- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will miss the Oilers’ season opener with a lower-body injury
- Mike Babcock hinted the timeline is longer than day-to-day
- Read below for Babcock’s full injury update video and Edmonton’s new-look lines
The Oilers will open the Mike Babcock era without Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
Babcock confirmed Tuesday morning that Nugent-Hopkins is out for tonight’s opener against the Canucks with a lower-body injury. The official tag is day-to-day, but the new Edmonton coach was pretty blunt about how he reads that label when asked if he had a sense of a timeline.
“Anytime they tell me day-to-day, that usually means two weeks is what I go by,” Babcock said.
Nugent-Hopkins got hurt during Monday’s practice and left the session early. Babcock admitted it took him “a couple hours to bounce back” after watching him go.
Catch Babcock’s full morning skate availability:
The injury could break up the Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl pairing that Babcock rolled out all camp. He said the move could change that. OilersNation’s Jason Gregor laid out what the reshuffled lines might look like:
Vasily Podkolzin also slides into Nugent-Hopkins’ spot on the top power-play unit.
Don’t expect Babcock to lean on the injury as a reason for a slow start. He talked about what it means for a lineup that’s still coming together.
“Injuries are in my opinion just an excuse, and you find ways to learn about your team,” he said. “You just got to figure out how to play it, and so we’re going to figure out how to play.”
Edmonton’s list goes deeper than Nugent-Hopkins. Babcock also gave updates on three players already on injured reserve:
- Matthew Savoie: “At the start of the week was eight weeks away”
- Jason Dickinson: “He hasn’t been able to push it yet”
- Frederik Andersen: “Maybe December”
Nugent-Hopkins is heading into his 16th season, all of them in Edmonton. The 33-year-old put up 56 points (20 goals, 36 assists) in 72 games last year and has 804 points in 1,031 career games.
Two weeks on the shelf also pauses his chase of Kevin Lowe’s franchise games-played record. The Oilers host Vancouver tonight, visit the Canucks on Thursday and then welcome Seattle on Saturday, so Nugent-Hopkins could miss a handful of games before he’s back in the lineup.
