PROJECTED LINEUP: Arvidsson returning from injury against the Bruins on Thursday

EDMONTON, AB – Forward Viktor Arvidsson will make his return from a 15-game injury absence on Thursday night when the Edmonton Oilers welcome the Boston Bruins to Rogers Place.

Arvidsson took rushes on the third line during Thursday's pre-game skate alongside Adam Henrique and Connor Brown, with Head Coach Kris Knoblauch saying that the Swede will be eased back into the lineup as they manage his minutes over three games in the next four days.

"It's been good," Arvidsson said. "Brownie's been hot and scoring, so it'll be fun to play with him, and Rico is responsible and a two-way guy, so he's gonna go out there and add some speed, shooting volume and stuff like that."

Arvidsson has two goals and three assists in 16 games this season after signing in Edmonton as a free agent this past summer following his final season in Los Angeles, where he played only 18 games (registering six goals and nine assists) because of a back injury.

While this injury was different, the 5-foot-10 winger is looking forward to putting another lengthy absence behind him and getting back to playing.

"It's been frustrating for sure," Arvidsson said. "I've been hurt a lot over the last two years and this was something different, and it was frustrating that I couldn't play. But I'm happy now to be back and to put this behind me and go from there."

The 31-year-old hasn't played since Nov. 12 against the Islanders and admitted pre-game that he played through the undisclosed injury for a few weeks before making the decision to slow things down and stop it from becoming anything more serious.

"I played through it for probably two and a half weeks and got to a point where I felt like just gonna hurt myself even more, so we took some time off and made sure it's good to go now," Arvidsson said. "That's why I decided to do that, so I'm ready to go and I wouldn't be back if I weren't healthy."

"I haven't played a lot of hockey in the last two years, so I'm happy to be back and it's been a grind to get back into action. It's going to be fun."

Jeff Skinner will drop to the fourth line to make room for Arvidsson, joining Corey Perry and Mattias Janmark, who will pivot to playing centre tonight with Derek Ryan coming out of the lineup as a healthy scratch.

Janmark hasn't played a lot of centre with the Oilers, but the Swede is a trusted player by the coaching staff for his ability to move around the lineup and play different roles.

"The nickname players give him, the 'Janitor,' just for how he kind of cleans up and does every little bit of everything," Knoblauch said. "I've got a lot of respect for Mattias and everything he does. To put him in this situation where he's not typically a centre, we put him in that role just because we think he can handle that."

Goaltender Stuart Skinner will make his third straight start after taking the loss in a 6-5 defeat to the Panthers on Monday night, where he allowed six goals on 28 shots. The Edmonton-born netminder is 5-2-0 over his last seven games with a 2.31 goals-against average and .925 save percentage.

View the Oilers Projected Lineup vs. Boston below:

Nugent-Hopkins - McDavid - Hyman
Podkolzin - Draisaitl - Kapanen
Arvidsson - Henrique - Brown
Skinner - Janmark - Perry

Ekholm - Bouchard
Nurse - Stecher
Kulak - Emberson

Skinner
Pickard