One of the clearest takeaways from Edmonton’s night in Winnipeg is that Ike Howard looks like a player who needs more than polite praise - he needs a better runway.
Howard skated alongside Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman and flashed the kind of skill that jumps off the ice. He set up Hyman with one especially sharp pass that nearly turned into a goal, then followed it with another creative feed that stood out in its own right.
Still, the usage tells the story too: 14:46 at five-on-five, no shots, two blocked shots and a takeaway. The numbers attached to his game were 1-0 goals, 4-5 shots and 36 percent expected goals.
The issue, at least from this read, is where he’s being parked. Howard looks like a player who belongs on a more dangerous line, which means he needs a center like Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl.
Mike Babcock is saying the right things about him, but the deployment isn’t matching the optimism. If Howard is left with Nugent-Hopkins and Hyman and still produces at a 12-18-30 pace this season, the path forward gets pretty obvious: Edmonton will likely move him at the deadline and find a veteran replacement, maybe even sooner.
The landing spot could end up being somewhere like Vancouver.
That’s why Howard matters so much to this roster. Edmonton needs cheap players who can handle important minutes, and the current talk about Nugent-Hopkins and Hyman as a strong second line only goes so far.
They can’t drive offense the way 97 and 29 can, and if Howard is going to get to 20 goals this year, he needs that kind of support. Right now, it doesn’t sound like he’s going to get it.
It’s a hard way to find out, the trouble is real. In Winnipeg.
On a Tuesday night.
As for the rest of the lineup, there were a few solid showings without much fireworks. The top line was steady, if not explosive, and that may be the shape of things until the Oilers shuffle the top two lines.
The Samanski line played responsibly and had a couple of interesting moments going forward, even if nobody finished the job or gave up a goal. That looks like a third line in waiting once Jason Dickinson joins it.
The Michaels line was on the ice for the goal, though it came off a bad pass from a defenseman. Michaels finished with one shot, two blocks and just two wins in nine faceoffs.
That’s a player to keep an eye on in Bakersfield. The fourth line had its moments too, with Tralmaks turning in a strong forechecking shift, a couple of promising looks from Hutson and Marjala’s overtime goal standing as the biggest play of the game by definition.
Babcock also singled out Walman and said he had heard good things about him. That’s where things are with him at this stage: he’s evaluating, not declaring.
Walman already has 320 NHL games behind him, and Babcock is still looking at him through a coaching lens. That isn’t a knock; it’s just the reality of the moment.
Murphy, meanwhile, looked slow, though it’s early enough that nobody should be locked into a verdict yet.
The Carfagna-Leppanen pairing caught the eye, even if neither player seems to have a real shot at making the team. Josh Samanski was in that same category of standouts who probably won’t stick, which is exactly why an opposing general manager might already be making calls. Those are the kind of players you try to get before Babcock sorts them out.
On the whole, Edmonton got what you’d call an effective road game. The Oilers produced 18 five-on-five shots from their four lines.
In Game 1 against Winnipeg, the McDavid line had 14 shots on its own, and even with the quality of competition caveat, the bigger picture is hard to ignore. This still looks like a one-line offense.
Pretty sure.
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