Edmonton Oilers add six top prospects to reserve roster, arrived to begin practicing

The players are unlikely to get into playoff games unless there's a catastrophic amount of injuries, but it's still a great development opportunity for the team's top young players.

With the Bakersfield Condors' season ending earlier this week, the players have had a few days off and now have arrived in Edmonton to practice.

According to Bob Stauffer the following list of players have been selected as Black Aces:

All players would be eligible to enter the lineup if the Oilers made an emergency recall - but they already have players like Kapanen, Derek Ryan, and Max Jones as extras.

The Black Aces are not eligible to practice alongside the team, and so they gather instead at a separate practice facility. It's still a great experience for the top prospects to be around the city for a playoff run, and getting extra skates in with the Oilers staff and resources.

If a top six forward got injured, Matthew Savoie would be a fine player to insert into the top six for some offence, though it would be trial by fire. Olivier Rodrigue would also be up if the Oilers suffered injuries in net.

The quality of the Oilers' Black Aces shows the level of depth this year's roster has. Savoie, Philp, and even Hamblin could all be NHL players right now on lesser teams. Next season, some of these Black Aces will be pushing for roster spots, possibly pushing out veterans.

Hopefully none of these players do find themselves in a game situation this playoffs, but they should be pushing to make the team by next season.