Oilers Must Rely On Young Players With McDavid Out

In the event of an injury, it's common for teams to adopt a "next man up" mentality.

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When that injury is to the best player in the world, that becomes a lot harder. The Oilers have seldom had to worry about putting together a lineup without Connor McDavid, but that's what they'll have to do for at least the next game, possibly more.

The Oilers' forward corps could use a shakeup after getting bowled over in a brutal loss to Columbus on Monday. It's not ideal that it's a McDavid injury that's giving them the opportunity to do so, but when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Luckily, the Oilers already have two non-Mcdavid lines that have performed very well together. The original second line of Jeff Skinner, Leon Draisaitl, and Viktor Arvidsson have an expected goals share of 64% in 26 minutes together and can slide right up to the top line to replace the struggling Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman.

Further down the lineup, the third line of Vasily Podkolzin, Adam Henrique, and Connor Brown have looked very comfortable in 11 short minutes together. Podkolzin has performed admirably up and down the lineup and his hard-working, physical style fits the third line like a glove. At the very least, he keeps Mattias Janmark's 36.2% xG share away from the top nine.

The problems lie on the other two lines, where the Oilers are short a scoring winger and shutdown centre. As luck would have it, they have candidates for both positions down on the farm in Bakersfield in Matt Savoie and Noah Philp.

The Oilers need to take a big swing on Savoie on the second line. With nobody else on the roster well-suited to top-six minutes, they might as well give their top prospect a shot next to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman. Savoie's path to the NHL has been blocked by a lack of top-six opportunities, and he might just take the job and run with it. It's worth a shot.

I don't expect that the Oilers will call up two players, but they had depth problems that needed solving well before McDavid went down. The fourth line of Mattias Janmark, Derek Ryan, and Corey Perry has been awful, earning only 37% of the expected goals. Ryan and Perry did well next to Podkolzin, but given Podkolzin's success higher in the lineup it's safe to attribute that success to him.

The time has come for Noah Philp to make his NHL debut and replace Derek Ryan on the fourth line. Philp outplayed Ryan in the pre-season, and Ryan's xG% of 36 is the worst on the team. Janmark hasn't been much better, but Perry's played quite well, and the addition of the younger, bigger, and faster Philp could give the fourth line a boost.

With all that said, here is my best shot at a workable lineup for the McDavid-less Oilers.

J. Skinner - Draisaitl - Arvidsson

Hyman - Nugent-Hopkins - Savoie

Podkolzin - Henrique - Brown

Janmark - Philp - Perry

That's putting a lot of faith in Podkolzin, Savoie, and Philp, but eventually, you need to let the kids play. Watching youngsters Dylan Holloway, Philip Broberg, Ryan McLeod, and Michael Kesselring all excel after leaving the Oilers has been difficult, and the team needs to ensure that doesn't happen again.

The second line is still worrisome, and if McDavid is out for an extended period GM Stan Bowman will likely have to search the trade market for scoring help sooner rather than later. But with the team struggling to score goals and missing their best player, there's no better time to make a bet on upside with Savoie. As for Philp, he should be on the team already, having shown he has what it takes in training camp.

We'll get our first look at the Oilers without McDavid on Thursday, as they visit the Nashville Predators.

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