The plan isn’t for Connor Clattenburg to stick with the Edmonton Oilers , even as he brought elements that this team badly needs in his debut game against the Florida Panthers.

The plan appears to be for Clattenburg to play a few games as an injury replacement for forwards like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Kasperi Kapanen, Noah Philp and Curtis Lazar.

But the plan was never for Clattenburg to make the Oilers as a 20-year-old rookie. Yet here he is.

He played just nine shifts in 5:47 of ice time in Edmonton’s 6-3 win over arch-rival Florida, but Clattenburg had an eventful night, all of it positive, at least so long as you weren’t expecting Milan Lucic in his Boston Bruins prime. He advanced the puck out of Edmonton’s end. He got two Grade A shots on net in his one shift with Connor McDavid

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