Welcome back to another weekly injury report! I am back from Mexico and made it through my vacation without any harm. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the Oilers, as they’ve got a new player to add on the injury list. Let’s get into it!
Drake Caggiula
Drake Caggiula has been placed on the Injury Reserve to do an injured hand. How did he hurt his hand you ask? It didn’t happen when he was playing during a game, it didn’t happen when he was working in the garage at home, but it actually happened during practice. The boys were doing some kind of drill where they try to pick up the glove as fast as possible from the ice (as per Jason Gregor), and bada-bing-bada-boom, Caggiulas on the IR.
Here’s what Jason Gregor had to say about it:
Drake Caggiula will get an MRI on his hand today. There is a concern this could end up being more than short-term. He won’t play this weekend. He was one of the few depth guys scoring, so losing him is not ideal at this time. It makes it worse that he got injured in practice during a reaction-time drill with players seeing who could grab the glove on the ice the quickest. Seems like a pointless drill to me.
Obviously, we have to wait for the MRI results to get in before we can evaluate how long-term this injury will be, but it’s not looking good. In the meantime, the Oilers have recalled Cooper Marody and have activated Valentin Zykov. Drake Caggiula has struggled with injuries in the past, and of course, he’s hit with the injury bug right after he was picking up momentum with the team. It’s a shame he hurt himself in such odd circumstance, but I truly hope it’s not as bad as they think.
Tobias Rieder
He has been skating, which isn't a surprise since it is a shoulder injury. He is progressing and still a week away at least. Not cleared for contact yet. https://t.co/oz4ekfqFHx
— Jason Gregor (@JasonGregor) December 6, 2018
The Oilers are definitely missing Toby out there in the lineup. Before he got injured, he and Draisaitl were creating some really good chemistry on the second line, and I’m very intrigued to see how Hitchcock handles the lines when Rieder returns. As said by Gregor, it looks like Rieder is minimum a week away from returning. He’s been out for a few weeks now and I think it’s safe to say he’s on the home stretch of recovery.
Kailer Yamamoto
"He took some incidental contact. He is out day-to-day, but nothing serious." Woodcroft on Yamamoto #Condors
— Jason Gregor (@JasonGregor) December 6, 2018
It appears our boy Yamamoto got a little banged up in the AHL this past week. Thankfully Jay Woodcroft explained that it’s nothing to be concerned about. With a busy schedule this weekend, I’m guessing Yamamoto will miss both games but will return next week.
Andrej Sekera
As Cooom and Jason Gregor pointed out in last weeks Injury Report while I was away, Andrej Sekera will be taking pre-game skates with the team over the next few weeks and will hopefully return back into the lineup in January if all goes well. If he does return in January it would blow my mind. When first injured back in the summer, he was first expected to return in late February or March. Some people mentioned that he might not play for the entire season.
It continues to amaze me how quickly professional athletes can bounce back from major injuries. How does an average joe get this kind of help when I roll my ankle walking down the stairs?
Sekera will have pregame skates for next two weeks then see doctor.If cleared he will then enter regular practices in non contact jersey. If no set backs seems like January is likely return time. #Oilers
— Jason Gregor (@JasonGregor) November 27, 2018
Ostap Safin
The Nation Dan here to let you know that Ostap Safin is also dealing with an injury.
Previous Injury Reports
- Chris in Mexico, Sekera is at Practice
- SekeraSkating?
- Get well soon, Tobi
- Week five: Flu season
- Week four: 22 Stitches and a face shield
- Week three: “The Answer” is losing his status
- Week two: Caggiulaless
- Week one: We back!
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i believe that a healthy reider, sekera, and caggiulla can help the team
I agree with you about Rieder and potentially Caggulia, I do not agree with Sekera. Sekera got a major knee injury in the playoffs before last season. He missed the entire offseason, all of camp, all of the preseason and half the season. When he came back he sucked and hurt the team. The reason he sucked is because all the players in the league were months and months ahead of him. Even if they were a little nicked up, they would still be in WAY better game shape than Sekera. There was no way Sekera could EVER catch up last season. This season it’s basically the same. He got injured with a MAJOR injury not even a month before the season. He’s missed all of camp, all of the preseason and if he were to come back in January, he will have missed half of the season. So again, ALL the players in the league are months and months ahead of him. So he will be playing catch up the rest of the season. If Sekera was an elite dmen, then maybe he could come back and be decent strictly because he is normally so much better than most of the league. Sekera is not an elite dman. When 100% healthy and fully up to speed, Sekera at his peak is a good dman. So the chances of Sekera being even decent due to his age and how much time he missed last year AND this year is extremely slim.
What will Reggie coming back do with our cap hit?
Nothing. They never used the LTIR space
Is that unused cap space still available after Sekera returns? Say for a deadline day winger?
Thanks to both. But what & how do we pay him when he comes back? I think some one said we have like $59,000 left in space. When you say we never used the LTIR Space, is Reggie’s salary accounted for, so he just comes back?
I hope Sekera can come back and be what he was. At 32, without the injuries he would only have a few years left as it is. If he doesn’t return to form, all were going to here about is his 5.5m cap hit. If I had a NHL career, I would wanna retire on a high note and on my terms.
damn it! “hear”not “here”
That’s OK Bear, this isn’t English Class?
damn it! “Beer” not “Bear”
Having Rieder and Caggiula back would send Marody down and likely a defenseman (Garrison?).
You’d also put either Rieder or Caggiula back in the top six. I’d imagine Rieder sits a game to watch Hitch’s system. Does Chiasson remain up there?
Draisaitl – McDavid – Chiasson
Caggiula – Nuge – Puljujarvi
Lucic – Brodziak – Kassian
Khaira/Rieder – Spooner – Rattie/Zybov
Rieder’s done more watching of the system than anybody on the team.
Zybov??
who?
I don’t think Garrison has played in a while?
But I’d really like to see Wideman play to his potential?
Maybe he’ll be Chaisson like, “sit for 5 or 6 games and play lights out”?
I hope Toby ignites Drai and Hitch won’t need to tinker with the German connection.
I also hope Reggie won’t come up to soon (like many other athletes).
And freak injuries happen from time to time – some drills need to be spiced with some fun time I guess…
Man that’s dumb. Hopefully we don’t hear about McDavid getting a concussion during the “pick your helmet up off the ice as fast as you can” drill.
Old school Drills… I love it…
Whenever we went to play on bad soft ice like you’d find in California or Florida, we’d run all the pre-trip practices with tennis balls plus we had those lead weight straps around our calves… it made a huge difference.