“I think a year of pro hockey under his belt served him well, and he knew what to expect,” Woodcroft said. “But I saw a player that was involved. I saw a player that didn’t wait for things to come to him. He went and made things happen. I think he’s trending in the right direction as a prospect. He got bigger and stronger over the summertime.
“His job now is to go down to Bakersfield and become a very important player on that team, and he should feel good about that camp because the coaching staff here and the management certainly feel good about it.”
Campbell has been one of the best Oilers storylines this Camp, with back-to-back 30-plus save performances this preseason helping the 31-year-old build momentum toward what he’ll hope is a bounce-back season from his 3.41 goals-against average and .881 save percentage during the 2022-23 NHL season.
The Port Huron, Mich. product came into Camp this year with a loose but determined attitude and is just excited to get to work in an Oilers locker room that’s dead-set on winning the Stanley Cup after going deep into the third and second rounds of the postseason over the last two years.
“I’m just doing it right now. It’s been great,” Campbell said. “I just learned so much last year and worked super hard this summer on so many things, and it’s just fun to be back. This group’s hungry and there’s nothing better than being around a bunch of guys that are craving winning, so we’re just enjoying ourselves right now and just trying to get ready each day for the regular season.”
Both Campbell and Stuart Skinner are expected to split the final two games of the preseason before opening night on Oct. 11 in Vancouver.
On Tuesday, Coach Woodcroft updated the statuses of both Mattias Ekholm (hip flexor) and Ryan McLeod (undisclosed), who are both trending towards their return from injury by the time the regular season begins.
But with time on their side, the coach has taken the patient approach in coordination with the club’s medical staff to keep the pair of key Oilers players on track to play when games begin to mean a whole lot more.
“I expect both to be ready for the start of the year. They’re putting good days together. We’re listening to our medical people,” Woodcroft said.
“I think when you have time, you want to use it and we’ve got time. I think someone asked me the other day… if it was a playoff game, would they be in? Yeah, they’d be in. But we have some time right now. We want to use it. Both are good pros and they’ll be ready whenever it is that they’ll join the team full-time.”