The Oilers’ camp churn keeps moving, and the most interesting questions right now are less about the big names than the players trying to carve out a lane in a crowded room.
One of them is Latvian winger Eduards Tralmaks, who is headed to Bakersfield after a strong international run. He scored three goals in four games for Latvia at the Olympics, and he brings a different kind of edge to the organization: a 29-year-old depth forward with size, strength and a knack for working the dirty areas. He spent four years at the University of Maine before grinding his way through the minors, logging 154 AHL games and two seasons in Kladno, the team partly owned by Jaromir Jagr.
Tralmaks admitted he sees himself as a player who can fit into the bottom of an NHL lineup if the opportunity comes.
“I played in Winnipeg (Tuesday) and hopefully it’s not the last game,” said Tralmaks, who played in Grand Rapids last season and has been in Boston’s minor-league system too.
“I’ve proven myself on the Latvian national team and at a lot of different levels, close to where I want to be (NHL). I think I’m a good depth (NHL) piece.
That’s how I see myself. I can pick up the trash and put it into the net.”
He also wears No. 34 for a reason. The number is a tribute to Sergei Zholtok, the former Oiler and fellow Latvian who died at 31 of a heart attack in the dressing room after a Nov. 3, 2004, game in Minsk during the NHL lockout.
“I looked up to him growing up, which is why I wear his number. But my teammates at the Olympics, Zemgus Girgensons and Teddy Blueger … they’re the top names I look at, too.”
Zholtok played 588 NHL games, including 37 with the Oilers in 2001-2002 alongside Doug Weight, Ryan Smyth and Todd Marchant. Edmonton had acquired him from Montreal for Chad Kilger.
On the back end, Shakir Mukhamadullin is still very much a work in progress after an uneven first game in Winnipeg. He skated beside likely Bakersfield veteran Josh Brown, and the Oilers are clearly sorting through a pile of defensemen for the final spots. Mike Babcock likes Mukhamadullin’s length and reach, but he also made it clear there’s still a long way to go.
“There’s eight guys battling for spots (Mukhamadullin, Ty Emberson and Spencer Stastney in the 6-7-8 holes) and we’ll figure it out. He’s big, he can skate and like a lot of guys who arrive in the NHL, you arrive as a skill guy, then you look at the league and figure out where do I fit in. He’ll have to be a penalty-killer, a box-out, a compete guy,” said Babcock, who likes D men who are more trees than shrubs.”
The club trimmed camp by five, sending defensemen Beau Akey, Samuel Sjolund and Zach Bookman and forwards Brady Stonehouse and Simon Tassy to Bakersfield. Akey, the Oilers’ 2023 second-round pick, is still a long way down the depth chart and didn’t even get into an exhibition game.
He sits behind Atro Leppanen, Damien Carfagna, Tomas Cibulka, Josh Brown, Riley Stillman and maybe Spencer Stastney if he ends up in the minors and clears waivers. Tassy, Bookman and Sjolund are on AHL contracts rather than Oilers two-way deals.
There’s also a goalie logjam that may force a move. The Oilers have four spots between the AHL and ECHL, but five bodies in the system: Matt Tomkins, Connor Ungar, Samuel Jonsson, Nathaniel Day and Eemil Vinni.
Up front, local winger Trey Fix-Wolansky is another name in the mix elsewhere. He signed with the Canucks and was hoping a thinner NHL roster might give him a real shot after 26 NHL games split between Columbus and the Rangers, but he didn’t last until the Oilers-Canucks exhibition Thursday. He’s part of a large group on waivers, and Perry Pearn thinks the skill is there if the fit is right.
“I think he can do it (play in NHL) but he needs the right opportunity,” said Perry Pearn, who has had the one-time Oil Kings’ winger at his 3-on-3 pro camp and likes his skill level. “He’s a bit in between.
He’s not exactly a top-six NHL player. I don’t think he’s proven to teams he’s a good enough defensive player to be a bottom-six player.”
Pearn pointed to another former WHL player, Camrose product Parker Kelly, as an example of a player who found his lane through work rate and details away from the puck. Kelly, who played junior in Prince Albert and went undrafted, had 21 goals last season for Colorado.
“Parker isn’t a way better player but his intensity and willingness to do things away from the puck may be a little higher (than Fix-Wolansky),” said Pearn.
There are plenty of other familiar names floating around the waiver wire, too. Former Oilers first-rounder Reid Schaefer is battling to stick in Nashville with Joakim Kemell and Adam Edstrom.
The Predators also surprisingly put Ozzy Wiesblatt on waivers Wednesday. Wiesblatt, 24, played 40 games last season and delivered the hard hit on Leon Draisaitl in a March 15 game at Rogers Place that left Draisaitl out for a month with a leg injury.
Wiesblatt is one of the few waiver players who could catch another team’s eye.
Former Oilers farmhand Cam Dineen is there as well. He spent three years in Bakersfield and played four NHL games for Edmonton before signing with the Flyers in July, only to fall out of Philly’s camp quickly.
And Ethan Bear, once viewed as a sure No. 5 defenseman for the Oilers in his early days here, cleared waivers Wednesday with the Islanders. He hasn’t been the same since a shoulder injury at the worlds.
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