Oilers notes: Dach gets first leg up on Samanski for four-line centre spot

'I was hoping for Dacher big time today'

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Well, off the first Edmonton Oilers’ pre-season game Saturday against Winnipeg, where first impressions may be more lasting with the coach because there’s only four auditions before the season starts, Colton Dach got the first leg up on Josh Samanski for the fourth-line centre spot.

Dach’s play was a surprisingly loud statement because he’s been more an NHL winger than an NHL centre; his best work usually along the boards with his strength, while Samanski’s play was far too quiet for a guy who played five of the six Oilers playoff games against Anaheim and earned praise for his defensive chops.

Dach’s line with Alex Formenton and Mathieu Joseph looks like it might be a strong fourth-line, as all three having the ability to kill penalties, with Formenton and Dach also scoring against Winnipeg. Samanski’s line with Ike Howard and Max Jones were energetic but didn’t get much done. Again, it’s early but players are on the clock trying to win over coach Mike Babcock.

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Babcock went out of his way to praise Dach post-game. Good for Dach in his 16:55, not so much for Samanski, who seemed to fight the puck and was minus 2 in his 12 minutes.

“I was hoping for Dacher big time today. We need him to be a player and for him to play the way he did (16:55)… to have him the middle not on the wing, I didn’t know if I was putting him in a bad spot, to be honest,” said Babcock.

“It’s not playing, being able to centre in the American League; it’s the National Hockey League. Now, he’ll face lots of competition coming along (pre-season) but what I liked is he’s worked really hard in the face-off circle,” said Babcock, with Dach only taking 83 total draws in his two NHL seasons (all with Chicago because he was a winger mostly), with a 38.6 percentage.

“His game was way better than he’d been in practice. He stopped thinking and got playing. He’s an important piece of us. If we could have that (4C) looked after we’d have way more depth than if we don’t,” said Babcock.

Here’s the thing with Ike Howard. He’s busy. He hounds the puck, skates hard, badly wants to make the coach like him, but if he’s going to make the Oilers, bottom line, is he has to find the soft spots in the offensive zone for his strong shot and he has to produce. He had one shot on net against the Jets Saturday, against an AHL roster. Babcock said he wasn’t happy post-game and Babcock, while applauding his camp practices/scrimmage, wanted to see more, too.

Howard, acquired from Tampa for the rights to centre Sam O’Reilly, the reigning Memorial Cup MVP, remains a polarizing figure with NHL scouts. They know about his offensive chops as a college Hobey Baker winner and in the AHL as a point-a-game player but want to see production translate at the NHL level.

“I don’t know about him. Not much is happening,” assessed a pro scout and a former NHLer after watching Howard, who most likely has to make it as a top six player here, not a third-liner because the Oilers are loaded with bottom six forwards.

While patience is the key with Howard because of his talent, he’s not coming in with the same all-around game as, say, fellow winger Matt Savoie who made the team last fall at camp and stuck for the whole season. Savoie won over the coaches early because he checked well and killed penalties until his offence came around after the Olympic break.

Ex Oiler centre Curtis Lazar is off to Lausanne, on the northern shore of Lake Geneva with the great view of the Alps, joining Drake Caggiula on the Swiss League team. Lazar, only 31 but with no NHL takers, had interest from a KHL team, too. Maybe league-champion Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.

Still don’t get why Connor McDavid is out killing penalties (he had 57 seconds against Jets), even with his speed and the ability to rattle another team’s power play. Why risk possible injury with, say, a blocked shot? Plus, he’s already loaded with ES and PP minutes. There’s a buffet of PK forwards on the Oiler roster, so why 97?

While Babcock has Mattias Ekholm with young Shakir Mukhamadullin right now to get the kid a safety blanket — they may go to Winnipeg for Game 2 — Babcock says Ekholm will be back with his usual partner Evan Bouchard, maybe not full-time, maybe not all the time, but sometime. “Ekholm’s trying to help out Shak but Bouch is going to need more than one partner. There’s too many minutes there,” said Babcock, who had a very impressive left D, Ryan Shea, alongside Bouchard Saturday. Bouchard played 22 ES minutes and 25:09 total.

Early, interesting statement when Babcock took off Leon Draisaitl after 15 seconds after a giveaway, before getting him out there with 97 and Vasily Podkolzin a minute later. Message sent: details, details. Draisaitl had a terrific back-check to put pressure on a Colby Barlow breakaway later on.

Darnell Nurse has been partnering with another one-time Oiler D Mike Kesselring at Sharks’ camp.

No surprise the Oilers have already sent their two high-end prospect goalies Samuel Jonsson and Nathaniel Day to Bakersfield, although the younger Eemil Vinni remains here. The Condors AHL camp opens Monday.

If you’re still keeping track of ex-Oiler winger Andrew Mangiapane, he’s in a fight with fellow veteran Tuevo Teravainen for a third-line spot at Hawks’ camp.

The Oilers haven’t announced their Ebug yet but it could be former Grant MacEwen tender Brett Epp, 28, who also had a few ECHL games. Every NHL team has to carry an emergency goalie on the road in case of injury, even if Oilers could have three on their roster when Frederik Andersen gets healthy.

There’s still this feeling that Alex Formenton, with his speed, could work his way into a third-line wing spot here with Trent Frederic moving back to the fourth.

Right-shot centre Owen Michaels, who’s got excellent speed, is clearly bound for Bakersfield as he starts his pro career, but he, too, was more noticeable than Samanski against the Jets. Samanski’s defensive awareness was a big plus late last season with coach Kris Knoblauch, but there’s a new sheriff in town, Babcock.

The Oilers have four players who will have to clear NHL waivers for the first time — Finnish D, Atro Leppanen, and Latvian winger Eduards Tralmaks, along with goalie Devon Levi and Dach. Levi and Dach aren’t going anywhere. They’ll be on the Oiler roster to start the season.

At first blush, it looks like left-shot D Spencer Stastney might be No. 8 on the depth chart if they want to give Mukhamadullin a long look. Stastney would have to clear waivers if sent to the AHL. Do Oilers expose him after trading for him last December, the day they moved on from Stu Skinner — he could easily get taken —or do they carry eight D to start the season?

If former Oil Kings’ forward Justin Sourdif, the Washington Capitals 4C, just got an AAV of $6.35 million on an eight-year deal, off a 35-point rookie season, how much does Savoie (37 points) get? Oiler GM Stan Bowman said on Day 1 of camp he’s not rushing to extend Savoie, currently out with a lower-body issue, but did acknowledge the money flying out the door for young players with minimal NHL resumes. Like another forward Fraser Minten in Boston (35 points last year), who got an AAV of $7.2 million over seven years.

Presumably, the Jets will be getting some goalie back when they eventually trade Connor Hellebuyck but for now it looks like they may need to hit the waiver wire for a back-up for Skinner. Not sure Winnipeg farmhand Tomas Milic is quite ready for Prime Time after watching him against the Oilers Saturday.

At present, defencemen Damien Carfagna and Czechia newcomer Tomas Cibulka, a regular in the top league there before signing as a free-agent, clearly rate higher on the Oilers farm prospect list than Beau Akey, their 2023 second-rounder. Akey, with injury issues handicapping him since he was drafted, has a lot of ground to cover to move up their ladder. He’s been partnered in camp with AHL signee Samuel Sjolund, the Swede who played on Western Michigan’s NCAA 2025 championship team.

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