Latest Oilers news: Edmonton Oilers Place three more Players On Waivers

As they prepare their 2024–25 opening night roster, the reigning Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers are waiving four players. The team declared that Josh Brown, Olivier Rodrigue, goalie, and forwards Drake Caggiula and Raphael Lavoie had been placed on waivers.

Brown and Caggiula are depth players who may be able to make the team in certain roles. Both players will now begin the season with their AHL club, the Bakersfield Condors, if they both pass waivers tomorrow. Neither player was anticipated to play significant minutes for the Oilers this season.

Additionally, Edmonton will receive some cap relief from Brown’s demotion. On the first day of free agency this past summer, the organization signed Brown to a three-year, $3MM contract. Since his salary is below the $1.25MM level, the Oilers may now completely remove that budget burden.
It could be a risky move for Edmonton management to put Lavoie on waivers at the beginning of the season. Lavoie was selected by the organization with the 38th overall choice in the 2019 NHL Draft, and he recently finished two excellent seasons with the Condors. Since the 2022–23 AHL season began, he has scored 53 goals and 95 points in 127 games, demonstrating his skill as a scorer at the AHL level.

Lavoie looked like an NHL-caliber scorer the Oilers could use in their starting lineup to begin the season, and by tomorrow afternoon, there’s a good possibility he’ll be playing for a different team. If not, he will begin the season in Bakersfield and be ready to be called up right away if the Oilers experience early injury problems.

Although Rodrigue had some early difficulties during his AHL debut with the Condors in 2020–21, he has subsequently improved as a prospect. With a 19-12-5 record, 2.73 GAA, and a.916 SV% in Bakersfield at the end of the previous campaign. The majority of his demotion is incidental since Edmonton lacks the financial resources to field three goalies for the whole campaign. The team’s tandem at the beginning of the season will be Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard.