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Did Owen Michaels Take Josh Samanski's Spot?
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- Did Owen Michaels Take Josh Samanski's Spot?
Josh Samanski was sent down to the AHL this morning, while Owen Michaels is still here in the NHL. So, did Michaels take Samanski's spot?
Samanski, like much of us, probably thought Matt Savoie 's injury gave him a decent chance of sticking around. After all, the Edmonton Oilers were down several forwards when camp started, and Samanski was on the roster last season.
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There wasn't anything particularly wrong with his camp either. He never really gave Edmonton a reason to be disappointed with what he was doing. His camp was just okay.
Just ok isn't always enough when roster spots disappear quickly, and another player keeps giving the coaching staff reasons to leave his name off the cut list. Michaels has done exactly that throughout camp, and Babcock has been pretty open about the fact that nobody expected him to still be here.
"Well, he's played well," Babcock said. "He really can skate, and if you look back at his career, he wasn't a big scorer, so he didn't hang his hat on that. So he had to be a two-way, very effective player. He won a national championship, so he knows how to win, and he's in all the good clips."
Babcock has talked quite a bit about Michael's film over the past few days. Saying things like he keeps ending up where he's supposed to be, he can skate and, his game doesn't depend on outscoring what he isn't doing, like being a reliable defensive forward.
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"So it wasn't like we had this plan that he was going here, he wasn't supposed to be here, but that's the great thing about plans — you get to change them," Babcock said.
The plan has certainly changed for Michaels. He came to Edmonton without much expectation of being around for opening night and is still practising with Edmonton after Samanski was sent to Bakersfield.
"Get down there and get to work," Babcock said of Samanski. "So, the simple thing is you've got to figure out who you're going to be in the National Hockey League, and then when you go down to the AHL, they put you in a totally different role.
"You have to become an elite face-off guy, elite penalty killer, a great two-way defensive center to play here because that's going to be your job," Babcock said. "In the American League, they want him to be on the power play, play on the first line, do all that. So sometimes it gets in the way, but as a player, you got to learn that."
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That's what Edmonton sees for Samanski. He needs to win draws, kill penalties and become somebody the Oilers can trust down the middle. He needs to be defensively reliable.
Babcock also made it clear that Samanski is at the point where those details need to become part of his game.
"He's old enough now to understand that's what he's got to do to get back," Babcock said.
It is worth noting that Babcock is very much one to reward a player today for what they did yesterday. It's why Kasperi Kapanan took Isaac Howards place on the second line against Calgary the other night, and it could be why the Oilers choose to keep Micheals around for another day while sending Samanski down.
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Savoie's injury seemed to create an opening for somebody when camp started, and Samanski had every reason to believe he could be one of the players who benefited from it. Meanwhile, Michaels may have thought the same thing.
Now Samanski is heading back to Bakersfield with a list of things Edmonton wants him working on, and Michaels is still here after Babcock admitted he wasn't supposed to make it this far.
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