Mike Babcock's McDavid-Draisaitl reunion creates a major problem for the Oilers

Stacking the two best players in hockey on one line is not the real gamble.

The gamble is what it leaves behind on the three lines underneath.

Behind McDavid, Edmonton's centres are Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jason Dickinson and rookie Josh Samanski, who spent last season in the American Hockey League.

Moving Draisaitl to the wing turns the deepest position on this roster into the thinnest.

That is not a scoring problem, because that top line will score. It is a matchup problem.

At home, Babcock controls the last change and can protect his second and third units. On the road, the other bench picks the matchup, and Nugent-Hopkins inherits assignments he has not handled as a full-time centre in years.

Babcock's strongest teams in Detroit and Toronto were built on three trustworthy centres rather than one loaded line. He is now coaching the opposite structure.

Edmonton's summer added Frederik Andersen in goal plus defencemen Ryan Shea and Shakir Mukhamadullin, with no centre brought in. Darnell Nurse and Jack Roslovic left, and the middle was never restocked.

That is why the lineup chatter reads as strange rather than exciting.

The widely shared forward chart lists fifteen names across five lines, and Edmonton can only dress thirteen forwards.

Ike Howard, Samanski, Mattias Janmark, Mathieu Joseph and Max Jones are fighting for the last spots, and only the two youngest can be sent down without clearing waivers.

So the crunch quietly favours veterans and pushes out the cheap young centre this construction needs most. Babcock can win the opening shift with 97 and 29 together.

Winning the minutes after that is the part nobody has solved yet.

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