Connor McDavid & Leon Draisaitl will make their pre-season debuts on the top line with Trent Frederic on Wednesday against the Kraken at Rogers Place, streaming live on Oilers+ at 7:00 PM MT
EDMONTON, AB – The Edmonton Oilers will dress a veteran lineup, including Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on the top line, when they host the Seattle Kraken at Rogers Place in the second of back-to-back pre-season games against the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday night.
The two Oilers superstars will make their pre-season debuts on home ice in what looks to be a top-heavy deployment from Head Coach Kris Knoblauch, as per Wednesday’s morning skate, stacking McDavid and Draisaitl on a loaded line with Trent Frederic, who will play on the right wing next to 29 and 97.
Edmonton’s bench boss said on Tuesday that the coaching staff’s current plan is to start the regular season playing McDavid and Draisaitl together, and Frederic is the first candidate to audition to be their right winger due to Zach Hyman’s absence until at least November.
Hyman continues to recover from surgery last May after he sustained a fractured wrist in Game 4 of the Western Conference Final against Dallas.
Frederic will get a look alongside McDavid & Draisaitl against Seattle
With 29 and 97 together, Knoblauch added there’s also a sense of reliability with that line, and it also opens up more ice time and opportunities for the rest of the group down the lineup to have a greater impact on the game.
“Obviously, things can change,” Knoblauch said on Tuesday. “I think we want to see what we have from everybody else. We want to see how guys mesh.”
“Without Hyman, we’re maybe a little slim on top-six winger talent. And then you have pieces for two lines that you may not really like. I know that when we have Connor and Leon together, you definitely have a line that you like. Right now, we’re trying Freddy, and it might be somebody else, but it’ll work. No matter who they’re with, it works.”
“The other guys can just play their game, whether it’s a checking role or an energy line. We can get more out of those guys.”
The key element that Knoblauch is looking for in a complementary winger to McDavid and Draisaitl is board play, and he believes Frederic can be that player for the Oilers, possessing strong puck skills, good hands and the other necessary intangibles to win battles and forechecks to get the puck onto their tape.
Trent chats about playing next to Draisaitl & McDavid on Wednesday
While Frederic will get some run on the wing next to Draisaitl and McDavid to develop some chemistry, Knoblauch also mentioned that he wants him to get reps at playing centre, which has been talked about throughout Training Camp as the Oilers think about what their lines will look like with and without Hyman.
“Freddy hasn’t had the opportunity to play top six very much in his career, and we feel that hopefully he can complement them,” Knoblauch said. “He’s really good on the walls. I don’t think he gets appreciated enough for the playmaking abilities that he does have, and he’s also a big body that’s not afraid to get to the net. Playing with those guys, they like to have the puck, and you don’t need another guy to hog the puck from those guys. You want a guy to retrieve it, get it to them, get to the net, and I think Freddy’s pretty comfortable doing that.”
The opportunity is one that Frederic is embracing this preseason as he settles in and improves following an ankle injury that plagued his season last year.
“I’m excited,” Frederic said pre-game. “I’m just gonna get to the net, work hard and try to get them the puck as much as I can. Just enjoy it, it’s a great opportunity. To play one game with them would be awesome, so that’ll be cool.”
Draisaitl can speak from experience about how difficult it can be to rehab a high-ankle sprain like the one he suffered in the first round of the 2022 playoffs against the Kings, but he is looking forward to what Frederic can bring with a clean bill of health.
“I’m sure he feels a lot better,” Draisaitl said. “I will say though, with that specific injury, that it takes a long time. You got to give him time, you got to give him time into the season as well because that’s an injury that certainly lingers around for a while. So it’s just kind of nagging at you. He looks good, I think. Obviously, I’m sure he feels a lot more confident and comfortable within himself. So I’m looking forward to what he can bring to a group.”
Kris speaks ahead of Wednesday’s pre-season match with the Kraken
Three players will be playing back-to-back nights in forwards Mattias Janmark, Quinn Hutson and defenceman Atro Leppanen after suiting up in Edmonton’s 3-2 pre-season victory over Winnipeg last night at Canada Life Centre. Janmark and Hutson will be centred on the second line by Curtis Lazar, while last year’s top scorer in the Swedish Hockey League with Farjestad, David Tomasek, will play through the middle of Andrew Mangiapane and Roby Jarventie.
James Hamblin, Josh Samanski and Connor Clattenburg will round out the Oilers’ forward group.
You can expect blueliners Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard to once again make up Edmonton’s top defensive pairing to begin the regular season, and the two rearguards will play alongside each other on Wednesday for the first time this exhibition campaign. The second pairing of Atro Leppanen and Alec Regula is one to watch tonight, with Leppanen having led the Finnish Liiga in scoring from the backend last year with 63 points (21 goals) in 60 games for Sport.
Leppanen showed his smooth skating and production on Tuesday night with an assist vs. the Jets, and has been impressive over Training Camp as he continues to adjust to playing in North America and earn himself an opening night roster spot with the Oilers.
Goaltender Stuart Skinner will make his pre-season debut, while Samuel Jonsson will back up Edmonton’s number-one netminder.
The Kraken are also playing the second of a back-to-back after losing 4-1 to the Calgary Flames on Tuesday and returning home quickly to swap players before heading back to Alberta to face the Oilers. Seattle is expected to deploy a line of Matty Beniers between Kaapo Kakko and Jani Nyman, while Shane Wright will work between Jaden Schwartz and former Oilers forward Jordan Eberle on the second line.
View the full projected lineups for both the Oilers and Kraken below:
Leon speaks before making his pre-season debut against the Kraken
Draisaitl – McDavid – Frederic
Janmark – Lazar – Hutson
Mangiapane – Tomasek – Jarventie
Hamblin – Samanski – Clattenburg
Ekholm – Bouchard
Leppanen – Regula
Millman – Akey
Skinner
Jonsson
Nyman – Beniers – Kakko
Schwartz – Wright – Eberle
Sale – Molgaard – Hayden
Meyers – Morrison – Firkus
Oleksiak – Mahura
Olofsson – Fleury
Jugnauth – Nelson
Daccord
Kokko
LaFontaine
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