Edmonton Oilers shake up lines ahead of McDavid’s return vs. Kraken
The Edmonton Oilers have Connor McDavid back after a three-game suspension, and with that came some pretty major line changes.
Edmonton did pretty well without their captain last week, winning two of their three games and scoring 11 goals in the process. With the Seattle Kraken on tap for tonight, McDavid will take his usual spot on the top line, but he will have different wingers than usual.
The Athletic’s Daniel Nugent-Bowman reported a new-look forward group at today’s morning skate.
Oilers lines and pairings at morning skate vs. SEA:
Draisaitl-McDavid-Hyman
Podkolzin-Henrique-Arvidsson
Janmark-RNH-Brown
Perry-Philp-KapanenKulak-Bouchard
Ekholm-Emberson
Stecher-RegulaPickard
EBUB— Daniel Nugent-Bowman (@DNBsports) January 27, 2025
Leon Draisaitl, despite playing very well in McDavid’s absence, will not be centring a line of his own tonight, it appears. Instead, he will flank the Oilers captain along with Zach Hyman. Adam Henrique will take over as the second-line pivot with Vasily Podkolzin and Viktor Arvidsson.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins goes from a top-line role all the way down to the third line, where he will centre Mattias Janmark and Connor Brown. It looks like Jeff Skinner will draw out of the lineup for the fifth time in nine games as Corey Perry, Noah Philp, and Kasperi Kapenen rounded out the forward group.
The back end is a bit all over the place with Darnell Nurse out with an illness. Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch confirmed that Nurse should be available tonight.
“Nursy is feeling a little under the weather, feel like he’s gonna be ready to play tonight,” Knoblauch said.
"It's important that everyone plays at that high level & doesn't take for granted that we're getting Connor back."
Coach Knoblauch on McDavid returning to an #Oilers squad that has won back-to-back games.@Enterprise | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/d6Nb7lHw5p
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) January 27, 2025
Instead of sticking to their usual pairings, Knoblauch decided to run Brett Kulak on the top pair with Evan Bouchard while Mattias Ekholm skated with Ty Emberson. Waiver-wire pickup Alec Regula made his first appearance in the regular rotation in a third-pairing role alongside Troy Stecher. Regula will not be playing tonight.
John Klingberg was also absent as he was busy dealing with the immigration process. Knoblauch gave an update on when fans can expect Klingberg to suit up for the Oilers.
“Potentially this week,” Knoblauch said. “We have two more practice days before we play on Thursday, we’ll see how those two go.
“Rough estimate was sometime this week and if we have to push it back to the following week… maybe that’s the time he plays also.”
Knoblauch confirmed that Calvin Pickard will get the start in goal tonight. Stuart Skinner was not skating as he and his wife Chloe are expecting their second child at any moment. It’s unknown whether Skinner will even be on the Oilers bench for the game.
Gametime at Rogers Place is set for 7:30 pm MT.