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Caleb Jones back on the Oilers blue line; Khaira and Russell come off taxi squad against Jets

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The road to the Edmonton Oilers roster keeps running through the taxi squad.

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While the Edmonton Oilers beat the Winnipeg Jets on a buzzer-beater by Leon Draisaitl on Sunday, coach Dave Tippett isn’t staying with the same lineup for Game 2.

He’s bringing centre Jujhar Khaira and right-winger Patrick Russell in from the taxi list for fourth-line duty, and forwards Devin Shore and Tyler Ennis are joining that taxi group, with Ennis clearing waivers Tuesday morning.

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Tippett also says Caleb Jones has sat long enough (four games) after some early-season struggles on the back-end (minus-4) and he’ll take Slater Koekkoek’s spot beside Adam Larsson on the blue line for tonight’s game.

Evan Bouchard was a possible addition too but Tippett said he’s dealing with, “a back issue the last couple of days.”

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Bouchard, the Oilers best prospect started on the 23-man roster, but has been on the taxi-squad since then and he’s the only defenceman who hasn’t played through seven games.

With Koekkoek scratched, only Darnell Nurse, Tyson Barrie and Larsson have played every game on the backend, and that’s with no injuries.

“The unique things with this season is usually you only have one or two extra guys (23-man roster) but now we have eight or nine extra players (taxi squad). We’re trying not to forget anybody. We’re still looking for combinations that solidify us,” said Tippett.

“Shore came in, played well the first game in Toronto, the last two games hasn’t been as strong. We’re looking for bigger bodies (fourth-line). Patrick Russell has been dominant with the taxi squad group, the most powerful guy. We have hungry guys there.”

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Khaira’s leash is getting shorter, after sitting for five in a row. He’s one of the NHL’s best penalty-killers but they want considerably more from him five-on-five, also more consistency game to game.

“We want Khaira to be a strong, powerful centreman, playing the game in the offensive zone with some heavy work around the net and on the cycle. I give him credit, he’s had a great attitude while being with the taxi-squad,” said Tippett.

Jones isn’t a prospect any longer. He’s an NHLer. So he has to play. He played close to 16 minutes a night in his first three games.

“Koekkoek has been alright but we’re looking to improving our puck-moving with Caleb. We’ve looked at all of our defencemen except Bouch (Bouchard),” he said.

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Ennis has played four games but doesn’t have a point and is minus-4, averaging 9:47 a game. He’s caught in-between. He’s not a penalty-killer on the Oilers and while he does get some second power-play work, the Oilers second unit might get 30 seconds of the two-minutes with Connor McDavid and Co. staying out there for 75 per cent of it. So, as a fourth-liner or a third-liner, he sits a lot. He only played six minutes and change in Game 1 against Winnipeg.

Ottawa was a possibility to claim Ennis because he played for the Senators last season and had 33 points before his February, 2020 trade to the Oilers for a fifth-round draft pick but they passed on him even at a good price-point ($1 million salary). They want to break in younger forwards.

“Tyler hasn’t played as well for us as he did last spring. He’s great depth for us on our top two lines, knock on wood, if we got an injury there. But we’re looking for a heavier penalty-killing aspect (fourth-line),” said Tippett.

The extras on the 23-man roster now are defencemen Koekkoek and William Lagesson, and winger Alex Chiasson. The taxi squad is Ennis, Joakim Nygard, Shore and Alan Quine at forward, Bouchard on defence and Dylan Wells as extra goalie.

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