EDMONTON — It’s getting down to crunch time for Edmonton Oilers GM Stan Bowman and his management group.
With the March 7 trade deadline less than a month away, Bowman is running out of time to tweak a team that’s been one of the best in the NHL for most of the season and has Stanley Cup aspirations.
There’s lots to contemplate and lots to discuss. Bowman spoke to The Athletic ahead of the Oilers’ final game before the 4 Nations Face-Off, a break he’s spending scouting and then checking in with the AHL Bakersfield Condors.
Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What have you made of John Klingberg’s first few games as an Oiler?
I would say promising. I’ve seen a lot of good things, and I guess there’s excitement over what it could be once he gets fully integrated and comfortable with things. You can just see the talent and you can see the natural ability that he has, which is predominantly what he’s been relying upon right now — his instincts.
Timing-wise, he’s just jumping right into the season when other guys have played 50 games, and he’s just had 10 days of practice. That’s asking a lot. The biggest thing I see is just once he gets comfortable with that and recovery from the injury that he had, I think he’ll continue to improve. But he’s been good so far, and it’s exciting to think about what it could be in another month or so.
Have you pencilled him in as a top-four defenceman then?
The one thing when people ask me about our defence and the top four and bottom pair — I think he’s going to be part of our six. I say that because I don’t know if it’s that useful to try to label what all these guys are. Ideally, we could have a D corps where there’s not a huge difference between the minutes in the top pair and the third pair. That’s just more of a semantics thing, is my point.
He’s definitely going to be someone that is going to be helpful for us. Right now, he’s only playing 17 minutes. Eventually, they’ll probably bump up a little bit to 18 or 19. He’s not on the special teams. I think he’ll find his way onto those, but we’re trying to work him in slowly. Ideally, you could have your pairs where a top player might play 22 minutes and then 20 and 18. That would be sort of an ideal utilization, so that you don’t burn out. When you have high hopes of going and playing till June, it’s a long road to get there. The less you have to overtax certain players, it’s just going to make your team better.
I definitely see him as being part of that six. Who his partner is and all that, we’re still playing around with that to see.
You told my colleague Pierre LeBrun recently something that you told me in late November. You felt that your defence has been pretty good this season. The numbers back that up. So, what do you feel is your biggest roster need?
It’s probably the depth of our team. I would say we even have good depth up front. We’ve got some good players that aren’t playing as many minutes as they would like right now. We’ve got some good players that are getting eight to 10 minutes a night.
We have been fortunate — knock on wood — to not have many guys injured all year. We hope that continues. But you look around the league and you see some teams have five or six guys out at a time. When that happens is when you’re going to be tested the most. I don’t think we have any glaring issues. If you look at our roster, it’s not like, “Wow, there’s this huge hole that they have to go fill that.” I would say it’s maybe a little different than that, and it’s more what types of players are available? How would they fit with your group? What would that change for your guys that you already have? How could their roles morph into something different, and could that make you a better team if you did that? That’s what we’re analyzing right now.
It may not be a big-name addition — or it may be. It’s still a little bit early to try to prognosticate that. I’m looking at a lot of different options, and we’re not ruling things out. But we’re also realizing that we have a lot of good players here. But that can change quick if you have a few injuries.
I’m sure one of those players generally hoping to get more ice time is Jeff Skinner. He’s been scratched six times this season — all since Dec. 29 — but has been playing better and gaining traction. Would you ever ask if he’d be willing to waive his no-movement clause if things go south before the deadline?
I don’t envision that being the case. He’s shown the real willingness to work through things with our group, and I commend him on that. He’s had a really great attitude the entire time. Haven’t had any complaints from him at all. He’s a professional and he’s got a lot of pride. He wants to take a step forward and play a bigger role. We’ve seen signs of that very recently, not only scoring the last game, but also made some noticeable plays with determination and finding a way to be able to contribute. That’s a great sign.
There are not a lot of games left even though there’s a month till the deadline. I suppose things can always change, but that’s not the focus right now for Jeff.
Where are you on what Noah Philp has been able to do at fourth centre?
He had a really good camp. We said the whole goal was for him was he’s got to play. He missed the whole year (last season). We figured he probably wouldn’t play a lot early, so we got him down there. He played a lot of minutes in the American League, and then we wanted to see how his game looked. That’s how we brought him up a few weeks ago, and he showed well. He’s shown that he can play in the NHL.
The objective of bringing him up now is see: Where are you? Is this someone that is going to be a player that we can use, or is it maybe not his time yet? He’s shown us that he can be a player we can use moving forward down the stretch here. Now we need to make the determination: What are the other options and what could our team look like if there’s additions?
