Oilers Reveal Lineup at Practice With Two Injured Top-Six Forwards, Kapanen Making Debut

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Liam McCormick
November 21, 2024 (10:54)

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The Edmonton Oilers Oilers took the ice for practice this morning missing both Zach Hyman and Victor Arvidsson, while adding Kasperi Kapanen and Drake Caggiula to the lineup.

Kasperi Kapanen will make his Oilers debut tonight on a new look second line after the injuries to two top six forwards.

Jeff Skinner will be elevated to the second line left wing, centered by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins with Kapanen on the right wing.

Coach Knoblauch will keep the superstars McDavjd and Draisaitl together while the Oilers deal with these injuries, skating with the power forward Vasili Podkolzin.

The Edmonton Oilers called up Drake Caggiula this morning, who has already joined the team and will be inserted on the fourth line tonight. Caggiula is a veteran himself at 30 years old, but he's a much needed youngster compared to 39 year old Corey Perry.

The defence pairs remain jumbled up because of the injury to Darnell Nurse, but it's a positive sign that he was on the ice today skating as an extra.

Oilers defenceman Brett Kulak revealed that Nurse's injury was more so eye swelling instead of a concussion.

Hopefully Nurse is close to returning to the lineup. Being on the ice today, it seems he's at least closer to returning than Hyman and Arvidsson.

It's a bit of a concern that both Hyman and Arvidsson weren't on the ice today at all, but more so Arvidsson. Hyman just sustained an injury last game.

Arvidsson was absent from practice last week and was listed as just a maintenance day, but instead his undisclosed injury has progressed to missing 5 straight games now. Concerns about him being injury-prone are beginning to look real.

The Edmonton Oilers will be taking on a Minnesota Wild team tonight that's had their number in the last ten matchups, and the Oilers mired in an inconsistent start to the year.

However, the Oilers have begun to pick up speed as of late, and are coming off a dominant 5-2 win over the Senators. The Oilers will be looking to keep up that momentum, and buck the trend of struggles against Minnesota with this jumbled lineup.