Oilers Place Noah Philp On Waivers

The Oilers announced Sunday they’ve placed center Noah Philp on waivers for the purpose of assignment to AHL Bakersfield. Now that the holiday roster freeze has lifted, Edmonton has also made official the unconditional waiver placement for David Tomasek that was reported on Friday, meaning he’ll have his contract terminated tomorrow.

Philp had been out since Nov. 17 with an upper-body injury and was on long-term injured reserve. Technically, he needs to be activated from LTIR before being placed on waivers. The Oilers created a roster spot and cap space by suspending Tomasek without pay, something they were eligible to do because he’d already left the club to return to Sweden, where he’ll be signing with the SHL’s Färjestad BK.

Before his injury, the 27-year-old Philp had rotated in and out of the lineup as the Oilers’ fourth-line center. Entering the year with only 15 games of NHL experience, all coming with Edmonton last season, he was given extremely difficult 5-on-5 deployment and started just 27.8% of his shifts in the offensive zone.

As a result, Philp’s numbers at face value were underwhelming. He had a 2-1–3 scoring line in 15 games with a -7 rating, ranking last among Oilers forwards in Corsi for percentage (41.9), shots for percentage (42.9), and expected goals for percentage (36.4) at 5-on-5.

Those are excusable figures given his deployment, though, and he has been one of Edmonton’s best faceoff men this year at 56.9%. There’s a definite risk of losing Philp on the wire as a result if a team is looking for affordable fourth-line help, particularly thanks to his league minimum salary, two-way contract structure, and expiring deal.