Training camp continues for the Edmonton Oilers, who still have four games remaining on their 2024 preseason schedule.
Edmonton takes on the Seattle Kraken tonight (Sept. 28) at Rogers Place, then goes on the road for games against Seattle on Monday (Sept. 30) and the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday (Oct. 2), before returning home to close out their preseason schedule against the Canucks on Oct. 4.
The next week is monumental for the players in Oilers camp who are competing to crack Edmonton’s season-opening roster. The Oilers begin their 2024-25 schedule on Oct. 9 when they host the Winnipeg Jets.
As has been well documented, the battle for a spot on the blueline is wide open. Meanwhile, several forwards find themselves auditioning for a role, too.
While Edmonton’s top three forward lines have more or less been in place since July, the fourth line remains far from set. With winger Evander Kane out for an extended period, likely until January or February, as he recovers from surgery, there could also be an opportunity to make the roster as the team’s 13th forward.
Centres and wingers on the bubble include Mike Hoffman, Raphael Lavoie, Lane Pederson and Matthew Savoie. Roby Jarventie is another forward who would be in the thick of things, but he’s expected to miss all of training camp due to injury.
Then there’s the darkhorse who can actually make a pretty compelling case: 25-year-old left winger James Hamblin. Hamblin has been part of the Oilers organization since 2020, and re-signed with the team to a two-year, two-way contract on July 1, the first day of free-agency.
Hamblin Gave Oilers Boost Last Season
Hamblin was a fixture in Edmonton’s bottom six during a two-and-a-half month stint with the NHL team last season, playing 31 games after being recalled from the Bakersfield Condors of the American Hockey League (AHL) on Nov. 5.
Fans will remember Hamblin for providing one of the most touching moments of the 2023-24 NHL season when he paid tribute to his late mother after scoring his first career goal for Edmonton against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Nov. 18.
Related: Oilers’ Hamblin Touches Hearts Across Hockey With First NHL Goal
It was a feel-good moment for the Oilers at a point when they didn’t have a lot to smile about, after having a terrible start to the season.
Edmonton would soon turn things around, and Hamblin was a big part of it. He played every game when the Oilers won eight in a row from Nov. 24 to Dec. 12. The Edmonton native then suited up for the first 12 contests of the Oilers’ franchise-record 16-game winning streak that ran from Dec. 21 to Jan. 27.
Hamblin was loaned back to the Condors on Jan. 20. He was a victim of the numbers game, as the Oilers needed to make room for left-wing Dylan Holloway, who was returning from an injury sustained in November.
Oilers’ Departures Open Door For Hamblin
Holloway is no longer with the Oilers, having signed a two-year deal with the St. Louis Blues last month. Two other regulars from last season’s forward corps also departed Edmonton this offseason, left wing Warren Foegele, who signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Kings, and centre Ryan McLeod, who was dealt to the Buffalo Sabres.
Foegele and McLeod leave a void on Edmonton’s second penalty-kill unit, as both averaged around one minute each of shorthanded ice time per game in 2023-24. That is a role Hamblin can potentially fill. Though he played only 3:42 total in shorthanded situations with the Oilers last season, Hamblin has been deployed frequently, and performed fairly effectively, on the penalty kill over his 167 career AHL games.
Hamblin’s offensive stats aren’t impressive: in 41 career NHL games, he’s got a grand total of three points. But scoring is not what the Oilers need; they already have seven of the top 50 active career goal leaders in the NHL.
Hamblin, however, possesses traits that the Oilers could use more of, and he’s got the perfect makeup to be effective as a fourth-liner. Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said as much when he spoke about Hamblin on Tuesday (Sept. 24).
Oilers Coach Knoblauch Speaks Highly of Hamblin
“He’s a very reliable player,” Knoblauch said. “During our winning streak, he was playing very good hockey for us … he was a big contributor for us.
“His minutes weren’t up, which is hard to play well when you’re not in the game regularly. Sometimes there was only six minutes, sometimes up to 11, 12 minutes, but he was always ready to play and he was always reliable,” continued Knoblauch. “A lot of guys aren’t comfortable doing that, (being) ready to contribute, but I thought he contributed a lot.”
“Now for this season going forward … his speed helps our team,” Knoblauch added. “We’ve got a lot of good hockey players, but we could add physicality, so we’re looking for guys who can add that dimension for our team, but we’re looking for more speed to our team.”
One major factor working against Hamblin is that he does not have to clear waivers to be sent to Bakersfield, whereas others, such as Lavoie and Pederson do.
Hamblin has played in two games for the Oilers so far this preseason, going pointless and registering a minus-two rating. He was a bright spot in Edmonton’s ugly 6-1 loss to the Jets at Canada Life Centre on Wednesday (Sept. 25), as the Oilers outshot Winnipeg 10-1 at 5-on-5 while Hamblin was on the ice, compared to being outshot 29-11 when he was on the bench. His next chance to make an impression could come against Seattle tonight.
