The Edmonton Oilers will have two reinforcements in the lineup when they face the Los Angeles Kings for Game 2 of their first-round playoff series on Wednesday night.

According to Tony Brar of Oilers TV, winger Evander Kane and defenceman John Klingberg will draw into the lineup for the Oilers while Jeff Skinner and Josh Brown will be scratched to make room for them.

Kane is playing on Edmonton’s second forward line with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins down the middle and Zach Hyman on the right. The Oilers have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl together on the top forward line with Corey Perry. Klingberg will play alongside Jake Walman on the blueline while Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard are together on the top defensive pairing.

This will be Kane’s first game since last year’s Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers. He underwent multiple surgeries in September and then had another operation done in January and ultimately missed the entirety of the regular season.

Kane scored 24 goals and 44 points in 77 games for Edmonton in 2023-24 despite spending much of the season playing through injury. He’s appeared in 47 playoff games with the Oilers and has 20 goals and 30 points along with 120 penalty minutes.

Coming out of the lineup is a tough pill to swallow for Jeff Skinner, as he played in the first playoff game of his NHL career on Monday after 1,078 regular-season games. The former Carolina Hurricane and Buffalo Sabre was a minus-two in Game 1 against the Kings.

Klingberg signed a one-year contract with the Oilers in January but only appeared in a handful of games before getting sidelined in late March with a lower-body injury. He scored one goal and four points over 11 games while logging an average of 17:15 per night.

Josh Brown played under five minutes on Monday and the Oilers said they were comfortable essentially playing with five defenders. If Klingberg struggles early in Game 2, he might ride the bench like Brown did in Game 1.