Oil Country has been in an uproar this week over the Edmonton Oilers’ recent signing of Alex Formenton, who inked a one-year, $850,000 deal with the club on Wednesday.

The 26-year-old has been out of the NHL since 2022 after he and four former Hockey Canada teammates were charged with sexual assault. All five players were eventually acquitted, and in typical fashion, the Oilers stepped in to give Formenton a second chance.

Plenty of bandwidth has already been spent debating the morality of this decision, but that’s not what I’m here to do today. For this piece, I’m instead focusing on Alex Formenton, the hockey player. What does he bring to the team? And where will he fit in the lineup?

Alex Formenton was targeted for his penalty killing

The Oilers’ interest in Formenton began when Matt Savoie got hurt during off-season training.

Savoie progressed well offensively last season, but he was also one of the few bright spots on an abysmal penalty kill, which ranked 20th in the regular season and dead last in the playoffs. Given that they already lost PK ace Adam Henrique this off-season, missing Savoie is a tough blow. General manager Stan Bowman said the front office was concerned about the team’s ability to fill the void internally, prompting them to explore alternatives.

“So, we started to look around at players that were available,” Bowman told Jason Gregor in a recent interview. “I called some teams about possible trades to see what the market was like for penalty killers and the free agents that are remaining. There are still guys out there, but........

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