Oilers Place Mark Fayne on Injured Reserve and Recall Ben Betker

Last night, for the first time this season, Mark Fayne dressed for the Oilers. He managed to get in seven shifts and play a whopping 2:27 before getting hurt. And now he’s been placed on the injured reserve.

Replacing Fayne on the roster will be Ben Betker. That might not have been the name you expected to see there - Matthew Benning who was recently sent to Bakersfield or Jordan Oesterle who dressed in 17 games for the Oilers last season are two names that probably came to mind first - but because the Oilers still have six healthy defencemen on their roster (for now) they have the luxury of recalling a player for the sole purpose of sitting in the pressbox during games. Benning and Oesterle are likely both better served by actually playing games in Bakersfield, which they will do while Betker eats popcorn alongside Terry Jones.

Fayne joins a growing list of Oilers who are out with injury. That list includes Drake Caggiula, Brandon Davidson, Jonas Gustavsson, Matt Hendricks, and Iiro Pakarinen. As tweeted by the Oilers yesterday, only Gustavsson is close to returning at this point.