Joel Persson Assigned to Bakersfield

This morning, the Edmonton Oilers announced they have sent D Joel Persson to Bakersfield, as per their official twitter account:

Persson has been about average this season, but over the last few games has had some struggles, leading to a benching on one occasion. The 25 year old has posted 0-2-2 in 10 GP, spending most of his time on the right side of Oscar Klefbom.

Look for Persson to play a lot of minutes down in Bakersfield as he looks to rehab his game a little bit with an eye toward a speedy recall. Having Persson ‘turn out’ allows the Oilers more flexibility in terms of how they handle their D group this season, so it’s imperative he eats minutes in California. Worth noting, too, the Oilers themselves have two games on the West Coast starting tomorrow night. I can’t imagine they’ll bring him back so soon, but if they need to for whatever reason, he’ll be close.

This likely means Adam Larsson is very close to returning, so it will be interesting to see how they line up when he is healthy.