Every year, there is a big surprise at Edmonton Oilers training camp.

Some years it’s a young Magnus Paajarvi, some years it’s Ty Rattie, and some years it’s Jesse Joensuu.

This year it was Owen Michaels, but unlike some of the other pre-season heroes that we’ve had around these parts, Michaels didn’t earn his spot by going on some sort of crazy run of scoring goals or by simply laying a few hits and bringing some energy.

He did it by simply providing a few things that the Oilers have been trying to add to their lineup for quite some time.

First off, he shoots right. 

Now maybe it’s not totally fair that he wins a job over a player like Josh Samanski simply because of the way he shoots, but the reality is that the Oilers have been looking for a right-shot centre who can reliably win faceoffs for quite some time now.

Michaels got off to a good start in training camp, and I would guess that once the coaching staff saw him win nine of the 13 faceoffs that he took in the pre-season finale against a Calgary team that featured a lot of NHLers, Michaels had his spot all but locked up.

I’m sure if you injected Michaels with a little bit of truth serum, that even the 24-year-old probably would tell you that he’s a bit surprised to be breaking camp with the team.

Mike Babcock certainly was surprised, telling reporters that Michaels “wasn’t even on the radar at all”.

On the flip........

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