Edmonton Oilers GM Stan Bowman held a media avail via Zoom on Tuesday, addressing a number of recent developments affecting his hockey club. Most notable among them were the dual offer sheets issued by St. Louis Blues to youngsters Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway, which the Oilers ultimately decided not to match.
They did, however, extract a couple of additional assets from the Blues, including the rights to unsigned 2023 draft pick Paul Fischer and a future third round selection in, wait for it, 2028. Add that to a basket that already included the Blues’ second and third round picks in 2025, as per this release the organization issued early this morning.
Bowman then went into a Q&A session and responded to queries in the following areas:
Philip Broberg / Dylan Holloway
Bowman addressed this in the early moments of his avail, summarized here by Sportsnet‘s Gene Principe:
Bowman discussed the four options before zeroing in on the Oilers’ ultimate decision to match neither:
“The other scenarios, which was either matching both or either one of them, would have put us in a much different (cap) position for this season let alone future years. So for that reason we did what we did.”
Takeaway: The cleanest solution was to simply let them go. Matching would create uncomfortable situations both on the salary cap front and in the locker room, where many older players took a haircut to play for the Oilers, and critical negotiations await for big-ticket stars.
On filling the holes
When asked about Edmonton seemingly targeting older players in recent times:
“It was nice to see that the Oilers are a destination point for players focused on trying to find a championship as opposed to… [leaves thought unspoken].
“Each player is different and they’re at different points in their career, but it was obvious that the players that chose to come to Edmonton and likely left money on the table is that they saw something in our group and wanted to become part of that.
“I wouldn’t say we’re only looking at older players. There’s value in [experience], but we also brought some younger players into our organization as well in Vasily Podkolzin and Ty Emberson. It’s not an either/or situation, there’s certainly benefit of having younger players in your line-up, they bring a different mix of energy and excitement… It’s probably going to be a combination of both. The key common element of Podkolzin and Emberson is manageable salary cap hits, because where our team is, not only in the current state but going into the future, salary cap room is going to be imperative for us. Typically younger players and veteran players tend to have lower cap hits, and in between is where salaries tend to go higher.”
On the d corps:
“We want to make sure that we have a strong defensive group by the time we get into the stretch run. I do think we have a lot of options at this point, a lot of players who we think can come in and fill a role for us,” mentioning Troy Stecher and Josh Brown as well as Emerson.
“This situation [not matching] gives us more opportunity to hopefully be able to accrue some cap space and be in the mix if we want to make an addition down the road.”
Takeaway: A few mid players trying out for spots, with a plan to accrue cap space and address the biggest need/s come the deadline.
Leon Draisaitl
Bowman confirmed that the Oilers have begun “conversations” with Leon Draisaitl and his agent for a possible contract extension. “Beyond that I don’t want to comment on it. I am not characterizing them in any way, and you shouldn’t read anything negative into that, I just don’t want to put timelines on it.”
Takeaway: Next time we’re apt to hear anything on this front is when a deal is done, but no hints as to when that might be.
Evander Kane
Bowman: “There’s maybe a misunderstanding about this all works. When there’s an injured player, his moving-forward plan is between Evander and the doctors. I don’t have any say-so in that, nor should I. When there’s any injury there’s a couple of options:
- you get treatment for it, you do rehab and over time the injury heals and the player is able to return to play.
- Sometimes you have injuries where surgery is required right away, where it’s obvious that’s the only solution.
- Sometimes it’s not as black and white, where there are a few different ways a player can move forward with it, that’s his decision and we’re going to be supportive of Evander in that.
That third scenario is where things are right now; whether he’s going to be out for a little bit of the season or if he [ultimately] needs surgery, a longer part of the season, we don’t have that information. I don’t weigh in on that, it’s something he’s going to sort through with the doctors.
“The impression is that because he’s injured he just goes on long term injury and you don’t need to make trades and it’s not a problem. That’s not really accurate in that you do need to account for that player in your salary cap. You need as a team to be able to activate him when he returns from that injury. It came into a lot of our discussions that you might be able to start the season in LTI, but you have a have a game plan for when he’s healthy and ready to play, and that was much more problematic.
“The other thing I’ll mention is that with LTI you’re not able to accrue cap space, so if you use LTI for a few months and then activate the player, you’re starting with no cap space. These were all factors that went into our decision. The way we’re situated right now we’ll be able to start the season with Evander Kane not being on any type of injury [list]. If he’s able to play right away that’s great; if he’s not, we’re not going to have a problem making room for him when he’s healthy.”
Takeaway: Bowman is going by the book here. The injury is first and foremost between the player and his medical advisors. Anything other than a season long injury was going to put the club in a tight spot at some point unless they were prepared in advance. Which, with the disposition of Broberg, Holloway, and Cody Ceci, they are.
Three new players added
- Ty Emberson: “I did talk to Kris [Knoblauch], he’s very familiar with Ty and he was very complimentary of his game. He loved having him on his team in Hartford, he was a very effective player for him.”
- Vasily Podkolzin: “He was a high pick, he’s got a pedigree, and he had a strong rookie year in the NHL. Since that point he hasn’t been the same, he’s been in the American League most of the time. They had some changes there, a different regime came in. He’s got the ability to score, he’s got a dimensional shot. He’s a powerful player, very strong, a north-south player, straight lines guy. He’s got a physical side to his game. He can play that possession type game in the offensive zone and when he doesn’t have the puck he can run guys over. That combination was pretty impressive. There’s a bet that we can get him back on track to where he was at one point.”
- Paul Fischer: “I’ve known him a long time, he’s grown up here in Chicago, I’ve seen him since he was a kid playing hundreds of games over the years. He went to the US National Team and he was trending really well; he got injured his draft year so probably didn’t get drafted where his talent level was. I watched him last year at Notre Dame; he emerged as a freshman defenceman and played a pretty big role on that team. He’s in the mix for the US World Junior team as well. He’s a good sized kid, he’s got a combination of everything. He’s young, he’s got areas to improve. I know him well, he’s a character kid who will do everything he can to improve.”
Takeaway: A couple of decent bets in the short term, and a middling prospect obtained to sweeten the pot of the offer sheet compensation.
Doug Armstrong
“You have to separate business and personal. I’ve know Doug Armstrong along time, we had a lot of battles over the years when I was in Chicago and he’s still in St. Louis. I understand that [an offer sheet] is a possibility for every manager to use. You can’t let your personal feelings get in the way.We have to have a working relationship with all the managers in the league and I intend to do that moving forward.”
For his part, Armstrong said:
Takeaway: It’s a cut-throat business.
On further player acquisitions this summer
“Nothing is off the table. It doesn’t do us any good to close any doors. We have to give our new players an opportunity, but part of my job is to look at what options we have, whether it’s additional trades or free agent players currently in the market. The limitations are still what they are; the salary cap picture is not changing for us. We’ve been careful to give ourselves some flexibility moving forward.”
Takeaway: Don’t hold your breath waiting for further off-season signings or trades, Oil fans.
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