The Oilers will continue to be without Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman and Jason Dickinson after the latter two forwards skated on a ‘fifth line’ at Monday’s practice with rookie and college signing Owen Michaels, who’s been travelling with the team since his signing earlier this month after winning an NCAA championship with Western Michigan.
Knoblauch added that Hyman won’t play against Colorado and is doubtful for Thursday’s regular-season finale against the Canucks, while Draisaitl is still trending towards making his return at some point during the first round of the playoffs.
Draisaitl spoke to the media after taking the opportunity on Monday to get some extra ice time as he works to be ready for Game 1 of the first round, but said it’s been a work in progress to get back to full health since he started skating again early last week.
“It’s just progressed from there,” Draisaitl said. “It’s got better, and it feels pretty good right now, but there are many steps still to go.”
As for Dickinson and Jones, Knoblauch stated that Jones is eyeing a three-to-four-week recovery, while Dickinson’s status is more up in the air, saying he won’t play for the rest of the regular season and will be reevaluated for the start of the playoffs.
“We’ll miss [Jones], but we also do have a lot of options,” Knoblauch said. “We have depth to put in for the playoffs. Right now, we’re a little thin, but hopefully by the time the playoffs start, we’ll have some more guys back.”
