The Edmonton Oilers and Mark Fayne have to hope this is just a bump in the road because they’ve made a long-term commitment to each other.
Fayne will not play tonight against Calgary despite the fact that he’s healthy. That alone is concerning, but it’s further punctuated by the fact that the 28-year-old defenseman only logged 10:04 minutes of ice time on Thursday.
“His forte has been the ability to defend and be strong positionally and read and kill plays. We’re not asking him to be overly aggressive but there’s more there. It’ll come out,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan told the Edmonton Journal.
Edmonton signed a four-year, $14.5 million contract with Fayne in the summer of 2014 that goes through the 2017-18 campaign. He’s the Oilers’ second highest defensemen this season from a cap hit perspective.
The Oilers are looking to build off of a strong performance against Montreal, where they rallied back from a 3-0 deficit. Edmonton has won four of its last seven contests.
