Oilers scratch Frederic, Mangiapane for Predators game

Edmonton Oilers forwards Trent Frederic, left, and Andrew Mangiapane.

A couple of Edmonton Oilers forwards making healthy salaries who were being looked upon to play top-six minutes this season are sitting out Tuesday’s game against the Nashville Predators as healthy scratches.

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said after Tuesday’s morning skate that Trent Frederic and Andrew Mangiapane will not suit up for the 7 p.m. National Hockey League game at Rogers Place.

Forwards Curtis Lazar and recent minor-league callup Isaac Howard draw into the lineup in their place.

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“They haven’t played as we’ve expected, and I think that there is more for them to give us, but also, we’ve got some young guys that have gotten some opportunities to play,” Knoblauch told media.

Mangiapane, who signed a two-year contract with the Oilers as a free agent last summer worth $3.6 million per season, has scored five goals and six assists in 40 games played.

Frederic, whom the Oilers signed to an eight-year contract extension worth $3.85 million per season in June, has two goals and one assist in 41 games. He had been acquired from the Boston Bruins a few days before the NHL trade deadline last year.

Mangiapane has scored one goal, on Dec. 20, in the last two months. Frederic last recorded a point, an assist, on Dec. 6. His last goal came Nov. 20.

Explaining the lack of so-called secondary scoring from the two players is tricky, Knoblauch said.

“Sometimes, it’s a fit, and sometimes, it’s not,” Knoblauch said, referencing a ‘fit’ the Oilers managed this season with free-agent signing Jack Roslovic, who has scored 12 goals and eight assists in 29 games.

“There are a lot of factors: off-ice factors, on-ice factors, how the coach deploys them. A lot of things. I don’t think there’s a certain recipe. There’s not one answer for each player.”

Crude remarks

• Forward Kasperi Kapanen returns to the Oilers’ lineup for the first time in 36 games, two-and-a-half months after suffering a lower-body injury during practice;
• The Oilers placed Tristan Jarry on long-term injured reserve on Tuesday. Knoblauch said the goalie would miss at least the next two weeks of action;
• The Oilers have lost three of the four games since the Christmas break, dropping the most recent two on home ice: 6-2 to the Boston Bruins New Year’s Eve and 5-2 to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday;
• Heading into Tuesday’s action, the Oilers sit second in the Pacific Division with a 20-16-6 record for 46 points in 42 games played;
• Connor McDavid (25 goals and 47 assists for 74 points) is second in the NHL scoring race to Nathan MacKinnon (35G-39-A-74P) of the Colorado Avalanche. Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl (17G-37A-57P) is tied for fifth.

Projected Oilers lineup

Forward

• Ryan Nugent-Hopkins • Connor McDavid • Zach Hyman
• Vasily Podkolzin • Leon Draisaitl • Kasperi Kapanen
• Isaac Howard • Adam Henriquec • Jack Roslovi
• Mattias Janmark • Curtis Lazar • Matt Savoie

Defence

• Mattias Ekholm • Evan Bouchard
• Darnell Nurse • Alec Regula
• Spencer Stastney • Ty Emberson

Goal

• Connor Ingram • Calvin Pickard