Edmonton Oilers send Raphael Lavoie to AHL Bakersfield

Lavoie cleared through waivers at the beginning of the season when he was among the last cuts from the team’s opening roster. Since Lavoie didn’t play 10 games or spend 30 days on Edmonton’s NHL roster, he doesn’t need to go through waivers this time around. 

The 24-year-old winger played five games with the Oilers, picking up no points and posting a minus-one rating across his first five career games in the NHL. He only played 39:42 minutes during his cup of coffee, with his most regular linemates being James Hamblin and Derek Ryan. While those two are still solid depth players, they’re not the type of skilled forwards you’d expect a player with top-six scorer potential to play with. This isn’t to say that Lavoie didn’t get his opportunities with Edmonton’s best players, as he played 6:06 with Connor McDavid, which saw the Oilers outshoot opposing teams five-to-two with those two on the ice.

The Oilers will use a different lineup on Thursday when they host the Seattle Kraken than we’ve seen them use lately as Lavoie has been sent down and Dylan Holloway is expected to be out for multiple months with a knee injury. 

Connor Brown has been skating and was a full participant in Tuesday’s practice, according to Daniel Nugent-Bowman. Whenever he plays his next game, his $3.225 million performance bonus for playing 10 games in 2023-24 will kick in. Mattias Janmark has also been skating, but there haven’t been any recent updates regarding his health. When he and Brown return, it’s likely that Hamblin will be the other player sent to the American League, considering he was brought up on an emergency basis. 

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