PRE-GAME REPORT: Oilers vs. Jets

The Edmonton Oilers start their eight-game pre-season schedule on Sunday afternoon at Rogers Place against the Winnipeg Jets.

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PRE-GAME REPORT: Oilers vs. Jets

EDMONTON, AB – The shorter the summer, the better.

While the Edmonton Oilers would’ve accepted a few extra weeks to recover after fighting to the very end of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, there’s an eagerness and excitement beyond the vaunted sliding doors of the Oilers’ locker room to start again and finish what they came so close to accomplishing last season.

“You get so much motivation and hunger from getting there, and just the steps we took as a team and how much fun we had winning games on that run,” defenceman Brett Kulak recalled following Saturday’s skate at the Downtown Community Arena. “It makes you excited to get back there, so I think everyone’s come back for Training Camp with that motivation and excitement. Everyone's looking good.”

Following the first few days of Training Camp, where the Oilers have begun forming their new identity as players and a team, Edmonton’s process of equipping themselves for another run at the Stanley Cup this season continues Sunday afternoon with the start of an eight-game exhibition slate against the Winnipeg Jets on Fan Day at Rogers Place.

There were 83 days between Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers on Jun. 27 and the first day of Training Camp on Sept. 18, marking the shortest summer of the players' careers. But for a team with this one that's firmly in its championship window with plenty of veterans, elite talent and the desire to achieve the ultimate goal of lifting the Cup, they wouldn’t want it any other way.

“It's nice when they're short and you're in the prime of your career,” said the 30-year-old Kulak. “You want to play as much hockey as possible, so having a short summer is good.”

"It's sad to see lots of guys go, and over the years, they become big parts of the locker room and things like that. So the change is definitely different, but it is exciting when you get new guys in the room, meet them, and get to know their personalities. They bring new energy to the room."

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins remembers the long summers early on in his career and having to wait until his sixth NHL season to taste post-season hockey during the inaugural season at Rogers Place in '16-17.

Since the '21-22 season and Edmonton's trip to the Western Conference Final, where they lost in four games to the Colorado Avalanche, the summers have stayed short and they plan to keep it that way – just this time, with the right ending.

In each of the last three seasons, the Oilers have fallen to the eventual Stanley Cup champion (Colorado, Vegas and Florida).

For the Blue & Orange, its leadership group, coaches, and management are more determined than ever to deliver the franchise its sixth title in club history, while a handful of off-season signings, draft picks, and tryouts are expected to inject plenty of competition into Camp as they compete for the remaining spots on the roster.

"It's a lot better," Nugent-Hopkins said. "Early in my career, those long summers started getting old. It's fun when you're a young kid, but I don't want that anymore at this point in my career. I think the playoffs went a little longer, a little later than usual, but that's what we want. We want that every year."

The Oilers begin their pre-season with a home tune-up against the Jets on Sunday needing to dress eight veteran players—a count that can include first-round picks like Sam O'Reilly and Matt Savoie as well.

With 57 players attending Camp (seven goalies, 17 defencemen and 33 forwards) to choose from, and Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said during his media availability on Saturday that the lineup on Sunday will feature mostly younger prospects and veterans with less NHL experience as the coaching staff and Oilers management try to get a firm grasp on the players they have at their disposal.

The Oilers will also be back in action on Monday for split-squad meetings against the Calgary Flames, so Knoblauch and his coaching staff have more than just Sunday's exhibition against the Jets to consider when deciding who'll suit up in their first of eight pre-season matches.

For a pair of veterans in Kulak and Nugent-Hopkins, who played in each of Edmonton's 25 post-season games and at least 80 of their regular-season contests in '23-24, the sweet spot for exhibition tune-ups appears to be around three games, but the final number will ultimately come down to factors like how many players remain in Camp and how prepared each player feels for the club's Home Opener at Rogers Place on Oct. 9 against these very same Jets.

"I think we have eight or something like that, so you don't need to play all of them, but you want to get in a few to get the timing down a little bit," Nugent-Hopkins said.

"I was talking with Nuge a little bit today," Kulak commented. "In practice, you don't really get hemmed in the D zone to start a game for a minute, so you need to get your games in and feel things like that and be on your heels a little bit and learn how to work through some adversity that comes along in the game."

A battle to keep an eye on over Training Camp and the pre-season is at right defence, where the Oilers currently have their most vacancies after the summer departures of Cody Ceci (traded to San Jose), Vincent Desharnais (signed with Vancouver in free agency) and Philip Broberg (offer sheeted by Blues).

Included as part of the Ceci trade was right-shot defenceman Ty Emberson, who's poised to compete for one of those places despite having only 30 games of NHL experience, while veteran defenceman Josh Brown is determined to lock down a shutdown role on the Oilers blueline this year after signing a three-year contract to join Edmonton's push for the Stanley Cup and suit up for another Canadian team.

Additionally, the Oilers have defenceman Travis Dermott – Brown's teammate in Arizona last season and another right-shot blueliner with NHL experience – attending Training Camp and competing for a contract as one of two Professional Tryouts (PTO) alongside forward Mike Hoffman.

"That was my mindset in the summer. I knew it was going to be different going back to a Canadian market, and obviously, the team wants to win," Josh Brown said. "They were so close, so it's on me to get the intensity level up and get back up there and keep pace with all these guys and go from there."

Edmonton's non-playing roster will be on the ice for morning practice at Rogers Place as part of Fan Day, with the players who aren't participating in the open practice expected to make up Sunday's roster that will face Winnipeg.