One such player who has been given that opportunity thus far is Jesse Puljujarvi, who has been able to spend each of the past two games alongside Connor McDavid. The 24-year-old entered the 2022-23 campaign after being subjected to trade rumours all summer long, and admitted he needed to play at a higher and more consistent level moving forward.
That hasn’t happened to this point, as the Finnish winger has an extremely disappointing two points through 15 games. The team is giving him an opportunity to improve on those totals alongside McDavid, but may not be able to continue to do so if his struggles drag on much longer. That said, the hope may be he can begin producing enough to boost his trade value, which Ken Holland could use in order to gain some cap relief.
Another winger who has struggled immensely to begin the season but may be given an opportunity to move up in the lineup is Kailer Yamamoto. In fact, had it not been for an injury that kept him out of the Oilers’ most recent game against the Carolina Hurricanes, he may have replaced Puljujarvi alongside McDavid.
While Yamamoto also battled consistency issues in 2021-22, his 20 goals and 41 points had many optimistic he would be primed for a big year ahead. That hasn’t been the case, as he is goalless and has just three assists through 13 games. If his injury turns out to be just a minor issue, he has a great opportunity to get things going in the absence of Kane.
There is also Warren Foegele, who has largely disappointed since being acquired in a trade from the Hurricanes that saw Ethan Bear head the other way two summers ago. He has become somewhat of a whipping boy amongst Oilers fans, and hasn’t helped his cause to begin the 2022-23 campaign with just a goal and two points in his first 14 games.
The good news for Foegele, and why he may soon be granted an opportunity to move up in the lineup, is because he played not only his best game of the season against the Lightning on Tuesday, but perhaps the best game of his entire Oilers tenure. He scored his first goal of the year, created several chances and was on the ice in the dying seconds of the game protecting a one-goal lead. By all accounts, head coach Jay Woodcroft is a fan of his game, which bodes well for him getting a bigger opportunity moving forward.
The last — and perhaps most intriguing — option of the bunch is rookie Dylan Holloway. The 21-year-old had a fantastic preseason, leading to expectations that he would have a top-six spot in the lineup from the get-go. That hasn’t been the case, however, as some ugly mistakes during inopportune times have resulted in him averaging less than nine minutes per game through his first 11 contests.
With that said, he was elevated back to a top-six role on Thursday night versus the Canes, and played over 15 minutes, most of which came alongside Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman. He has a ton of skill and if he is able to continue playing on a line with one of the world’s best in Draisaitl, perhaps he will be the player who is able to benefit the most while Kane is out of the lineup.
Murray had to go through the Korn Ferry Tour to get his PGA Tour card back. And then he birdied the last hole at the Sony Open to get into a playoff, and made a 40-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole for an emotional win.
“It’s not easy,” Murray said immediately after winning. “I wanted to give up a lot of times. Give up on myself. Give up on the game of golf. Give up on life, at times.”
Murray tied for 43rd last week in the PGA Championship, which enabled him to hold his position among the top 60 to earn a spot in the U.S. Open next month at Pinehurst No. 2 in his native North Carolina.
He shot 68 in the opening round at Colonial. The next round, he was 5 over and coming off three straight bogeys when he withdrew citing an illness.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said he spoke with Murray’s parents about halting play at Colonial and they insisted the golf tournament continue.
Monahan flew to Fort Worth, Texas, to be with players. Many of them wore black-and-red pins on their caps Sunday in honor of Murray. Those are the colors of the Carolina Hurricanes, his favorite NHL team.
“We have spent the last 24 hours trying to come to terms with the fact that our son is gone. It’s surreal that we not only have to admit it to ourselves, but that we also have to acknowledge it to the world. It’s a nightmare,” his parents shared in their statement.
“We have so many questions that have no answers. But one. Was Grayson loved? The answer is yes. By us, his brother Cameron, his sister Erica, all of his extended family, by his friends, by his fellow players and — it seems — by many of you who are reading this. He was loved and he will be missed.
“Life wasn’t always easy for Grayson, and although he took his own life, we know he rests peacefully now.”
Grayson was a raw talent after taking up golf at age 8. He won his age division three straight years at the prestigious Junior World Championship in San Diego. But he struggled to fit in at college, going to Wake Forest, East Carolina and then Arizona State.
His first coach was Ted Kiegel in North Carolina, who like so many others was devastated.
“Words cannot express the tragedy of this moment,” Kiegel said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. “Grayson came from something that was ordinary and made it EXTRAORDINARY. … He burned bright for the 30 years he gave us.”
Murray won as a 22-year-old rookie at the Barbasol Championship in Kentucky, and frustration began to set in as he didn’t improve as quickly as others whom he routinely beat as amateurs.
He was always open about depression and anxiety, and his bouts with alcohol. One of his darker moments was at the Sony Open in 2021 when he was suspended for an incident in a Hawaii bar. Murray took to social media to say, “Why was I drunk? Because I’m a (expletive) alcoholic that hates everything to do with the PGA Tour life and that’s my scapegoat.”
He also accused the tour of not giving him proper help, which the tour denied.
Monahan said Saturday at Colonial that he called Murray right after that posting and subsequently spent a lot of time with him.
“I think one of the elements of his legacy is his resiliency,” Monahan said. “So you think of going back to 2017, winning the Barbasol Championship, going back and forth between the Korn Ferry Tour and the PGA Tour. … self-assessing, coming back, becoming in his own eyes a stronger human being, and then winning three times in the past year.
“To me, that’s a level of resiliency that is extraordinary.”
When he won on the Korn Ferry Tour last year, Murray talked about his parents having “been through hell and back basically for the last six years for me fighting some mental stuff.”
“Everyone has their battles,” Murray said a year ago. “Sometimes people are able to hide them and function, and sometimes you’re not. I think our society now is getting better about accepting that it’s OK to not be OK. I’ve embraced that mentality. I’m not ashamed that I go through depression and anxiety.”
He also used social media to reach out to others dealing with similar issues in a sport where losing takes place far more than winning.
Murray said in January after he won the Sony Open that he often felt like a failure who had wasted his talent.
“It was a bad place, but like I said, you have to have courage,” he said. “You have to have the willingness to keep going. Lo and behold, that’s what I did, and I’m here, and I’m so blessed and I’m thankful.”
He saw that Sony Open victory — which got him into the Masters for the first time — as the start of a new chapter. He said he had become a Christian and was engaged to Christina Ritchie. He said in January the wedding had been planned for late April.
“My story is not finished. I think it’s just beginning,” Murray said in Hawaii. “I hope I can inspire a lot of people going forward that have their own issues.”
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