman tweeted out on Saturday September 16th that Jujhar Khaira was looking to sign with the Minnesota Wild. The nature of that contract is not yet finalized, but there appears to be some potential immigration issues. Those issues could lead to a PTO contract to get him to camp and then a standard contract once those speedbumps are ironed out.