Oilers add Warren Foegele, Tyler Benson to COVID protocols, postpone Monday game

The Oilers say they will now play Ottawa on Jan. 15.

On Saturday, the team placed five players and six staffers into COVID-19 protocols:  Kailer Yamamoto, Evan Bouchard, Brendan Perlini, Ilya Konovalov and Slater Koekkoek. Those players joined Connor McDavid, Derek Ryan and Tyson Barrie, who entered protocols Tuesday and Wednesday last week.

COVID-19 has been running its course through the Oilers for the last three weeks. Since Dec. 14, 18 players have entered protocols: Ryan McLeod, Devin Shore, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Duncan Keith, Jesse Puljujarvi, Darnell Nurse, William Lagesson, Zack Kassian, as well as the aforementioned 10 players.

The Oilers have been in a massive slide the last month falling to 3-9-2 since Dec. 1. During that time, they’ve posted the third-worst points percentage across the league.

Earlier this week, Seravalli and Mike McKenna spoke about the Oilers struggles. McKenna rates his concern levels at a 7/10, saying:

“Everything that you’d have expected coming into the season is happening right now. They haven’t had depth scoring, they basically have five forwards that are producing, and, beyond that, they’re non-existent up front.

Defensively, they’re not hard on pucks and they’re not getting goaltending. The goalie who’s done the best for them is Stuart Skinner and he’s down in the AHL right now. Mike Smith is 39 years old. When he’s healthy, he’s good. But he’s not healthy very often anymore. The last two games weren’t good for him, he looked completely out of sync, and Koskinen just hasn’t been there.”