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#Oilers recall forward Ryan Hamilton from the @OKCBarons
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) October 4, 2013
On Sunday the Oilers sent Ryan Hamilton to the Oklahoma City Barons. And as of this afternoon they've recalled him. If he's anything like me (unbelievably lazy) then he probably hadn't even bothered to unpack his suitcase quite yet.
It's been a busy couple of days for the Oilers in terms of roster moves. Ben Eager was placed on waivers Wednesdayand cleared the next day. Then this morning it was announced that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins would be returning to the lineup on Monday, almost four weeks ahead of the November 1 target that had been tossed around. So for those who might have lost track, with Hamilton back on the Oilers roster now has 26 names on it; Sam Gagner, Steve MacIntyre, and Corey Potter are all listed as on injured reserve.
Some of the yo-yoing of players this week was likely an effort by the Oilers front office to save a couple of dollars of cap space. The Oilers are reasonably tight to the salary cap right now (the number on capgeek is deceiving because it doesn't count contract bonuses over the 7.5% cushion), and because the cap is calculated on a daily basis it made sense with just one game this week to keep an extra spot open and save the money for later in the season when the relative value of that cap space is higher.
Looking at the schedule ahead I don't see any similar gaps, so I'm guessing that this is the Oilers roster that we'll see - barring injuries of course - for the next couple of weeks. Possibly until Gagner is ready to reclaim his roster spot.