Puck drops for Oilers pre-season schedule on Sept. 21

At long last, we have dates for pre-season hockey.

While the NHL announced the regular season schedule back in July, we’ve been waiting to find out when their first pre-season action gets going.

The Edmonton Oilers will play one split-squad game with the Calgary Flames on Sunday, Sept. 21st at 6 PM MST to kick off the pre-season, before settling in with six more games.

Here are those dates, with all times in MST:

• Tuesday, Sept. 23 — Edmonton at Winnipeg, 6 pm
• Wednesday, Sept. 24 — Edmonton vs. Seattle, 7 pm
• Friday, Sept. 26 — Edmonton vs. Winnipeg, 7 pm
• Sunday, Sept. 28 — Edmonton vs. Vancouver, 6 pm
• Wednesday, Oct. 1 — Edmonton at Seattle, 8 pm.
• Friday, Oct. 3 — Edmonton at Vancouver, 8 pm

It should be a fascinating pre-season for the Oilers, given the wide range of training camp battles set to take place. Very few players are locked into their spots on the depth chart, and with the introduction of Matt Savoie, Ike Howard, Andrew Mangiapane and others to the forward ranks, there’s less clarity about the forward depth chart than in recent years. The blue line, however, is fairly set in stone, as it’s likely Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard man the top pairing once again, with the other partners still to be determined.

Nonetheless, the pre-season is a great chance for Oilers fans to get acquainted with some of the younger players in the system, too. It also affords a chance for the team to bring in some players on professional tryouts, too. Last year, the team had winger Mike Hoffman, who scored one goal and four points in four games, forward Jasper Weatherby, who drew in for one pre-season game, as well as defenceman Travis Dermott, who played in five and signed a contract with the team.

Edmonton’s regular season kicks off the second week of October when they host two division rivals: the Calgary Flames on Wednesday, October 8th, and the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday, October 11th.