Edmonton Oilers Call Up Brandon Davidson

The Edmonton Oilers announced via the team Twitter account that they've recalled Brandon Davidson from the their AHL affiliate the Oklahoma City Barons:

#Oilers have recalled defenceman Brandon Davidson (@bdavy3) from the AHL's @OKCBarons.

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) October 6, 2013

Davidson is the great underdog story, as Ben Massey told us:

Normally, I frown on 21-year-old defensemen who spend extended periods in the ECHL. Davidson is an exception. First because, well, cancer, and second because he was obviously and immediately too good for the league

The Davidson call-up is interesting because the Oilers traded for Philip Larsen when they sent Shawn Horcoff to Dallas.  Perhaps the Oilers are looking to save additional dollars against the cap, as Ryan Batty discussed in his recap of the Ryan Hamilton recall.  Larsen would count for $1.025 million against the cap, or just short of $5,300 per calculated day.  Davidson costs $615,000 against the cap or just short of $3,200 per day.

If it's not the cap savings, perhaps one of the port side defensemen have suffered an unannounced injury - both Ladislav Smid and Andrew Ference had "maintenance days" today according to the Oilers' Twitter account, and as I noted in the game thread last night, Dallas Eakins was juggling his defensive pairings in the third period last night, placing Jeff Petry with Andrew Ference for a few shifts as Ladislav Smid played rover for Justin Schultz.

UPDATE:  In looking at the play-by-play, I see Smid and Schultz playing together at even strength, before Ference was teamed with Nick Schultz to kill David Perron's penalty.  But I don't see Ference after that.  The shift charts confirm that Ference's last shift ended with 5:15 to go.

There may be more to Ference's "maintenance day", and if so, expect to see Denis Grebeshkov draw in.