PROJECTED LINEUP: Oilers vs. Mammoth

EDMONTON, AB – It's a 'Mammoth' task, but one the Oilers are ready for.

The Edmonton Oilers will open up a three-game homestand at Rogers Place on Tuesday evening against the red-hot Utah Mammoth, who've won seven straight games and sit atop the Western Conference standings with an 8-2-0 record at this early point of the 2025-26 NHL campaign.

"A lot of skill on a team that's feeling it right now, but this isn't the time where it matters to feel it," Leon Draisaitl said. "You've got to show it down the stretch. So obviously, they've got off to a good start, which helps, so it's going to be a great test for us."

As per the morning skate, Noah Philp is expected to draw back in for Curtis Lazar on the fourth line with Isaac Howard and David Tomasek, while Edmonton's top-six forwards remain the same from Sunday night's 4-3 overtime defeat to the Vancouver Canucks.

On the blueline, Head Coach Kris Knoblauch will maintain his defence deployment from Vancouver on Sunday of Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard on the top pairing, while Mattias Ekholm and Jake Walman will make up the second pairing ahead of Brett Kulak and Ty Emberson as their final twosome.

The bench boss liked what he saw from the top pairing of Nurse and Bouchard on Sunday and hopes to see chemistry continue to develop in this current defence combination, which'll be used for the second straight game on Tuesday against the high-flying Mammoth, who've been on a tear as of late.

"I think it's important that we switch up our D pairs and have guys playing just with different partners," Knoblauch said. "I just think with the way everyone's game is at right now, we felt that some switch had to be made. Whether this is a long-term or short-term thing, we'll find out.

"There was a good step with that top pair the other night with Darnell and Bouch, and if they can continue to play like that and get better and become a dominant pair, then maybe we keep them together. But it isn't something that we are saying this is the way it's going to be."

For Nurse and Bouchard, Sunday in Vancouver was a solid performance that they want to build off by continuing to complement each other and keeping the chatter to a maximum with a heavy test on tap against the red-hot Mammoth, who boast four skaters with 10 or more points in the first 10 games of the season (Nick Schmaltz, Clayton Keller, Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther).

"Evan and his ability to move the puck and make plays," Nurse said of how their skillsets work together. "Whenever you're out there playing with him, it's a lot of fun to play with him. So my skating and his ability to move the puck, when we're doing it at the levels that we're capable of doing it, it makes us very capable of doing good things out there when defending. I think there's a lot of chatter when we're out there on the ice and talking to each other through different scenarios, as well as when we're both confident and staying up on our gaps and just reading plays.

"I think we do a good job of reading off each other. The other night, we did a lot of those things, but that's the foundation. Hopefully, we can build on it."

Additionally, Coach Knoblauch feels his forwards are in the right place at the moment, especially winger Jack Roslovic, who found his scoring touch on Sunday with a goal and an assist against the Canucks alongside Leon Draisaitl on the second line.

The Oilers signed Roslovic at the start of October in large part for his five-on-five scoring, notching 21 of his 22 goals with Carolina last season at even strength, and he brings a lot of intangibles to the group that Coach Knoblauch is seeing slowly come to the forefront after he missed Training Camp.

"I've been very impressed with Jack coming here," Knoblauch said. "He knew it was going to be a bit of a slow start – no training camp, no exhibition games – and now just joining our team. I think he's come in and was pretty quiet the first two games, which was expected just because he hadn't had all that playing time in the exhibition, but he's got better and better every game, and now he's a very strong player for us, doing a lot of things that are important.

"We saw him score that goal the other day, which is what we want with five-on-five scoring and being able to chip in, but making so many other plays like carrying the puck in the offensive zone so we don't have to chip and chase and try to establish forecheck. He has the skill and the speed to be able to carry the puck in and set up some offense for us, so I've been very happy with his play. I assume that it'll just continue to get stronger."

Goalie Stuart Skinner will start tonight against the Mammoth, who are 8-2-0 in their last 10 games and have scored the third-most goals (37) in the NHL.

View the Oilers Projected Lineup vs. Utah below:

Nugent-Hopkins - McDavid - Mangiapane
Podkolzin - Draisaitl - Roslovic
Savoie - Henrique - Frederic
Howard - Tomasek - Philp

Nurse - Bouchard
Ekholm - Walman
Kulak - Emberson

Skinner
Pickard