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Where Does Linus Omark Fit On The Oilers Roster?

Linus Omark is back. Now where does he fit?

By Jeff Chapman
Guess who's back. Back again. Omark's back. Tell a friend.
Guess who's back. Back again. Omark's back. Tell a friend.
Rich Lam

If you completely missed the awesome that was Tuesday morning, you missed this.

Now that we've got that out of our system, where should he slot in come October?

Let's go back in time to August 16th, when a depth chart was compiled by the Copper and Blue staff.

Here's what the top four lines looked like...

Taylor Hall - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Jordan Eberle

David Perron - Sam Gagner - Ales Hemsky

Ryan Smyth - Boyd Gordon - Nail Yakupov

Ryan Hamilton - Anton Lander - Ryan Jones

SANS NUGE?

We won't get a really good idea until camp opens, but it's a significant possibility that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins could miss some time at the beginning of the season while he continues to recover from his labrum surgery. Taylor Hall appeared on the Oilers Now radio program on August 9th. On that day, he suggested he might be the team's top centre while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins continues to rehab his shoulder.

Just a hunch, but if Taylor Hall suggests that he might open the year as the team's top centre less than three weeks ago, I'm going to go on a limb and say that the club might play this one safe with regards to Nugent-Hopkins and afford him some more time to rehab.

David Perron - Taylor Hall - Jordan Eberle

Ryan Smyth - Sam Gagner - Ales Hemsky

Ryan Hamiton - Boyd Gordon - Nail Yakupov

Mike Brown - Anton Lander - Ryan Jones

If you want to sub Jesse Joensuu in for Ryan Hamilton, you go right ahead. I don't know how much better that'll make you feel, but everybody loves choices. You may not substitute Ryan Jones in for Ryan Hamilton.

ENTER OMARK

If your third line consists of _______ - Gordon - Hemsky (I don't see Yakupov getting hitched with Gordon), you at least have two guys on the wings who can score. Let's see what this looks like with a little Omark...

David Perron - Taylor Hall - Jordan Eberle

Ryan Smyth - Sam Gagner - Nail Yakupov

Linus Omark - Boyd Gordon - Ales Hemsky

Mike Brown / Jesse Jonesuu - Anton Lander - Ryan Jones

...which isn't as terrible as the set before that. And what about when Nugent-Hopkins comes back?

Taylor Hall - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Jordan Eberle

David Perron - Sam Gagner - Nail Yakupov

Linus Omark - Boyd Gordon - Ales Hemsky

Ryan Smyth - Anton Lander - 12F

One more C for the bottom six, and that's not too bad. Heck, get me a bottom six centre, and it almost looks good enough to compete.