To answer your question, he’s shown us he can play in the NHL. We like his size and his speed. He’s a pretty direct player. He’s a straight-lines kind of guy, not a real fancy guy. But in that role, that’s probably what we’re looking for. His style has matched up well with what we want from that position, and he’s done a good job.
We sent him back (to the AHL) just to keep him going. We wanted him to keep playing (during the 4 Nations break). Over the next month, we’ll decide if he’s coming back or if someone else is going to fill that temporarily.
Do you feel like you need another player at that position, or do you think you have enough cover with Philp and Derek Ryan to fill it adequately?
You can never have too many centres. It’s nice to be able to move guys around. (Ryan) Nugent-Hopkins is in that same category. We’ve used him mostly as a winger this year, although recently he’s played quite a bit of centre. If we’re going to continue using him in the middle, then the need at centre probably isn’t as strong given Ryan and Philp. Then you’ve got six centres and (Mattias) Janmark’s played centre, so you’ve got seven guys. That’s a lot that you feel comfortable using. But if we’re going to use Nuge on the wing, then it might be something we study closer on trying to find another centre.
That’s something we haven’t decided on yet. We’re still talking about it with the coaches and just trying to make that decision of where we like him best.
I have to ask about goaltending. Stuart Skinner has had some ups and downs this season, and his numbers aren’t great against higher-calibre opponents. Are you exploring the goalie market at all, or do you feel comfortable with his overall body of work — especially over the last two and a half months?
I think he’s played really well. I know that for whatever reason he seems to get some criticism. I guess goalies in general tend to. I’ve never really understood why. It’s more of a narrative that forms. Certain goalies are just, for whatever reason, immune from it. Even though maybe their performance isn’t that good, they have this aura that like they are the guy, and no one really questions them.
I went through this before. We had Corey Crawford, who had won a couple Cups, but, for whatever reason, he never was in that category. It was always like if he had a bad stretch of games, he was never good enough. I would just laugh because he won two Cups, and these other goalies, who are anointed as these great goalies, never win anything. I don’t know how that works. It’s just the randomness of fans or the media. I just look at: How is he performing? From November on, he’s been very consistent. He’s been a very good goalie. Goalies always have a goal here and there you don’t like.
The reality of the situation doesn’t line up with the narrative sometimes. And (Calvin) Pickard’s played great. Neither one of them had the best start. That’s a fair statement. The reality is they’ve had a strong run here for a pretty large sample of games. It’s not like it’s a three-week stretch where they’ve had a good run. It’s been a while. You have to acknowledge that.
Just to clarify then, you don’t feel the need to really explore the market at all?
Well, we’re going to look at every option for improving. But I would say no. That’s not a big issue with our team. I’ve got to do my job and run out every potential opportunity. But that’s not the front-burner issue for us.
How much of a priority is it to sign pending RFAs Evan Bouchard and Ty Emberson before the trade deadline?
I wouldn’t say that’s a relevant factor for the deadline. Those guys, you have their rights for a while, so I would say that’s a non-factor.
They’ve got arb rights, so you’re not in a position for a potential offer sheet.
We’re situated well for all that stuff. That’s not a big issue.
Is there any update on Evander Kane’s status?
No. There’s really no update on where he’s at. He’s continuing with his progress. The original timeline hasn’t really changed with the exception of he had to pause when he had the knee procedure. But as far as his original surgery that he had back in September, that’s healed up really well. I think he’s on track to continue his progress forward.
But, I mean, he’s still not close to playing. We’ll know more a month from now than we do now. When you get further into the process, you can maybe guesstimate it better. But as we sit here today, I don’t have a prediction on when he’s going to be ready to play. He’ll be back when he’s ready, but I’ll leave that to the doctors and trainers to figure out.
It sounds like you still don’t know if he can even play before the end of the regular season. Is that fair?
Nobody knows. Evander as well. It’s not a known fact when he’s going to be ready to play. As a result, a non-update update. As you get closer to the deadline — when you get to a month from now — he’ll have continued with his training. We’ll see how he’s feeling, and then we’ll know how much of the season is left. There are too many factors right now to be able to nail it.
Evander Kane has yet to play for the Oilers this season. (Stephen R. Sylvanie / USA Today)
Do you almost have to just pretend he’s not going to play this season, at least like the Evander Kane of old? That way, whatever you get from him is a bonus.
