October 29, 2024 by Ryan Lotsberg

Drake Caggiula and Noah Philp have been recalled by the Edmonton Oilers in the wake of the injury to Connor McDavid. McDavid left Monday’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets after sustaining a lower body injury on his first shift of the game. The injury to McDavid isn’t believed to be serious at this time, but he will undergo more testing in the coming days.

Cagguila has continued his strong play in training camp into the regular season. He has five points in five games for the Bakersfield Condors. Caggiula had 37 points in 43 games for the Condors last season. The Pickering, Ontario native has played in 282 NHL games, including 156 games in a previous stint with the Oilers from 2016-2019.

Philp also had a strong camp. He has three points in six games for the Condors so far this season. The 26-year old took the 2023-24 season off from professional hockey, and he hasn’t missed a beat. The former University of Alberta Golden Bear is still waiting to make his NHL debut, which is something that could happen as soon as Thursday’s game against the Nashville Predators.

The #Oilers have recalled forwards Noah Philp & Drake Caggiula from the @Condors. pic.twitter.com/EbFo1z6YZD

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) October 29, 2024

I should also note that Roby Jarventie was activated from the season opening injured reserve (SOIR) last Friday. He was carrying a cap hit of $107,114 as a result of being injured to start the season, having a two-way contract, and having played less than 50 games in the NHL last season.

The Oilers had $1,288,686 in cap space after sending Jarventie to Bakersfield. Caggiula and Philp will go on the books on Wednesday because the transactions were made after the end of the league day on Tuesday. Their combined cap hits ($1.55 million) will put the Oilers over the salary cap on Wednesday.

They are allowed to exceed the salary cap because Evander Kane is on LTIR. Remember that the Oilers have been allowed to accrue cap space all season thus far even though Kane has been on LTIR all season because they have been under the cap the whole time; but since they will be exceeding the cap on Wednesday, they will officially be utilizing their LTIR pool. That means that the Oilers will not be able to accrue cap space from Wednesday until whichever day they stop utilizing the LTIR pool.

Related: Kane goes onto LTIR after all

Before the McDavid injury, the Oilers had twelve healthy forwards on the active roster. They were carrying twelve forwards, seven defencemen, and two goaltenders. They are now carrying fourteen forwards, thirteen of which are healthy.

They could have chosen to recall one of Caggiula or Philp to replace McDavid for the short time that he is expected to be out of the lineup, which would’ve allowed them to stay under the cap and to continue accruing cap space; but that’s not the choice they made. They chose to carry an extra forward rather than continuing to accrue cap space. It’s a curious choice.

They could just want to give each of them a game or two to audition for future recalls. If that’s the case, then why would they have recalled them both at the same time? They could easily have recalled one player, then recalled the other in favour of the first player at a later date to continue accruing cap space. The Oilers will be in Western Canada from after Thursday’s game until November 16, so it isn’t as if the travel logistics would be insane over the next couple of weeks.

They could have decided to recall another forward to give head coach Kris Knoblauch the option to bench a forward that has been underproducing in the early part of the season. There are several forwards that fit the bill. Adam Henrique, Connor Brown, and Corey Perry each only have one goal. None of Mattias Janmark, Derek Ryan, or Vasily Podkolzin have goals yet. Zach Hyman and Viktor Arvidsson are also goalless, but I don’t see either of them being benched.

McDavid being out means that the Oilers need another top six centre. The simple solution is to put Ryan Nugent-Hopkins at centre, like they do when they put McDavid and Draisaitl together. That opens up a spot at left wing, which is likely to be filled by Caggiula.

If Knoblauch wants to bench a forward on top of those changes, then Philp would have to come into the lineup. He’s a right-handed centre. Ryan is the most obvious player to sit in favour of Philp, but Ryan could slide over to right wing if Perry was to be scratched. 

Related: Philp was the most positive story of Oilers camp

The question would be what would happen if Janmark was to be scratched. Henrique would have to slide over to left wing, and Ryan would have to move up to centre Henrique and Brown. Then the fourth line would be Caggiula – Philp – Perry.

If that’s what Oilers management is thinking here, then my question for them would be why now? Why would they have waited specifically until an injury happened to recall an extra forward?

That leads us into the next possibility, which is that the decision might have something to do with the amount of time that McDavid will miss. If McDavid was only going to miss a game or two, then there wouldn’t be a need to recall two forwards.

Theoretically, they might have decided to recall the extra forward because the team will only be unable to accrue cap space for a week or so. They could reward Caggiula and Philp for their strong play in camp and early in the regular season by giving them each a game or two. Then they could send them back down to Bakersfield.

Once again, they could have done it that way without having recalled both of them at the same time.

The other possibility is that McDavid will be out longer than we initially expected. Caggiula has the most NHL experience out of all of the forwards currently in Bakersfield. It would make sense to bring up the most experienced NHLer available if there will be a hole to fill for a while. 

That doesn’t explain Philp’s presence though. They likely want to have more roster flexibility in case of another injury while McDavid is out.

Philp can go up and down between the AHL and the NHL without waivers. The Oilers have the flexibility to be able to use paper transactions to send him down on off days so that he wouldn’t count against the cap on those days, and then to recall him if they want him to play. The Oilers would be able to accrue cap space on the days that Philp is not on the active roster. 

Philp is on a two-way contract, which means that he gets paid a different salary in the AHL than what he gets in the NHL. He would get paid an NHL salary just for being with the Oilers, even if he doesn’t play. Those NHL paychecks are a reward for Philp, which is probably appreciated by him after not playing professional hockey last season. They could’ve been doing that for Philp before the McDavid injury though.

It could also potentially mean that they have resigned themselves to having to use their LTIR relief because they are close to executing a trade to add another player. It’s no secret that Oilers GM Stan Bowman is in the market for a top four defenceman. The McDavid injury might’ve accelerated Bowman’s urgency to cross that item off his shopping list.

This is all just speculation on my part. I honestly don’t understand why both Caggiula and Philp were recalled at the same time. I don’t think it was necessary to recall them both, even if McDavid will miss several weeks. I don’t think it was necessary to stop accruing cap space. It will be interesting to see how it plays out here though.