Mark Letestu may be easy to overlook on an Edmonton Oilers roster full of young, offensively-talented centres.
But the free agent signing is expected to play an important role this season as a veteran, defensively-responsible centre.
Letestu provides stability in the middle for the Oilers as the only centreman older than 24 and will anchor the team’s fourth line, likely between Matt Hendricks and Lauri Korpikoski.
“I think he’s really important, he’s a veteran guy that can settle some things down,” said Oilers head coach Todd McLellan. “One of the attractive things about Mark, that I really didn’t think a lot about when we acquired him, was that he spent his years in Columbus and (Blue Jackets head coach) Todd Richards was on our staff in San Jose, and a lot of the language that Todd uses is very similar to ours, so I think Mark picks up things very quick.