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.
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.