PROJECTED LINEUP: Janmark making his return to Oilers lineup vs. Carolina

RALEIGH, NC – Winger Mattias Janmark is set to return to the lineup after the Edmonton Oilers held a full pre-game skate on Wednesday morning ahead of their meeting with the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena.

Winger Warren Foegele was on the top line with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, while Mattias Janmark was on the third line with Ryan McLeod and Derek Ryan as the Swede gets set to return from a nearly month-long absence due to injury tonight.

"Clouder's got a lot of speed. He pushes teams back. He can carry the puck in the zone and play with a lot of speed too, so I like playing with him," Janmark said. "DR is just a really good pro. He makes the right plays, and if you open up space for him and give him some time, he'll make some really good offensive plays and he'll take care of the defensive zone, too. So I'm looking forward to playing with him."

Janmark has been out of the lineup for 10 games since playing 13:26 in a 3-0 loss to the New York Rangers at Rogers Place on Oct. 26.

"Excited for sure," he added. "It's been a long time, probably the longest I've missed inside of a year in my career, so I'm pumped to be back and obviously it's been tough to be out for that long. So I'm hoping to bring my best tonight."

"I've seen him play a little bit, but mostly I've heard from the coaching staff just what a good utility player he is – whether you need him on left-wing, some shifts at center, definitely on the penalty kill with how solid penalty killer he is, or he can also play with the top players," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "He's good at retrieving pucks, getting the pucks and going to the net, and often that's what those good players need is just to do that – retrieve pucks and not kill plays."

Stuart Skinner was in the starter's net and looks poised to return to the crease for his 12th start of the season after Calvin Pickard made 28 saves on 32 shots in a 5-3 defeat to the Florida Panthers on Monday.

Forwards Adam Erne, Sam Gagner, James Hamblin and Connor Brown all rotated in on the fourth line while defencemen Philip Broberg, Vincent Desharnais and Cody Ceci split time on the third defensive pairing.

Brett Kulak occupied a top-pairing spot at the morning skate in a promotion from Coach Knoblauch to play alongside Darnell Nurse.

"One thing is I like how he's skating. We want guys transporting the puck, but I also want us to be a little more assertive and get up in the play," Knoblauch said. "I think with his ability, we'd like to see a lot more of that from our group and he's certainly one of those guys that can do that."

View the Oilers projected lineup vs. the Hurricanes below:

Forwards

Foegele - McDavid - Draisaitl
Kane - Nugent-Hopkins - Hyman
Janmark - McLeod - Ryan
Erne - Hamblin - Brown
Gagner

Defence

Nurse - Kulak
Ekholm - Bouchard
Broberg - Ceci
Desharnais

Goalies

Skinner
Pickard