The Edmonton Oilers will be getting some reinforcements Saturday afternoon when they take on the Seattle Kraken.
Forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will make his return to the lineup after missing the past three weeks with an undisclosed injury. He last played on Nov. 9 against the Colorado Avalanche.
The 32-year-old centred the third line between Mattias Janmark and Adam Henrique at Friday’s practice and was activated from the injured reserve list Saturday.
“He does a lot of things,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said via the team. “He’s a tremendous teammate. We’ve had players joke that he’s my favourite player, but Ryan’s a very smart, complementary player who you can rely on in the last minute of a game. He can provide some offence. He is an important part of the power play. He makes it run just by getting the puck in the right spots. He reads off what Connor and Leon are going to do, and he adjusts what position he needs to be in and what play is going to be made.
“I can go on about Ryan and how valuable he is, and we have missed him through this stretch of not having him, so it’ll be nice having him back because he can play in the top six on the wing, or he can be our third line center. He can be our second-line center if we want to play Connor [McDavid] and Leon [Draisaitl] together, so I can utilize him in many ways and he’s very valuable.”
The Oilers will also get forward Curtis Lazar back Saturday in Seattle. He has been out since Nov. 17 with an upper-body injury. Forwards Jack Roslovic and Kasperi Kapanen will miss Saturday’s game.
Nugent-Hopkins has five goals and 11 assists for 16 points in 16 games so far this season, while Lazar has one goal in nine games.
The Oilers (10-10-5) enter play Saturday sixth in the Pacfic Division with 25 points in 25 games played.
