The Edmonton Oilers shuffled their roster on Wednesday, activating centre Jason Dickinson from injured reserve and sending Colton Dach there in a move that comes just ahead of their matchup with the Anaheim Ducks.
Dickinson is set to play his first game of the season Wednesday after sitting out the pre-season and Edmonton’s first three contests while recovering from an ankle injury that lingered from last year. His issue dates back to late last season, when he missed the final three regular-season games after taking a Connor Murphy shot off his ankle and suffering a fracture. He was dressed for Game 1 of the playoffs against the Anaheim Ducks, but he sat out Games 2 and 3 before returning for the final three games of the series.
“If I’m being totally honest, I never quite got to 100 per cent over the summer,” Dickinson said during a scrum Monday.
“I was making jumps, but it felt like every jump I made, I would plateau for a couple of weeks. There was one where I just couldn’t make another jump, so I spent a month trying to figure out what wasn’t working, what I was compensating for, and why I wasn’t getting the reactions I needed out of my ankle. We spent a good month here figuring that out.”
Dach’s move to injured reserve is a bit more unexpected, since he has appeared in all three Oilers games this season and has averaged 13:43 of ice time. The exact injury hasn’t been disclosed, but Dach left the Oct. 1 game against the Vancouver Canucks late in the first period after getting hit awkwardly and then roughed along the boards by defenceman Luke Schenn. He was seen reaching at his neck, though he finished that game and also played Saturday against the Seattle Kraken.
Because a player on injured reserve must be out of the lineup for at least seven days, Dach will miss all three games on Edmonton’s California trip.
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