PROJECTED LINEUP: Pickard to start on Saturday against Chicago

EDMONTON, AB – Goaltender Calvin Pickard will be between the pipes for the Oilers tonight when they welcome Connor Bedard & the Blackhawks to Rogers Place on Hockey Night in Canada.

After being the first goalie off the ice during Edmonton's full pre-game skate, the 32-year-old netminder will tend the twine in the first of back-to-back games this weekend for the Blue & Orange before Stuart Skinner takes the crease for Sunday night's Battle of Alberta against the Flames.

Pickard is set to return to game action tonight after missing time during the preseason due to an upper-body injury he sustained midway through the opening frame of a 5-4 exhibition victory against the Kraken on Sept. 28 when he collided with forwards Noah Philp and Yanni Gourde in the crease.

"Preseason was pretty light for me with the injury there, but I've gone big spurts without games before – especially last year," Pickard said. "So it's all mental at this point. I'm excited to get back out there and do my job."

Pickard went 12-7-2 with a 2.45 GAA and .907 SV% in 23 regular-season starts for the Oilers in '23-24, along with a 1-1-0 record in two post-season appearances.

Tonight was a scheduled start for the former second-round pick of the Avalanche, who'll get his first start of the season against 2022 first-overall selection Connor Bedard & the Blackhawks.

Chicago will play the second game of their own back-to-back after falling 2-1 in overtime to the Jets on Friday and already look like they've taken steps this season after finishing with the second-worst record (23-53-6) in the NHL in '23-24.

"They're a completely different team than they were last year, and you're looking at seven to nine players that are new to their roster depending on how you look at players that were with them last year but played very few games because of injuries," Knoblauch said. "And then this year, just the changes that they made, especially with their free agents, it's a completely different team.

"So to think of them as a bottom feeder like they were last year is pretty much a farce. They're much better and that shows with the improvements they made throughout their roster."

As expected, Knoblauch will alter his second and third defence pairings from their Opening Night configuration by placing Travis Dermott next to Darnell Nurse and Ty Emberson with Brett Kulak.

The Parkland County product from Stony Plain will play his 500th NHL game tonight and 183rd in an Oilers uniform tonight, having played all 82 games for the Blue & Orange over the last two seasons.

View the Oilers projected lineup vs. Chicago below:

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

Ekholm - Bouchard
Nurse - Dermott
Kulak - Emberson

Pickard
Skinner