Edmonton Oilers GM Stan Bowman gives good-news injury update for Savoie
It doesn’t appear that the Edmonton Oilers are too concerned about Matt Savoie.
Last week, the team revealed that Savoie would miss the entirety of training camp this month after sustaining an injury over the summer. The news came as a shock to Oilers fans, many of whom had penciled the 22-year-old forward into the top six to start the season.
Not having him to start the season will throw a wrench into Edmonton’s plans and potentially ignite a fierce training camp battle for who will fill in that spot in the meantime. It will certainly make for a more interesting next few weeks around Rogers Place.
Luckily, it doesn’t appear that Savoie is expected to miss a ton of time. Oilers GM Stan Bowman appeared on Tuesday’s edition of OilersNow with 880 CHED’s Bob Stauffer, where he gave some more insight on the injury timeline.
“He was on track, having a good summer, and then something came up that needed to be taken care of,” Bowman said. “That’s unfortunate, but it does happen… Fortunately, it’s nothing too serious, and Matt’s going to be a big part of our team this year, just getting a little later start than some guys.
“I always like to be cautious not to make predictions. I’m not a doctor first of all… But no, this is not something that’s going to sideline him for weeks and weeks.”
When asked if this will resemble Zach Hyman’s injury from last year, which sidelined him for the first 19 games of the regular season, Bowman seemed confident that Savoie would not miss as much time.
That is as good as the news could get for both the Oilers and Savoie. The St. Albert native was coming off a successful rookie campaign last season, where he notched 18 goals and 37 points while appearing in all 82 games. The expectation is that he will take another step forward while playing in a premier spot beside either Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl this upcoming season.
Savoie isn’t the only player who will miss training camp with an injury. All of Frederik Andersen, Mattias Janmark, and Alec Regula are also recovering from various ailments. In Andersen’s case, Bowman revealed that it isn’t a new injury for the veteran goalie, but the timeline to return is a bit different.
“He’s going to miss more time than Matt,” Bowman confirmed. “That was part of our game plan going in, that he is a bit older and he’s had a few injuries before, so we weren’t expecting him to carry a big load all year.
“We have Jarry, and we have Devon Levi as well, so they’re both going to be guys getting a great opportunity here starting the year.”
Janmark underwent season-ending surgery for an undisclosed injury last March and appears to still be recovering. Bowman said that it’s likely that the veteran Swede should have been shut down earlier last season, rather than playing through his injury for as long as he did.
It sounds like Regula opted to rehab a nagging injury over the summer and wants to make sure he can get healthy once the regular season rolls around. Bowman said that the defenceman will likely resume skating on his own sometime this month.
Overall, there doesn’t appear to be any big concern for any of the four injured players, and the most impactful guys in Savoie and Andersen aren’t expected to miss a significant amount of regular season action.
It’s as good of news as Oilers fans could have hoped for after last week.