Hockey season is back, and so is the familiar preseason mystery around the Oilers. Training camp is finally getting underway, and the real questions are the ones everyone wants answered: where do 97-29 line up, is Ike Howard with a top center, and how the rest of the roster starts to sort itself out.
There’s going to be a lot of coachspeak before the picture clears, but Todd McLellan is already talking like a man who wants camp to mean something. Up front, the pairings look mostly easy to spot. Hall-McDavid, Nuge-Eberle and Draisaitl-Lander seem to be the obvious combinations, though Benoit Pouliot, Nail Yakupov and Teddy Purcell are still in the mix for a place among what looks like the more established group.
The blue line, though, is another story. McLellan was plain about that:
Todd McLellan: “Sekera, Oscar, there are a lot of defensemen who are going to be, there’s a lot of defensemen we aren’t sure of, as far as pairs and finding the combination.”
That uncertainty is exactly where the work begins. Sekera, Oscar, Mark Fayne and Nikita Nikitin sound like the likeliest top four, but Justin Schultz remains part of the conversation, and McLellan may be the kind of coach who can get more out of him.
McLellan also made it clear that camp won’t stay in one neat bucket for long. There will be a quick break where the NHL and AHL groups start to separate, even if that split doesn’t stay fixed for long.
Todd McLellan: “We’ll have a break in camp very quick where it becomes somewhat evident what our plans are in terms of splitting up NHL and AHL teams. That doesn’t mean that will be set in stone, there will be players who move from the A group to the B group so they can interact.”
That urgency matters, especially with the Oilers set for a busy stretch of games: a split-squad home and home with Calgary on Monday, then home Wednesday against the Jets, away Friday in Winnipeg, and then a game in Saskatoon the following night against the Wild. The expectation is that the NHL group will handle the home game against Calgary while the AHL crew takes the road game.
McLellan’s comments about leadership also stood out. He pointed to his experience with Taylor and Jordan and said the buy-in was total.
Todd McLellan: “I know my experience with Taylor and Jordan was a good experience. There was a complete buy-in for that whole team.
If they as strong leaders can carry that over and convince the players that has to happen, we do have a head start. I believe we can do that.”
The larger challenge, of course, is getting this group to do the simple things well: back check, absorb contact, hold the play, and keep outlet passes short when nobody has beaten the defenseman up ice. McLellan didn’t come here to teach basics one by one, but that’s part of the job now.
For all the talk about systems and pairings, the most important piece may be the most basic hockey play of all: the tape-to-tape pass on the fly. When it works, it “springs” a teammate loose. When it doesn’t, everything stalls.
And for a long time, that has been the problem. The Oilers have struggled badly at one of hockey’s most essential tasks, whether the issue is the blue line misjudging bodies in motion, the forwards not skating enough extra feet, or forechecks simply overwhelming a young team that has lost confidence.
McLellan’s early tone suggests he knows exactly what he walked into. He’s been talking about process and the learning curve without singling anyone out, and the message lands as a group challenge rather than a personal shot. That’s why this line matters:
McLellan: “We still have 70% of last year’s players who were not capable of getting it done. There are some big changes, play-wise and commitment-wise, that have to happen.”
That’s not a message designed to hide in the corners. It hangs there, clear and direct, and it sets the tone for camp. The Oilers are starting over in a way that demands honesty, and McLellan seems ready to deliver it.
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