The Oilers played their first pre-season game against the Winnipeg Jets. Neither team iced anything close to an NHL lineup meaning there is practically nothing to gain from over analyzing what we just saw. Emberson looked alright. Lavoie scored a goal which is neat. So did that Sam O'Reily draft pick. Moving on.

The NHL pre-season is an absolute joke and 8 games is ridiculous. That being said, one announcement for the lineup for tonight's split squad games against the Flames caught my eye.

At home, these are two of the top lines that coach Knoblauch is icing:
RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Podkolzin-Draisaitl-Lavoie

And on the road, this is the top line:
J. Skinner-Henrique-Arvidsson

One issue I had with Woodcroft is right from the beginning of pre-season, he had essentially already set his top six lines and didn't give any prospects a chance to play with top end skill. Players like Lavoie, Savoie, and Sam O'Reilly aren't going to be able to show what skill they can bring to an NHL roster as 4th line grinders. O'Reilly isn't really in the conversation today as he remains a very young player but I want to talk about Lavoie, Savoie, and Podkolzin today.

We all expected that the top six will automatically be a combination of RNH, McDavid, Hyman, Draisaitl, Skinner, and Arvidsson. Those are the true top six players on this roster. But so often nowadays, lines end up being far more about duos than trios.

Pairing Skinner and Arvidsson with Henrique tells me the coach wants to see if Henrique has some chemistry with one of these players and if so, that could create a very potent third line. Right now the Oilers have very few legitimate scoring threats in their bottom six, especially with Holloway now gone.

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For argument sake, let's say that Jeff Skinner develops some real chemistry with Draisaitl and Arvidsson and Henrique become a steady duo. That creates some depth through the lineup and now the third player for each of those lines doesn't have to be an elite producer, but someone who can compliment the style of game each of those duos play. This is where Savoie, Lavoie, and Podkolzin come in. All Edmonton needs is for one of these three players to prove that they can keep up to Draisaitl, fill in their role and not get out of position.

Here is a lineup to consider:

RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Skinner-Draisaitl-Podkolzin
Janmark-Henrique-Arvidsson
Lavoie-Ryan-Brown

The second line is not as dominant as keeping all three players together but the third line would produce far more than say a Janmark-Henrique-Brown trio. That group worked well as a shutdown group but did very little in generating a ton of scoring chances.

This is not me suggesting that Podkolzin will suddenly be a 30 goal scorer next to Draisaitl. There are only so many goals that can go around on a team, especially one with the wealth of offensive options that Edmonton has. But if Podkolzin, Savoie, or Lavoie could be a 12-15 goal scorer who can compliment what a Skinner/Draisaitl or Arvidsson/Draisaitl pair can bring, than it opens up for a far more dangerous top 9.

It will be interesting to see how Lavoie and Podkolzin play with Draisaitl tonight and whether we see these players or the likes of Savoie get a legitimate chance as the pre-season continues.

Thanks for reading.

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