Ken Holland reveals major hints for Oilers' opening night lineup

The season is nearly two months away for the Edmonton Oilers, but general manager Ken Holland seems to have a pretty good idea of who’s cracking his opening night roster.

With reigning league MVP Connor McDavid now heading into his ninth season in Edmonton, the pressure has never been higher for the team to come through come postseason time.

Edmonton fell in the second round of the playoffs in the spring to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights, with the team aiming to win their first Western Conference Final game since 2006, the last year the team advanced to the Stanley Cup Final.

Speaking to Sportsnet’s Mark Spector, Holland revealed a bit of his plans for the Oilers when they take the ice October 11 against the Vancouver Canucks to kick off the 2023-24 season.

“We’re going to start with the seven defencemen who finished last year. The goalies are set,” Holland said to Spector in an article published Saturday. “Up front, we signed Brandon Sutter this summer. We’ll go to camp, see what they can do, watch the waiver wire.”

The seven defencemen Holland alludes to are Vincent Desharnais, Mattias Ekholm, Cody Ceci, Brett Kulak, Evan Bouchard, Darnell Nurse, and Phillip Broberg, who all played in the playoffs last year for Edmonton.

In net, the Oilers have Jack Campbell and Stuart Skinner both returning, while the forward group is largely a familiar one as well, with Lane Pederson, Connor Brown, and former Oiler Drake Caggiula being the three main forwards signed, in addition to the aforementioned professional tryout contract with Brandon Sutter.

Holland also added that he’s likely to start the season with just 21 players — rather than the maximum 23 — in order to fit the team under the salary cap to begin the year.

“What I’ve learned through my experiences, through the years, is that you’ve just got to keep with it,” Holland added. “You’ve got to be good year, after year, after year, after year, after year. The teams that you’re talking about, that’s what they do.”

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