It’s hard to say. Whenever he’s back, whenever he’s ready to go. I’m sure just with the kind of person that he is — I’ve gotten to know him — he’s incredibly motivated and determined to make a difference. His energy and effort is going to be there. He’s an imposing player.
As far as how effective he can be with missing so much time, we’ll have to see. I don’t want to try to prognosticate that. Just like Klingberg jumping in, he’s doing well, all things considered, but he certainly isn’t a well-oiled machine yet. That’s the way it would be for Evander as well.
Obviously, the Oilers are in a championship window, but are any future assets — prospects or draft picks — off limits to trade?
We probably have some ideas on that. I don’t know if I necessarily want to share those with the world. But with where we are now, I think you have to explore all different scenarios. When it comes right down to making a decision, then we’ll do that.
For where we are — we have an excellent team right now — it’s apparent that the present is going to be the focal point more so than the future. When it comes right down to it, we’ll have to make those determinations. But I’m not going into it with saying, “These things are off the table.”
You mentioned earlier how adding depth might be the priority, so how will you deem this a successful trade deadline for you and the team?
That’s a tough question to answer. What I meant to say earlier, if I wasn’t clear, is we have to explore other options, too, not just depth options. I’m not ruling out higher-up-the-lineup-type players, but there’s more complications with those, whether it’s their contractual status or whether it’s their cap situation. There are more moving parts with those, but I wouldn’t rule it out.
Going into the deadline, I’m not setting a benchmark that this is what we have to accomplish. We have a bunch of things that we’re going to look into. The more likely scenario is to find depth players because we have a good group this year, and we have a lot of players right now that are looking for bigger roles. You mentioned (Jeff) Skinner. I would say also we have (Kasperi) Kapanen. He’s played well, but in a smaller role. Even Connor Brown’s moved up and down occasionally. He would love to play more, and he’s played well. (Viktor) Arvidsson would probably love more minutes.
Now, it’s not to say we can’t bring in more guys like that. But there does come a point where you have to find the right combinations and ice time for the players you have so that they can be at their best. Those are some of the factors that we’re putting into the equation when we talk about this internally.
Looking ahead, the NHL announced last Friday the salary cap will rise to $95.5 million for next season and all the way to $113.5 million in 2027-28. How does that impact your plan to construct your roster, particularly with new deals needed for Bouchard and Connor McDavid?
My experience is so much changes between February and, say, July with your team — how you perform, how players perform, who’s available. I don’t know how to accurately answer that, but we’ll kind of get to that when we get to it. Right now, that’s not the focus. I’m not really putting much thought into what our roster is going to look like in September of ‘25. We’re going to get there in time, and we’ll spend a lot of time on that when the time is right.
I don’t really have an opinion on the cap, whether it’s good or bad, that it’s $95 million. I guess you can make the argument it’s great, that it’s higher than it was supposed to be. It’s a simple analysis that might be true. You talk to agents, now that the cap’s higher, they just want more money for the same player. So, I don’t know if it’s good, better or worse. It’s just different. It’s all a challenge. We’ll figure it out. We’ll get it worked out in time.
The Oilers are trending toward being top heavy with contracts to McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Darnell Nurse and possibly Bouchard on the books. But does the fast-rising cap allow you to realistically contemplate trying to add another high-priced player to that mix in free agency at some point?
Tough to speculate. There’s a lot of variables. What’s it going to cost us on our own players first, and then what does our team look like? You’re always trying to put the best team on the ice. If that involves another high-priced player, then so be it. If it doesn’t, if you decide that the way to go is maybe not spending a ton of money on a new player, but like getting two or three … but that’s probably a better question I could answer once we get to the summer or planning for the summer. It’s not really a focus for the group at the moment.
Last one in that vein. Do you have assurances or a commitment from owner Daryl Katz that the Oilers will spend to the cap even when it gets to $113.5 million?
I don’t have any insight on that because I haven’t had those conversations with Daryl. In my experiences since I’ve gotten to know him, he’s fully committed to the Oilers winning a Cup. That’s every conversation I’ve had with him. But we haven’t talked about what it’s going to be like in three years. I’m sure those conversations will happen in time. Even still, there’s so much that happens before the cap is $112 million or whatever.
We’re probably going to be more focused on next year when I talk to Daryl. I can just say that he’s been incredible as an owner about the support that he gives our group. His desire to win is unmatched. He’s so passionate about the team, and he’s been tremendous to work with. I would expect that to continue. I have no reason to think it wouldn’t continue like that.
(Photo: Rich Gagnon / Getty Images)
