Tyson Barrie agreed to a one-year contract Oct. 10 after he scored 39 points (five goals, 34 assists) in 70 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs last season. The defenseman will be asked to take on many of the responsibilities normally held by Oscar Klefbom, who
might be out for the season
because of a shoulder injury.
"In the short term, first of all it's a big loss," Oilers general manager Ken Holland said. "You're talking about our No. 1 defenseman, runs the power play, on the first pair, plays against the other team's best players, plays 22-24 minutes a night. It's hard to replace those types of people."
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Barrie's role will include quarterbacking what was the No. 1 power play in the NHL last season (29.5 percent).
Kyle Turris agreed to a two-year contract Oct. 9 after he had the final four years of his contract with the Nashville Predators bought out two days earlier. He scored 31 points (nine goals, 22 assists) in 62 games last season. He is expected to be the third-line center, behind Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, and figures to give Edmonton a boost in offense among its bottom six forwards.
"Last year, the bottom part of the roster did a great job with checking," Holland said. "There's people down there who did a big job with us being in the top two in penalty-killing (second in NHL at 84.4 percent), but we're trying to get more offense spread through the lineup."
Edmonton (37-25-9, .585 points percentage) finished second in the Pacific Division last season but lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in four games in the best-of-5 Stanley Cup Qualifiers.
Here is what the Oilers look like today:
