The Edmonton Oilers cut their training camp roster by five players on Wednesday, loaning defenceman Beau Akey and forward Brady Stonehouse to the American Hockey League’s Bakersfield Condors while releasing forwards Simon Tassy and Zach Bookman and defenceman Samuel Sjolund from their professional tryout agreements to report to Bakersfield as well, the team announced in a release posted to the Oilers’ official website.
The moves bring Edmonton’s training camp roster down to 49 players, comprising 29 forwards, 14 defencemen and six goaltenders, according to the release. The Oilers now have two exhibition games left before the regular season opens: Thursday’s road game against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena and Saturday’s home preseason finale against the Calgary Flames.
Head coach Mike Babcock said Thursday’s lineup in Vancouver will lean heavily on players fighting for depth roles rather than the team’s core group. “We’ll put the NHL guys together, and we’ll practice and get ourselves recent ready,” Babcock said, according to the Oilers’ official preview for the game, indicating the club’s established regulars will instead be held for Saturday’s tune-up against Calgary. Puck drop Thursday in Vancouver is set for 7 p.m. MT, broadcast on Sportsnet and the Oilers Radio Network on 880 CHED.
The roster trim continues a week of camp evaluations that began Sept. 18 in Edmonton. The Oilers opened the preseason with a 5-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Sept. 19 before splitting time with a 2-1 overtime win at Winnipeg on Sept. 22, a game decided by Viljami Marjala’s overtime goal off a Jets line change, with Atro Leppänen scoring the tying goal for Edmonton in regulation.
Edmonton’s camp battles this fall have centred on the bottom-six forward group and the third defence pairing, with players such as Akey, a 2021 second-round pick, among those seeking to establish themselves as full-time NHL options. Forward Jason Dickinson left a camp skate early on Sept. 18 with what the team described at the time as a precautionary absence; there has been no update to his status since. Goaltender Frederik Andersen remains out at camp with a lingering injury dating to last spring’s playoffs, general manager Stan Bowman said earlier this month, with the club carrying Tristan Jarry and Devon Levi as its netminding tandem to open the year in Andersen’s absence.
Saturday’s game against Calgary will serve as the Oilers’ final tune-up before the regular season opens Sept. 29, when Edmonton hosts Vancouver at Rogers Place in the first half of a home-and-home series that also sends the Oilers back to Vancouver on Oct. 1. The Oilers are expected to finalize their opening-night roster in the days following Saturday’s preseason finale.
