SAN JOSE — Kris Knoblauch grew up in Imperial, Saskatchewan, so he knows what a manure spreader is for. He just never thought he’d be one.

It’s playoff time, remember, and quietly over these past couple of weeks, an honest man has been sprinkling his media scrums with what Eddie Keen, an old Edmonton columnist, used to call, “El Toro poo poo.”

Hey — Knoblauch is just a guy doing his job, a vocation that requires the occasional withholding of a fact or two. He’s sticking to the truth — but Knoblauch isn’t telling whether that is today’s truth, yesterday’s truth, or some hoped-for result that one day may grow up into the truth.

With a little fertilizer, of course.

“Everyone is expected to be back sometime during the first round, hopefully. A lot of them by the first game,” Knoblauch said after the Oilers’ last practice here in San Jose — an optional — before flying into Los Angeles. “Everyone, but (Mattias) Ekholm is doing well and expected to be back very soon.”

Make no mistake — the Edmonton Oilers know a whole lot more than they are letting on about who will and will not be available for Game 1 against the L.A. Kings on Monday.

They’re just not telling us in the media, and by extension, you, the fans. And by much more important extension, the Kings themselves, whose practice facility the Oilers have avoided these past few days for exactly that reason.

Now, here’s the thing about Knoblauch. He’s not a great liar.

(Which means he has a hard time being dishonest, which is a good thing.)

He got into hockey to play and coach. Now, suddenly, here he is, with a roster that was supposed to challenge for a Stanley Cup but is now like a high-performance car left out in a hailstorm.

Was the dryer at Sidney Crosby’s childhood home “dinged up?”

So let’s get into specifics:

Evander Kane, who waxed poetic about the extra work he’s put in to return for playoffs, skipped his second optional skate in a week Saturday. That means one of two things: either he’s not as close to playing as the Oilers want us to think he is, or he’s so ready that Kane doesn’t need any more practice after not playing a game for about 10 months and having two surgeries.

In fact, admitted Knoblauch, doctors have not even declared Kane medically fit to play yet.

“He is very close,” the coach said. “Not officially (cleared), but there’s another player that very close for Game 1.”

If Frederic were to wait for that high ankle sprain to disappear completely, we suspect, he wouldn’t play a game until September.

So it’s a matter of gauging how much pain he can stand, and then wagering on the chance he reinjures himself, like he did the last time he tried a comeback. The thought of Frederic ever becoming what he was meant to be this spring — that Trade Deadline acquisition whose size and demeanour is exactly what the Oilers need — seems distant right now.

Knoblauch, for one, would just like to be able to get to know the player.

“It would be nice for him to get comfortable with the game the team plays. Know our systems, for me to use him,” said the coach who, like we said, isn’t very good at staying in stealth mode before he breaks into his truthful self. “What line? Who’s he going to play with? Where does he fit best? Is he a left winger, centre, right winger…”

Troy Stecher, Knoblauch reports, is skating. Problem is, he’s doing it in Edmonton.

“He’s another player that we expect to join us at some time during the series. Probably not Game 1,” Knoblauch said.

John Klingberg reports that his infected ankle has cleared up and his chronic hips have never felt better. He is itching to play, and watching him practise, we’d say this one is on the up and up.

“John is available to play Game 1,” said Knoblauch, who will choose between Klingberg and big Josh Brown for his Monday lineup. “He’s been cleared, he’s good, and he is an option for us.”

Make no mistake. There is more flux than yucks around this team right now.

Even Knoblauch can’t sugar coat that.

“Absolutely there is,” Knoblauch admitted. “Not knowing exactly who we have coming back. Leon (Draisaitl) hasn’t played for a few weeks. Connor (McDavid) just returned. Zach Hyman hasn’t played…

“There’ll be a lot of evaluating right at the start of the game, a lot of just seeing who’s ready to go, who’s going to contribute. Because we’re going to need them right away.”

Asked about why Jeff Skinner, who played the last five games on McDavid’s wing yet produced just one point (an assist), looks to be back down on the third line with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Adam Henrique, Knoblauch gave a 2025 version of a Glen Sather quote.

Remember when Sather said, “A fire hydrant could score 40 playing with Wayne Gretzky?”

“Yeah, they played a little bit together,” Knoblauch said of Skinner and McDavid. “I think any line centred by 97 has success.”

Now, ain’t that the truth?