The Edmonton Oilers will have a handful of new faces around when training camp opens later this month.
Viktor Arvidsson, Jeff Skinner, and Josh Brown were added as free agents and Matthew Savoie, Vasily Podkolzin, Roby Jarventie, and Ty Emberson were acquired through trades. The team is also expected to invite defenceman Travis Dermott to camp on a professional tryout offer.
The Toronto Maple Leafs selected Dermott with the 34th overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft after two seasons playing with Connor McDavid and the Erie Otters. He spent one more season in the Ontario Hockey League and represented Team Canada at the 2016 World Juniors in Finland.
Dermott spent the 2016-17 season playing with the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League and was called up to make his NHL debut with the Leafs in 2017-18. He scored 13 points over 37 games with the Leafs and then returned to the Marlies and helped the team win the Calder Trophy.
After a strong run as a rookie in the NHL, Dermott made the Leafs’ season-opening roster in 2018-19. He scored 17 points over 64 games on Toronto’s third pairing but missed a couple of months of play because of a shoulder injury. Once the Leafs were eliminated from the playoffs, Dermott had surgery on his injured shoulder.
Over the next few years, the Leafs added veterans T.J. Brodie and Mark Giordano to their blueline and Dermott fell down the team’s depth chart. He was traded ahead of the 2021-22 trade deadline to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a third-round pick.
Dermott played well on Vancouver’s third pairing after the trade and came into the 2022-23 season expected to take on more minutes. During a pre-season game, Dermott suffered a concussion and didn’t make his season debut until late December. He played in just 11 games for the Canucks and was placed on the Injured Reserve again, this time for the remainder of the season.
The Canucks opted not to qualify Dermott the following off-season and he became an unrestricted free agent. He inked a one-year, $800k deal with the Arizona Coyotes and scored seven points in 50 games with the team while logging 17:17 per night.
The Oilers lost Cody Ceci, Vincent Desharnais, and Philip Broberg this summer and added Ty Emberson and Josh Brown, so bringing in Dermott gives them another potential depth option with NHL experience. If Dermott is healthy, he can be an effective third-pairing defenceman who can quickly move the puck up the ice and join the rush.
