Oilers cut 2 more players on Sunday, trim roster down to 25.

The Edmonton Oilers have nearly completed their final preparations for the 2018 - 2019 National Hockey League regular season but on Sunday they made 2 more roster cuts, leaving only 25 men on their current roster.

The Oilers officially announced the two moves today although their choice of wording has raised some eyebrows about where one of the two men who were cut will end up. First the Oilers announced that they had placed veteran forward Pontus Aberg on the waiver wire for the purposes of demoting him to the American Hockey League, perhaps an indication that he will now see very limited action at the NHL level with the Oilers. Aberg was acquired as part of a three way trade between the Oilers, Nashville Predators and Columbus Blue Jackets but he would only go on to appear in 16 regular season games for the Oilers following the trade. Over that period he recorded 2 goals and 6 assists for a total of 8 points and finished his stint with the Oilers that season with a plus minus rating of +1.

The assignment of Jakub Jerabek is a little more curious however and I believe that there may be good reason to suspect that he may not be headed down to the American Hockey League alongside Pontus Aberg. The Oilers announced that Jerabek was being "released" and that he was currently "awaiting assignment" wording that seems to suggest he may sign elsewhere. Given that he currently has a contract with the Oilers he won't be signing with another NHL team, and that would seemingly suggest that he is headed back overseas. Prior to signing with the Montreal Canadiens organization during the 2017 - 2018 NHL regular season Jerabek had spent several years playing for Plzen HC in the Czech league and if I had to place a wager I'd bet he likely ends up in a position similar to that one.

Obviously this is not ideal for the Oilers but it would still give them the option to bring him back later in the season should they suffer a significant injury to their roster or simply if they feel they need the extra depth. Reports out of training camp however suggest that Jerabek was not overly impressive so that may not be all that likely moving forward.

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