Oilers insider reveals preliminary NHL lines at Captain's Skates

The Oilers were the only NHL team to skip out on the league's annual media tour in Vegas, as most players were hard at work already training in Edmonton. Already, the urgency seems high for the Oilers.

Insider Daniel Nugent-Bowman noticed that some lines were taking shape at practice, and shared the current pairings. Both Matthew Savoie and Ike Howard are now at rookie camp, but will likely factor into the NHL lineup.

Fans don't need to read into these lines too much with an incomplete roster, but there are still a few interesting pairs that could last for the season.

For starters, Leon Draisaitl is once again paired up with Vasily Podkolzin on the left wing. That duo had an incredibly successful season last year, and is likely to continue with a new winger on the right side.

Nugent-Hopkins is centering the third line, a demotion from the first line after a major drop in scoring last year. Fans and analysts believed Nuge could be more effective as a shutdown 3rd line center and more successful overall against weaker competition. David Tomasek skating on the third pair is interesting as well.

Both Frederic and Mangiapane will both likely move up the lineup from their current 4th line positions. On the first line, both Adam Henrique and Kasperi Kapanen have experience with McDavid, but both could be placeholders for replacements.

As it stands, the Oilers have a slight logjam of NHL talent up front. There will have to be some hard decisions in the coming weeks in training camp, and potentially a trade to clear a roster spot.

It's great to see the Oilers getting early reps in at practice in preparation for a must-win season. Tinkering with the lineup has only begun!