PROJECTED LINEUP: Oilers vs. Flames

EDMONTON, AB – The signs are pointing in the right direction for Leon Draisaitl to make his return for tonight's important Battle of Alberta in Oil Country.

Though it wasn't confirmed outright by Head Coach Kris Knoblauch, the Oilers bench boss said there's "a good chance" that Leon Draisaitl will make his return to the lineup from a four-game injury absence on Saturday night when the Edmonton Oilers host their rivals the Calgary Flames at Rogers Place.

The League's leading goalscorer took to the ice for Edmonton's pre-game skate this morning and participated in line rushes between his regular linemates Viktor Arvidsson and Vasily Podkolzin, marking a positive sign that the German forward is close to making his way back into the fold for the Oilers.

"I felt good out there," Draisaitl said pre-game. "I have to talk to the doctors and see what the final decision is, but all I can say is that I felt pretty good."

Draisaitl said it was important not to rush his recovery and potentially make the injury even worse before the start of the playoffs, saying he could've played through it but that he and the club's medical staff wanted to take their time and make sure he wasn't putting himself in a vulnerable position.

"I'll play through anything if it's at the right time," he said. "It has happened unfortunately the last two playoff runs for us, but I think this is not the time where you tinker with things like that looking at the big picture. There's always a little bit of pain involved in anything. You can go throughout the room and find everybody with something, but I'm certainly smart about it."

Edmonton's leading scorer this season with 101 points (49 goals) in 68 games suffered his lower-body injury during the second period of last week's 7-1 victory over Utah Hockey Club, but still finished with a team-high 22:23 ice time as he searched for his 50th goal of the season.

"It was kind of a weird play, and I felt it pop or grab right away. I think you could see my, my discomfort," he said. "It was a weird situation just because of where I was at and where the game was at. It was a 5-0 game, so maybe if that's a tight game, I'm probably not stressing that I'm probably pulling out. So it's all good and it feels good now."

Draisaitl is a possibility to return to the lineup for tonight's critical Battle of Alberta with the Flames where important playoff points will be on the line, and the Oilers still have ambitions of pushing higher in the Pacific Division while adding some breathing room between them and their rivals.

"Would I rather have played the three or four games? Yes, absolutely," Draisaitl said. "But we still haven't clinched anything. We've still got a ways to go here. We've got to win some hockey games and dial in our game a little bit, so obviously, you want to be a part of that."

Coach Knoblauch also confirmed that captain Connor McDavid will remain out of the lineup along with defenceman Mattias Ekholm, who'll miss a second straight game after being scratched for Thursday's 6-1 loss to the Kraken for what was described as maintenance.

In a similar vein to Draisaitl's injury, Knoblauch doesn't want to rush Ekholm's ailment and put him in a position where he could potentially miss playoff games.

"Just something that's lingering... If this was a playoff game, he's in the lineup tonight," Knoblauch said. "But it's something that we don't want to get worse and hopefully, it's something that can be healed with some time off."

Goaltender Stuart Skinner remains day-to-day, and veteran Corey Perry is probable to play after not taking part in this morning's full-team skate, which would give the Oilers a full lineup of 12 forwards and six defencemen.

View the Oilers Projected Lineup vs. Calgary below:

Podkolzin - Draisaitl - Arvidsson
Skinner - Nugent-Hopkins - Hyman
Jones - Henrique - Kapanen
Perry - Janmark - Brown

Walman - Bouchard
Nurse - Stecher
Kulak - Emberson

Pickard
Rodrigue