After a short offseason, the Tulsa Oilers began gearing up for the 2021-22 season with the start of training camp Monday at the Oilers Ice Center.
A total of 19 players were on the roster for opening day of camp, which runs through Friday and resumes next week for three days before the ECHL season begins Oct. 22.
Coach Rob Murray is looking forward to a return to business as usual, however that might not be totally possible yet.
“There are still (COVID) league protocols,” Murray said. “You would kind of like put it all behind us, but the truth is we are not out of this yet. But it is good to get going and at the right time too. Last year we waited around until December to get the season going and we started training camp the day after Thanksgiving.
“Now we are back to normal in October and starting the season at the proper time.”
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Murray had less than four months to recruit due to last season ending so late and the impact of COVID still being felt.
“The recruiting was a little bit trickier this summer,” he said. “The NCAA gave all their seniors an extra year due to COVID so you have fifth-year seniors playing at colleges. There was nobody coming out of school so the recruiting pool was so tight, it was hard to find players. There is also a lot of players who did not play last year and in the interim found jobs elsewhere. So, a good percentage of the guys we thought would sit out and come back chose not to.”
However, Murray feels good about the players he put on the ice Monday.
“We have good numbers,’ he said. “I was concerned a few weeks ago that we might not have enough guys for training camp. But we have a very workable number out there right now.
“I was very impressed and pleasantly surprised with practice today,” Murray added. “I thought it was very good. It was clean. The guys were really snapping the puck around. Outside of drills we did some defensive zone coverage and this week we’ll touch on more things systematically.”
“I am still trying to put names to faces. I just met these guys yesterday after physicals. We are just fresh off the boat right now. We will see where these guys fit into the roster and where they are best served.”
The training camp roster has very few returning players from last season.
“We had five guys whose rights reverted back to their old teams from last year,” Murray said. “We had guys go overseas. When you take all those names off the roster. I was left with three or four guys fans will recognize.
“(Goalie Devin) Williams was all set to come here, and last Thursday he told me he was going to play in Europe.
“Between guys retiring, their rights going back (to teams from last year) and guys going to Europe it decimated our lineup.”
The roster will have a much different makeup come opening day after player cuts and additions, some of which will come from the AHL.
“We will be getting guys from San Diego soon,” Murray said. “We will see who we get, but whoever we get will make us a better team.”
The Oilers will play preseason games Friday and Saturday in Wichita, Kansas.
Tulsa opens the season Oct. 22 at Rapid City. The Oilers will face Kansas City Oct. 30 in the home opener at the BOK Center.