On Tuesday, it was announced Andrej Sekera underwent successful surgery on a torn Achilles tendon and will miss most of the Edmonton Oilers' 2018-19 NHL season.

Sekera is a veteran defenseman for the Oilers who in his first two seasons with the team was considered slightly overpaid, but a useful signing. An experienced minute-munching defender on a very young team, he was instrumental in the Oilers run in the 2016-17 postseason. Unfortunately, he was injured at the end of the 2016-17 season run and missed 46 games for the team the following season. When he did return, he was not back at near the level he'd left, scoring eight assists in 36 games and playing four to six minutes less per game.

Now, out indefinitely with a torn Achilles tendon, Sekera is not likely to be back at 100% at any point in coming season. He'll be placed on long-term injury reserve and the Oilers will have some decisions to make.

Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal wrote that general manager for the Oilers, Peter Chiarelli said, “We’ll have to see how Sekera comes along, but at some point, we’re going to have to look at replacing him.” He added, “How we replace him, as to the magnitude of the player … we’ll have to see how he’s recovering.”

Speculation is the team may first look internally at changes, moving shot-blocker Kris Russell over to his natural side and potentially calling upon recently signed Kevin Gravel, or recently drafted Evan Bouchard to fill some of the hole left in Sekera's absence. From there, it is believed the team will look to some unsigned players in free agency.

Cody Franson is still without a contract as is Ryan Sproul, Frank Corrado, and veteran Kevin Bieksa. Alternatively, the Oilers could keep Russell where he is and look at names like Toby Enstrom, Luca Sbisa, Alexei Emelin, Johnny Oduya, or even old two-time former Oiler Brandon Davidson.

In a long shot, the team could look to trading for a player like Carolina's Justin Faulk.

However the Oilers choose to go, news of Sekera's injury is not what the team needed after a dreadful 2017-18 campaign and the hope that few changes were needed but that the team would simply rebound. With one of their better d-men down, that got a bit harder to do.

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