SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — American Thanksgiving has long been a signpost for how NHL teams are doing and what improvements need to be made. The Edmonton Oilers are well ahead of their dismal 5-12-1 mark at this time last season, but they’re not where they should be, either.
With that in mind, it seemed like a good time to check in with GM Stan Bowman, who’s still learning on the fly about his team after being hired in July to replace Ken Holland.
Bowman sat down with The Athletic before Friday’s 4-3 overtime win against Utah, which left them with a 12-9-2 record, to discuss the Oilers’ start and where they can — and should — go from here.
Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
We’re a little more than a quarter of the way through the season. How do you feel about your team? Where do you think your team’s at?
We had a slow start. There’s no question about it. Probably should have a couple more wins than we have right now. I think we’re a little better than our record, but not way better.
A few of those games early I thought we played pretty good, but we didn’t get the results. When you dig yourself a hole like that, it puts a little bit more stress on the group. But I thought we responded well and we got going, particularly on the road. We’ve been a pretty good road team this year.
So, there’s elements of the game that I’m happy with. I would say that the areas that we struggled are the areas I didn’t expect us to struggle — scoring goals, power play, penalty kill. Those are probably the three areas that we haven’t been very strong. The area that was so talked about was our defence. The defence has played well. That hasn’t really been an issue.
It was just a bit of a slow start. Couldn’t get going, couldn’t seem to find the chemistry. Maybe that’s just natural. You can practice all you want, but you got to play some games. Our last stretch here is more like the team that I had expected or envisioned.
Is there anything that stands out about why those struggles have occurred? As somebody who’s been a general manager of a team that’s gone deep a lot, do you think that’s more it?
It’s not a great answer, but it is somewhat common (in this situation). Probably more often than not, you don’t get off to the great start that you talk about leading into camp. Everyone talks about wanting to get off to a good start and stress that you don’t want to be playing catch-up. But it just takes some time for the guys to maybe get their own internal rhythm or chemistry going.
Obviously, Connor (McDavid) and Leon (Draisaitl) really make the team go, and they’ve been excellent — in particular the last 15 or so games. They’ve really played at a high level.
The St. Louis Blues are coming to town next week. With the benefit of hindsight, do you feel any differently about not matching those offer sheets to Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway?
No, I don’t.
To me, it was really more of a mathematical reality. From a practical perspective of actually having a team that could be compliant with the salary cap, there was really no way to make that financially work. We would have to take someone on our team who’s a significant player, and they would have to be gone. When you really analyze it from that perspective, it was an issue — not just this season, but even a bigger one next season for those amounts.
That’s something that I’ve looked at, and I’ve not spent a lot of time thinking about that at all since we made the decision that we weren’t going to have them on the team. It’s really not a reflection on their value as players or their importance to the team. Just, with the way that our team is structured, those salaries just don’t fit.
You’ve been a general manager for a while, but you were only on the job for three weeks to a month. Were you surprised when that happened?
Yeah. Certainly, it’s an uncommon situation. There’s never been two at the same time. So, I can’t say that I was expecting that.
But when it’s in front of you, you evaluate it as best you can and move ahead.
Last one on this topic: You mentioned the financial realities of the situation, but, again, you were very new on the job. Did you not having much of a relationship with those players, at least in Edmonton, allow you to look at the situation through a different lens compared to, say, if you would have drafted them?
That’s probably fair. Certainly, I didn’t have the same emotional connection with them that the players do, or the fans. I get that, and I was probably coming at it more from a pragmatic standpoint not from an emotional one.
I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but the hardest part of our game is you’ve got to take the emotion out of it. Especially when you’re in this role, you have to look at things as objectively as possible and take the emotion out of it. Maybe that was an advantage for me relative to some of the other players or fans. I respect and understand the passion and the sadness people dealt with that those players aren’t here. But we have to turn the page and look ahead not backwards.
And you did turn the page pretty quickly by acquiring Ty Emberson and Vasily Podkolzin. What have you thought of their starts to the season?
I think they’ve both played well.
For Podkolzin, it’s weird to say for a guy who’s got one goal (before Friday’s game), but he’s really played well going back to even last month. He started the year on the fourth line, and the one thing I remember about him is just he just does all the right things all the time. He’s got incredible habits.
For a coach, it’s really easy to get excited for that, because he does the stuff that a lot of guys just don’t feel like doing sometimes — forecheck, backchecks, finishes his checks, goes to the net. Those are somewhat unheralded things, but someone’s got to do it, right? He wasn’t having much success on the scoresheet, but he just continued to play the same way. He worked his way up the lineup, and they gave him a chance to play with more talented offensive players. I don’t know if he’ll stay there all year, but it’s nice to see that other people recognize and appreciate him … he’s been a nice shot in the arm to our group up front.
And Ty, he’s really settled in. In the first couple games, maybe you could tell our team wasn’t playing great, and I think his confidence wasn’t there. Now when I watch him play, he’s a little bit more assertive. He’s a pretty physical player. We don’t have a lot of real physical defencemen. I’ve liked that part of his game. He’s a pretty simple player. Our penalty kill’s struggled, but he’s been pretty good the last stretch. They’ve given him that chance to be in the first unit with (Mattias) Ekholm. That’s helped. He’s got a defined role.
