Matt Savoie made the team last night.

In reality, he’s been making a solid case all training camp that he deserves a spot on the Edmonton Oilers opening night roster, but his coach just made it official.

“It looks like he’s ready,” Kris Knoblauch said after Savoie drove the point home Wednesday night against the Seattle Kraken.

Playing on the road, on a night when Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm were not in the lineup, Savoie delivered the kind of game you love to see from a young player late in camp.

He scored his first goal of the pre-season and led the team in shots on net (six) and ice time by a forward (19:50). The 21-year-old showcased his versatility and range, playing 4:36 on the power play, 1:54 shorthanded and 13:20 at even strength.

Only defenceman Darnell Nurse, at 25:18 (5:04 power play, 3:11 shorthanded and 17:03 even strength) logged more work.

“He’s made a strong impression right from Day One,” said Knoblauch. “He’s been working hard and his details have been good. Not only is he labelled as an offensive player, he’s worked on his details and he’s very responsible defensively. It looks like he’s ready.”

Savoie believes he is. A year in the minors appears to have done him a world of good, bolstering his maturity and confidence, showing him what it takes to be a pro.

“I think my game is in a really good spot right now,” he said. “I’ve been working all summer, working all camp, to get to this spot and I feel like I can be a contributor now and I’m working towards that.”

The plan is to keep trending up, keep getting better and more confident, so that he can be an impact player when it matters most in the spring.

That’s my goal, continuing to improve every game. By the end of the year I want to be a really big contributor here.”

PLEASANT SURPRISE

Defenceman Alec Regula is forcing the Oilers into a tough decision.

He hadn’t played in nearly a year and half while he recovered from a knee injury — and hadn’t set foot on NHL ice since the 2022-2023 season (four games with the Chicago Blackhawks) — so the Oilers kind of viewed him as a project.

Instead, he’s been much stronger than expected in the pre-season, to the point that there is almost no chance he’ll clear waivers if the Oilers cut him and try to send him to the AHL.

He’s a six-foot-four, 211-pound, right shot D man who can skate and move the puck and only makes $775,000. Oilers GM Stan Bowman knows him from his Chicago days (Regula played 22 games in total over three seasons) and likes what he can bring to this team.

“A guy who hasn’t played very much hockey for the last year and a half, for him to come to camp after that much time off and play as well as he has, that’s a lot of respect for him,” said Knoblauch.

“I saw all the training and rehab he was doing throughout the summer and last year during the season. Now he has this opportunity and I believe he’s making the most of out of it.”

So it’s either 1) try and sneak Ty Emberson or Troy Stecher down to make room for Regula, knowing the risk of losing them is also extremely high. 2) Roll the dice on sending Regula down, knowing you’ll likely lose him. 3) Swing a trade to make room. 4) The most likely scenario is start the year with 13 forwards and eight defencemen until they can sort this out.

NET RESULTS

The timing isn’t great: You’re the goalie and your team outshoots the other guys 34-17 and you lose 4-2 on the day your team just traded for another goalie, but Calvin Pickard can’t take the fall for Edmonton’s 4-2 loss to the Kraken.

He did make an egregious giveaway to hand Seattle its second goal, and Seattle’s fourth goal wasn’t anything special, but the first and third were screened power play bombs that he had no chance on.

WHISTLE HAPPY

The referees were in pre-season form as well, Wednesday. They called the game like they were trying to pass an officiating test or something. There were 11 power plays in total, with Seattle winning the special teams battle on the strength of two power play goals and a shorthanded marker. Edmonton had one goal on the power play.

It made it tough for the coaches to get a good look at players who aren’t on special team and tough to generate any rhythm with the lines.

“It would have been nice to have our full team so we could get the power play reps,” said Knoblauch. “Because in a lot of our exhibition games there haven’t been a lot of opportunities.

Still, six Oilers penalties is too many.

“Lots of sticking infractions,” said Knoblauch. “Checking with your stick and not your feet.”

LATE HITS — Don’t look now, but Nurse has three goals in three games. … After a slow start to his Oilers training camp, Ike Howard is looking more at home out there. He had a two-assist night in Seattle.

E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com

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