Oilers Activate Curtis Lazar Off LTIR

Earlier this week, the Oilers had indicated that Curtis Lazar was expected to rejoin the team sometime next month.  Instead, he’s ahead of schedule as the team announced (Twitter link) that he would be centering Edmonton’s fourth line today against Anaheim, meaning he has been activated off LTIR.

The 31-year-old is in his first season with the Oilers after signing a one-year deal with them for the minimum salary back in free agency.  The hope was that he’d add some grit and faceoff prowess to the fourth line and he has done just that.  In just 38 games, he has 77 hits with a 61.4% success rate at the dot, the highest average of his career by a considerable margin.

However, Lazar hasn’t been particularly productive in those outings, contributing just three goals and two assists while averaging just under nine minutes of playing time.  He has played in just five games since the start of February, leaving injured in two of them.  The most recent one came back on March 3rd when he sustained an undisclosed injury against Ottawa.  The LTIR placement meant he had to miss at least 10 games and 24 days which he has now done.

The Oilers now have a decision to make.  They have three forwards up on an emergency basis – Josh Samanski, Max Jones, and Roby Jarventie.  The latter is slated to be a healthy scratch today which means emergency conditions for his recall no longer exist.  That means Edmonton either has to send Jarventie down or convert him to one of five allowable post-deadline regular recalls.