Draisaitl, Hyman skate but won’t play for Oilers vs. Avalanche

The Edmonton Oilers clinched a playoff spot for the seventh straight season despite losing 1-0 to the Los Angeles Kings because Winnipeg lost to Philadelphia.

So many Edmonton Oilers injuries, so little time.

There’s bad news, some of it old, and good news as the National Hockey League squad prepares for its last two games of the regular season.

Leon Draisaitl: Out

The star centre hasn’t played in a month and is projected to return to action come playoff time, maybe for the Oilers’ first post-season game but maybe later on in Round 1.

But...

Draisaitl joined his teammates on the ice for the first time on Monday during the morning skate ahead of their 7:30 p.m. home date with the Colorado Avalanche.

“I feel fine,” he told reporters afterward, revealing he had skated on his own early last week and has seen a specialist in Germany about his undisclosed injury. “Obviously, it’s progress, and there’s a timeline and I have to follow that, but all in all, I feel pretty good.”

Draisaitl said he’s going to see how he feels by the end of the week.

“Hopefully, it feels great, and maybe I’m an option (for Game 1 of their opening-round series.) Maybe it’s a couple of games later,” he said.

Zach Hyman: Out

The former 50-goal scorer has missed the last four games due to an undisclosed injury.

It had been suggested Hyman might be able to play the final two games of the regular-season schedule, both at home, but now, he will sit out Monday’s game and is questionable for the regular-season finale on Thursday, head coach Kris Knoblauch said.

But ...

Hyman did take part in the morning skate.

Jason Dickinson: Out

The right-shot centre acquired at the trade deadline for his faceoff and shut-down skills left the Oilers’ road win last week in San Jose after taking a shot off his skate.

Knoblauch said Monday the team doesn’t “have an exact timeline” for Dickinson’s return but that he wouldn’t be suiting up for the next two games.

“There’s a chance” he won’t be able to start the playoffs, he added.

“We’ll reevaluate after the regular season is done,” Knoblauch said.

Max Jones: Out

This injury stings as the call-up from Bakersfield had been playing strongly since rejoining the team in mid-March and had been elevated in the lineup in their last game, a 1-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday, before suffering an apparent leg injury in the first period.

The kicker: Knoblauch said Jones will be out of action for three to four weeks.

“It’s disappointing, especially (since) we’re always wanting to get a little more physical, a little more speed and chipping in offensively occasionally, and he’d been playing some really good hockey for us,” he said.

And while he hasn’t played in a month and a half, we can’t discount the loss of Mattias Janmark from the lineup, either. The 33-year-old depth forward, while he was limited to 41 games and just eight points this season, shone in the playoffs the last two seasons as the Oilers made the Stanley Cup Final.

But Knoblauch touted his team’s depth while talking Monday to media, touting the play of Josh Samanski with the likes of Dickinson out and looking forward to seeing what latest AHL call-up Isaac Howard can do with his opportunity to play now.

The Oilers have, after all, gone 6-3-1 in their last 10 games even minus the likes of Draisaitl and Hyman and have secured a post-season berth, although where they ultimately finish in the standings is up in the air.

Howard, the skilled forward and last year’s Hobey Baker Trophy winner as the top U.S. college player acquired via trade by the Oilers last summer, started the season in the NHL but was sent down to AHL Bakersfield for seasoning.

“Right now, with the way our lineup is and the type of player (Howard) is, we felt that this is a good opportunity to move him up in the lineup and play with some pretty good players,” Knoblauch said.

Projected Oilers lineup

Forward

• Vasily Podkolzin • Connor McDavid • Matt Savoie
• Isaac Howard • Ryan Nugent-Hopkins • Jack Roslovic
• Colton Dach • Josh Samanski • Trent Frederic
• Curtis Lazar • Adam Henrique • Kasperi Kapanen

Defence

• Mattias Ekholm • Evan Bouchard
• Darnell Nurse • Connor Murphy
• Jake Walman • Ty Emberson

Goal

• Connor Ingram • Tristan Jarry