Oilers deadline pickup Trent Frederic re-aggravated his ankle injury when making his Edmonton debut against the Kings this weekend. He’ll miss tonight’s game against the Ducks as a result, Mark Spector of Sportsnet reports. The team’s Tony Brar adds Frederic is expected back when the playoffs begin later this month.
Injuries are piling up for the Oilers, who will remain without Leon Draisaitl, Mattias Ekholm, John Klingberg, Connor McDavid, and Stuart Skinner tonight as well. That doesn’t leave them with enough cap space for a call-up from AHL Bakersfield to replace Frederic in the lineup. Since they only have 17 healthy skaters without him, they’ll be down a player for tonight’s game before being able to use a $0 emergency exception to add a 12th forward from the AHL for their next game Wednesday against the Blues.
Frederic skated just 7:10 in his debut, recording two shots on goal and a minus-two rating in a 3-0 loss. The Oilers surrendered forward prospect Shane Lachance, young defenseman Maximus Wanner, and a second-round and fourth-round pick to acquire him from the Bruins in a three-team deal with the Devils the week before the trade deadline.
The Oilers hoped Frederic, a pending unrestricted free agent, could add some tertiary scoring and, more importantly, physicality to their bottom six in the postseason. That’s still tracking to be the case, but he’s not going to have the adjustment period from one of the league’s worst offensive systems in Boston to one of the best in Edmonton that either side hoped for. He’s posted 8-7–15 in 58 showings this year with 29 blocks and 157 hits. That’s a far cry from the career-best 40 points he recorded with the Bruins last year, but the Oilers hope he can rediscover that production in a more scoring-friendly environment.
While dealing with so many short-term injuries is always a difficult situation to juggle, it comes at a rather inconsequential time for Edmonton. They’re a win away and a Flames loss from clinching a playoff berth, and realistically, they stand very little chance of moving up or falling down from third place in the Pacific Division. They have an eight-point lead on Calgary with six games remaining and trail the Kings by four.