Oilers announce surprising emergency roster move before final game

The obvious reason for the Oilers rosters move would be to replace Darnell Nurse if he has to miss at least the final game of the season with a suspension.

The Oilers announced the roster move for the 31 year old veteran Carrick on their social media this afternoon.

Carrick may have to get into the lineup for at least the last game of the season, due the number of Oilers injuries on defence. Hopefully for Edmonton, Carrick won't have to play more than one game.

The Oilers are currently missing Mattias Ekholm, Jake Walman, Troy Stecher, and John Klingberg with injury. Only Ekholm has been ruled out of Game 1, but for the Oilers' final game of the season, they may roll out their ugliest D core.

Carrick has actually played 242 career NHL games with the Capitlas, Leafs, Stars, Devils, and Bruins. The right shot defender has spent this entire season the Oilers' AHL affiliate, scoring 39 points in 60 games.

If no defenceman returns to the lineup for the final game of the season, the blue line could look like this:

That's quite a defence core to roll out in the final game, but it should look much better for Game 1 of the playoffs. While speaking to the media today, Connor McDavid heavily hinted that the Oilers may be less injured than they appear.

With the team locked in place for the standings, the Oilers will just have a judgment call to make on which players to rest in Game 82, and which players could get into the lineup to ramp up for the playoffs.