Leon Draisaitl and Zack Kassian are expected to make their pre-season debuts Friday night when the Edmonton Oilers host the Calgary Flames.
“I’m excited to getting back to playing and finding my gear and finding my game,” said Draisaitl, who potted 50 goals last season. “You can only practice for so long until it gets boring and you get excited for games.”
The Oilers trimmed their training camp roster to 33 players Friday morning, assigning Tyler Benson, Cameron Hebig, Caleb Jones, Kirill Maksimov, Cooper Marody, Ryan McLeod, Anthony Peluso, Dmitri Samorukov and Dylan Wells to Bakersfield in the AHL. Also, Keegan Lowe, Brad Malone, Joseph Gambardella, and Josh Currie were placed on waivers for the purpose of assignment.
“I was looking for them to be ahead in rookie camp. There wasn’t much separation there. I gave them lots of opportunity,” head coach Dave Tippett said of Benson and Marody, who were the top two scorers on the Condors last season. “Benson is not far away. He makes good plays. He just has to continue to get up to speed.”
Catch the Oilers and Flames on 630 CHED with the Face-off Show at 5:30 p.m. The game starts at 7 p.m.