Oilers announce major shake-up with recall of 2 forwards from AHL, more moves coming

Rumours surfaced yesterday that their recall was imminent, and we had it here first on OilersDaily. This is a huge move to really shake up the team's underperforming bottom six forwards group.

The Oilers officially announced the roster move this morning, after Max Jones was sent back to the AHL yesterday.

Interestingly enough, these roster moves alone will put the Oilers over the salary cap. There will need to be a corresponding roster move to clear some cap space. Placing Tristan Jarry on retroactive LTIR would buy some temporary cap space, but then another one of these players would have to be sent down to the AHL soon.

Another option the Oilers have to clear cap space is moving one of their current forwards, like Andrew Mangiapane. That would allow the Oilers to keep both Hutson and Howard in the roster for the foreseeable future.

And given the way both these rookie forwards have been playing in the AHL, they shouldn't be leaving the Oilers. Edmonton's bottom six forwards are getting outscored brutally this season. Henrique, Frederic, and Janmark are on pace to score less than 5 goals in 82 games. They desperately need Hutson and Howard's offence.

That's why Coach Knoblauch should really be interested in giving these players a real shot at a meaningful role on the third line. When the rookies were with the team earlier, they rarely played more than 8 minutes. The Oilers need their offence now, and need to give them a bigger role.

Howard and Hutson have absolutely dominated the AHL this season. Both players are near the top of the league in scoring, and are both over a point per game. They've earned this shot in Edmonton.

We'll see what the corresponding roster move is soon, as the Oilers now need to clean up their cap space before their next game.