Q: Which 3 Oilers forwards who played Saturday against Calgary, come out if 97, 91 and Frederic are all healthy? (Reid W.)

A: If we take this to mean first game of the playoffs, the Oilers will be knee-deep in forwards, 15 if you count Evander Kane. And it might be 16, if we’re including Derek Ryan who will likely be recalled from Bakersfield.

Several weeks ago we’d have said left-winger Jeff Skinner was going to be one of the three sitters because he was deep in coach Kris Knoblauch’s doghouse with those 10 healthy scratches, but not now.

Judging by ice-time, Max Jones looks like a sitter. The Boston Bruins trade pickup can hit and skate but hasn’t won the trust of Knoblauch. The Boston Bruins add is averaging 8:26 in 10 games and got 5:21 in the big game against the Flames. He has one assist in his first Oilers game March 6 against Montreal, but more glaring, he’s minus-6.

Kasperi Kapanen’s speed and portability within the lineup, especially his skating on a slower Oilers team than last season with Dylan Holloway, Ryan McLeod and Warren Foegele leaving, has been fine. And he’s in the third forward penalty-kill tag team with Vasily Podkolzin, which bumps up his average ice-time to 12:26, but with the puck, he had one assist in 13 games in March and was minus-4. He seems a “Sorry, but no room for you” candidate. Especially with Corey Perry’s 16 goals and those 215 playoff games.

The third candidate? If you were going simply on offensive production, it should be Mattias Janmark. We know he’s a staple beside Connor Brown in the second penalty-kill pair, and he’s really good at it. He averages 13 minutes a game, but he has three points in his last 37 games. Janmark has only scored two goals this season and one was into an empty net. We’re giving you all the reasons why he could be a sitter, but here’s the thing: Knoblauch greatly values his checking ability. He often has him out late in games to protect leads, so, don’t bet on it.

More concerned with defenceman Mattias Ekholm’s health issues but if we’re talking the three forwards, currently out, McDavid has missed four games, likely with an abdominal issue after Josh Morrissey’s stick check on March 20, but he did fly to Vegas to start the four-game road trip and took the morning skate, albeit in a non-contact grey jersey. There’s a feeling 97 might be ready to play in Los Angeles Saturday.

Kane would benefit from some late-season games on the farm, with the Condors scuffling with Tucson for the seventh and last playoff spot in the Pacific division, not having played in 10 months. It seems a no-brainer that he gets two or three games in the AHL first, but he has to agree to an AHL conditioning stint.

Frederic was a gamble when they traded for him from Boston because of his high-ankle sprain, and he hasn’t played yet. He was on the ice for the morning skate in Vegas too but his first Oilers game in L.A. or in Anaheim next Monday might be a generous timeline. The Oilers need his sandpaper game, for sure, and he’ll be in the top nine somewhere when he plays. But he hasn’t played in five weeks, so, clock’s ticking.

What has to happen here is this: the Oilers go on a long playoff ride, he’s very happy with the situation and signs a long-term deal as a free agent with Oilers, not, say with his hometown Blues. If not, then the trade was a swing and a miss.

Q: If the Oilers don’t win the cup will they bring in another goalie to compete with Skinner (or Pickard)? (Jeffsidian)

A: Ah yes, a goalie question. GM Stan Bowman, who won Cups in Chicago with Antti Niemi, Corey Crawford and Scott Darling in net, comes from the same school his esteemed dad Scotty. Scotty has long said you can win a Cup with a good goalie playing well, you don’t need a great one. Which is maybe why Bowman didn’t trade for another goalie at the deadline to push Skinner, who hasn’t been as good this season as last. Say, John Gibson at the deadline if they could have made the money work, in a 50-50 ratio of games.

Nothing against good soldier Calvin Pickard, who has outplayed Skinner this season, but Pickard has played 30 games this year and Skinner close to 50. Pickard, who has one year left at $1 million, is one of the best NHL backups, also one of the hardest-working, nice guys in the game, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they did sign or trade for a goalie this summer, especially if they go out early in the playoffs. A tender with more games on his resume than Pickard, who would have a long line of teams trying to add him in a deal at his price-point. A name that comes to mind: New Jersey free agent Jake Allen, who has 457 NHL games.

Q: Bowman admitted on After Hours that the decision not to match on Holloway and Broberg was due to the math not working. TB, FLA, VEG have shown the opposite, identify players you want/need and make math work after. (kevybet).

A: At the risk of continuing to beat a dead horse, the Oilers blew it by not matching the $2.29 AAV offer for two years on Holloway who had 62 points with Blues last time we looked. Philip Broberg’s $4.58 million AAV offer sheet for two years was more problematic at the time and a more justifiable walk-away. At the time that was more than their top-pairing defenceman Evan Bouchard was making, although we did say early in the season, after Broberg’s hot start in St. Louis, that the Oilers might wind up trading for an older, left-shot D in about the same price-range to fill Broberg’s absence. And they did, acquiring Jake Walman, for a first-round draft pick.

We know the Oilers were squeezed to the cap after re-signing veterans Janmark, Brown, Perry and others in July but the Oilers had two months to make the cap math work on Holloway. Bury a contract in the minors, make a trade. The $2.29 million AAV offer sheet for Holloway was not a big gulp and they ended up claiming fellow winger Kapanen and his $1 million cap hit off waivers from the same Blues five weeks after the season started because they needed some speed in their lineup.