How the Oilers should deploy their centres amidst injuries

After the Edmonton Oilers wasted a season-opening, record-setting performance from Evan Bouchard in the unmitigated disaster against the Vancouver Canucks, it’s already time to make changes.

What goes on in net is its own can of worms, and while the first game of the year largely rests at the feet of Tristan Jarry, Mike Babcock’s deployment of the forward group, specifically up the middle of the ice, can be improved upon to give whoever is between the pipes more support.

How are early-season injuries impacting the Oilers’ roster depth?

One of, if not the only, benefits of an early playoff exit is supposed to be having a fully healthy and refreshed team when the following season rolls around. This has been anything but the case to begin the 2026-27 campaign, with news breaking in late August that Matt Savoie, Frederik Andersen, Alec Regula, and Mattias Janmark would miss time. Whether you have Janmark and Regula pencilled into your armchair GM lineup or on the outside looking in, that is a significant chunk of the team. In the last few days, news has broken that both Jason Dickinson and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins are on the mend as well, making that around 20% of the roster injured. Certainly not an insignificant amount.

Dickinson and Nugent-Hopkins are slated to return sooner rather than later (both listed as day-to-day on PuckPedia), and while the season is only one game old, adjustments need to be made before it unravels any further and Edmonton begins to play stiffer competition.

How should Mike Babcock deploy his forward lines and centres?

Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl need to remain on separate lines now more than ever. Draisaitl’s line was without a doubt the best line on the ice in the first game, and should remain the same. McDavid’s should be adjusted.

Ike Howard, who was mainly ineffective in the first game (although in limited minutes) should be bumped up to the top line with McDavid and Zach Hyman, while Alex Formenton, who was the most unimpressive skater on the team in the first game, should be dropped to the third line. Howard needs to be able to play with skilled players to be effective, at least at this time.

The team is used to operating under an extremely top-heavy centre depth situation, but with it currently being more dramatic than ever, it would be to their benefit to demote Owen Michaels and recall Josh Samanski. Maybe this should have been the roster alignment out of training camp all along. Michaels impressed the coaching staff throughout camp, but Tuesday’s opener was his first career professional game, and some time on the farm would do him good.

Samanski, on the other hand, is very reliable defensively and should be the choice to centre the third line. With Formenton and Trent Frederic, whom the team expects to kill penalties this season, presuming they trust them in a defensively conscious role, this unit should be able to fill the gap until the other centre’s return. This would allow for a makeshift “shutdown-line”, and by “shutdown-line” I mean more of a “hold-their-own-line.” Certainly not a unit that any scoring lines would be threatened by, but the most logical alignment in the pinch that they’re in.

The fourth line should remain as Max Jones, Colton Dach, and Mathieu Joseph. Even though Dach is navigating being a pivot at an NHL level on the fly, this crash-and-bang line had energy against Vancouver and can certainly manage depth minutes.

The alignment should look like this:

Howard-McDavid-Hyman
Podkolzin-Draisaitl-Kapanen
Formenton-Samanski-Frederic
Jones-Dach-Joseph

What is the expected timeline for Nugent-Hopkins and Dickinson to return?

The losses of Nugent-Hopkins and Dickinson up the middle of the ice (even if Nugent-Hopkins is better suited as a winger these days) are a pretty tough blow early in the year, but should not last more than a couple of weeks. In the meantime, this lineup, while not scary at all to opposing teams outside of the McDavid and Draisaitl, is the most logical deployment for the Oilers for the next few games.