Edmonton veteran clears waivers, but star signing takes ice with Oilers

Article content
This in today, news that veteran Edmonton Oilers centre Derek Ryan has cleared waivers, which clears the way for him to be reassigned to the Bakersfield Condors, and big name signing John Klingberg took the ice for the first time with the team today at practice.
Line-ups from Bob Stauffer of the Oilers radio network:
RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Podkolzin-Draisaitl-Arvidsson
J. Skinner-Henrique-Brown
Janmark-Philp-Perry/Kapanen
Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-Stecher
Kulak-Emberson
Klingberg
S.Skinner
Pickard
My take
1. As recently as the 2023 playoffs, Ryan was a valuable member of the Oil’s third line with Ryan McLeod and Warren Foegele. They checked the snot out of Vegas. In the playoffs last year, Ryan was less effective but he was still part of a world-beating penalty kill unit. But over the past few years, his two-way play has dropped off. He’s not the skater he used to be.
2. There’s still a chance we’ll see Ryan this year. Maybe Noah Philp doesn’t stick with the team. Maybe injuries demand a recall. Maybe he’ll be part of the playoff picture. Hard to know but his contract isn’t up yet and he can still provide dependable minutes in short bursts.
3. In recent years Ryan’s time-on-ice dropped from 11 minutes per game to 10 minutes per game last year to about nine minutes per game this year. In his last five games he generally played about eight minutes per game.
4. Jeff Skinner gets a boost to the third line. I don’t mind him there. He adds some scoring punch to the unit with Henrique and Brown, who both have a bit of offence.
5. I expect we’ll see Klingberg with Nurse once the newcomer has had a few more practices. How he does is anybody’s guess. He’s been off for more than a year and he’s had major problems with his hips that took away much of his game before he went out. Has this new hip resurfacing surgery made a difference? I suspect we’ll know if he can cut it sooner than later. It all comes down to his skating. If he can move well, he can play.
Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch told reporters it will be a week before Klinberg plays.
“I feel incredible,” Klingberg told reporters. “I have way more motion, not any pain anymore, which is exciting. I feelt great and I’m very happy to be here.”
Klingberg said he’d had pain his entire career, but was able to play through it. It got so bad last year though that he decided to get this new surgical procedure. “No pain. So that’s incredible.”
He said he wants to be reliable on the defensive side of the puck, and acknowledged that had not been the case in recent years. “I’m hopeful and pretty confident it’s going to be a lot better just because of the way I move.”
He had trouble with his agility and felt he couldn’t beat players as much when he had the puck. “It was for sure a struggle without the puck, just to be able to react to what players were doing.”
He had to give up more gap in order to prevent Grade A shots, he said.
6. The Klingberg signing was big because if it works, the Oilers will have the assets and cap space to bring in a top forward in a trade, at least if Evander Kane goes on LTIR for the remainder of the regular season. Expect one more big move in the next month.
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.