Oilers’ Adam Henrique is doubtful for Game 1, but will be able to play in the WCF

Henrique has missed all but one game since he suffered a high-ankle sprain in Game 5 of the first round against the Kings. While he was considered “day-to-day” during the early stages of the second round and even appeared to be on track to play in Game 6, the ankle injury still bothered him enough to keep him out of the lineup for the next two contests.

Granted, Kris Knoublauch did say in the lead-up to Game 7 that Henrique was getting closer to being cleared to play but an exact timeline on when the 34-year-old could play was not provided. And once that does come about, you can expect him to get limited minutes to start because the Oilers would want to avoid him getting a setback in the middle of the game.

Edmonton was able to get the job done with Henrique mostly unavailable, but they will certainly value having him back in the fold to provide some two-way play and veteran leadership. It also helps that he is known to close out the third round, as was the case way back in 2012. Although he has been far from their most productive player in these playoffs with only two points (a goal and an assist) in six games played, the Oilers will need all the help they can get if they want to give themselves the best chances of getting past a stacked Stars team.

Henrique was acquired along with Sam Carrick in a trade deadline transaction with the Ducks that saw the Oilers send out their 2024 first-round pick and a conditional fifth-round pick in 2025. The condition of that latter pick was that it would upgrade to a fourth if the Oilers win the Stanley Cup this year.

The Western Conference Finals begins on Thursday night in Dallas. You can catch the action on CBC and Sportsnet with puck drop scheduled for 6:30 p.m. MDT.