Edmonton Oilers unveil full NHL line combinations at practice

A number of young players and new additions of heavily impressed in training camp so far, and now will be pushing harder to make the final roster cut before opening night.

The Oilers still have 3 more preseason games remaining, but it looks like they may be using it to ramp up their NHL veterans. According to Bob Stauffer, the Oilers lined up at practice as follows:

With the absence of Zach Hyman, Oilers coach Knoblauch has confirmed that McDavid, Draisaitl, and Frederic will start the year as the team's first line.

Nugent-Hopkins will take the key role of centering a new-look second line including veteran Andrew Mangiapane and rookie Ike Howard. There's high hope for Howard's offensive game, and his defensive weakness could be covered by two responsible veterans.

David Tomasek will center the third line with Matthew Savoie and Adam Henrique on the wings. Like the second line, this looks like a skilled group that could pot some secondary scoring while marinating defensive matchups.

Currently, Curtis Lazar and Mattias Janmark have locked down the 4th line roles with Kasperi Kapanen, leaving Noah Philp on the outside looking in again.

Defence pairs are the exact same as last year, as expected, only excluding the temporary absence of Jake Walman with injury. When Walman's healthy, he'll play second pair next to Nurse.

The Oilers are back in preseason action tomorrow night on home ice against the Vancouver Canucks. It will be the first preseason game broadcast on Sportsnet, and hopefully, the lineup will look a lot like this NHL group.