SaskTel Centre to host Oilers, Wild
SASKATOON — Edmonton Oilers stars Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins weren’t in the building the last time the NHL team visited SaskTel Centre.
The Oilers are returning to Saskatoon for another pre-season game, this time against the Minnesota Wild on Sept. 26.
According to promoter John Graham, it would behoove them to bring their best players.
“I would think that until somebody finds an NHL team for Saskatoon, there will be a territorial war between Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg to put the best product in this market,” said Graham, of the Toronto-based On Ice Management.
The Oilers lost 5-0 to the Chicago Blackhawks Sept. 28, 2014, without the services of Hall, Nugent-Hopkins and either of their current goaltenders, Ben Scrivens and Viktor Fasth.
Among the Blackhawks who didn’t play were Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa, Brent Seabrook and Corey Crawford.
Oilers vice-president of communications Tim Shipton attended Tuesday’s media conference and spoke about Saskatoon’s importance to the Oilers’ business brand.
Graham is confident that means an uptick in the quality on the ice.
“That message has also been delivered by Edmonton,” Graham said. “Edmonton is the home team (for the game).”
“I’m pretty confident the roster that they had last year — which I thought was a pretty good roster minus those two players — (will) be a better roster. That means at least one of those two, I think, will be in, but I’m not the GM.”
Graham is bringing an NHL pre-season contest to Saskatoon for an eighth time since the New York Islanders held training camp in the city in 2009.
The Calgary Flames and Winnipeg Jets both played games in September 2013.
The Flames lost 4-2 to the Ottawa Senators on Sept. 16, 2013 in front of 6,413 fans in a matchup that mostly featured American Hockey League lineups.
The Jets lost 5-0 to the Boston Bruins 11 days later when 12,497 people watched a game on the final day of the preseason schedule. Those lineups closely mirrored ones seen in NHL regular season games.
“One was a little off and one was over the top,” SaskTel Centre executive director Scott Ford said. “The customer was picking which game to go to.”
Jim Mill, the Wild’s director of minor league operations, said the game in Saskatoon will be the fourth of six pre-season games for his team. He added plenty of recognizable players should be on the ice.
The Oilers are expected to do the same.
The game will be the third in five years in Saskatoon for the Oilers — who drew 10,303 four months ago — but Graham isn’t concerned about any sort of burnout.
Hall has never played in Saskatoon, while NugentHopkins’s first NHL game was played in the city back in 2011.
Plus, with the Oilers near the bottom of the standings, there could be another star attraction in the form of a top 2015 draft pick.
Tickets are $47.25 to $99.75 (plus service charges) and go on sale to the public Saturday morning.