How would you categorize any talks you’ve had with pending RFA Evan Bouchard? Have there been any?
No, we haven’t really done too much with that yet. We might decide to. I don’t know if there’s a right or a wrong way to approach it, but there’s really nothing to report on that front right now.
I guess you don’t feel a lot of urgency there.
We have had internal discussions. But as far as engaging with his agent, not really. Whether we will or not, I’m not sure. But he’s playing better lately, too. He got up to a slow start, but it’s nice to see his game rounding into form.
How have you felt about your plan to accrue cap space whenever you can? Obviously, it’s meant you’ve had a leaner roster.
Well, it’s the only option we have right now. If we want to be able to add to our team (before the trade deadline), that’s really the only avenue — unless we’re going to be trading dollar for dollar. The whole point in doing it that way is so that we give ourselves options in the second half.
It isn’t ideal. It would be nice to have extra bodies around and maybe some different combinations, but we’re doing the best we can.
From a practical perspective, has it posed a lot of challenges with not having the AHL team in the same city, and with having an older roster, too?
Yeah, no question about it.
We’re not a young group. That’s evident. We’re a little bit different than the start. We got (Kasperi) Kapanen (off waivers last Tuesday) in here now. He’s only played couple games. I guess for our group, he’s a young guy, comparatively.
But we’ll see. That’s our game plan. We’re going to stick to it for now. We may have to pivot if we need other players, or if guys aren’t getting it done. For the most part, those depth players haven’t been a big issue.
Part of the reason you’re in this situation is the status of Evander Kane, right?
Yeah.
Is there any update there? Is there even a timeline for a return?
It’s still too early. He hasn’t been able to do a lot yet. The first six or eight weeks it’s just letting the surgery heal … I don’t know that he’s to the point where we would know if he’s ahead or behind.
He’s going to start ramping that up and actually doing some training soon. But right now, he feels great, he said. He’s doing everything that he can under the timeline. I have no reason to think he won’t be back when he was originally scheduled to be.
He played hurt a lot last year. Are you confident that you’re going to get the top-six, top-nine player when he does return?
I’m just going by what he’s said. He said, “I’ve never felt this good before.” These are his words. He feels great. So, that’s a good start because he was playing hurt. It’s hard to be at your best when you’re dealing with that. There were some tough injuries. You’ve got to give him credit for sticking it out.
There’s no reason to think he’s not going to come back and be as strong as can be.
You’ve never been his GM, but you’ve probably watched him a lot. He probably provides a different element to this team.
He does. I guess Podkolzin is probably the only guy that has that sort of physicality to his game. But Evander’s just different. He’s a more naturally aggressive player, and he can score, too, and he’s got speed. He would be a different element that we don’t really have.
You mentioned how pleased you were with your defence. I just wonder then what is the area on your team you’re monitoring the most in terms of room for improvement as we head toward the trade deadline in March?
I would say we’re struggling on the power play. We’ve got the players. I mean, it’s the same guys that were great last year, right? Well, (Zach) Hyman’s hurt right now, but he’ll be back soon. So, we have the guys. It’s really just the adjustment. Our power play has been so good for so long that it’s been very heavily scouted … the plays that were successful last year, those have been taken away. They’re starting to figure that out. (The Oilers scored two power-play goals in a game for the first time this season on Friday. They did that 18 times last season.)
The other thing that’s complicated it a little bit is we haven’t had a ton of power-play opportunities. There was the stretch there where we had like eight power plays in five games. That’s just not many reps. Even if you are unsuccessful, but you have six or seven in a game, you get the reps.
Some of these games, we haven’t scored many goals, but we’ve dominated. The Montreal game (last Monday) is a good example. We didn’t give them anything, really, for two periods. We controlled that game. We couldn’t score. They score late in the second, and then you’re trailing and chasing the game. That’s what happens when you don’t score. You allow teams to hang around.
I’d like to try to see our offensive game pick up. Connor and Leon are flying right now. But outside of those two, we haven’t had a lot of guys really clicking on offence. That’s probably the area — goal scoring. I don’t know if it has to be external, though. It’s really just the guys we have here scored a lot of goals last year. And it’s the same group
And then you might add Evander Kane, right?
Right.
So, I want to see our power play improve and I want to see, in general, our goal scoring have an uptick. But that doesn’t mean that it’s going to be through new players.
There are two roster things that everyone talks about. The first is another top-four defenceman. How much of a priority do you feel like that is for this group?
That was the big talk coming into the season, and I understood that looking at it on paper. But our defence has played well.
Defence is always something that you never have too much of it. We want that to be a strength, so we’re definitely looking. Whether it’s a quote/unquote top four, whether it’s a lefty or righty, part of that’s going to be dictated by the players that are available and the price. Can we acquire them?
We’re, casting a pretty wide net right now with our staff. We haven’t really ruled anyone out. We’ll probably start to narrow that focus maybe around Christmas. From Games 40 to 50 is when we’re going to try to really decide which type of player would be the best one to add. If we can add a defenceman, we’d like to.
And the other roster thing is goaltending. I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you about it. How do you feel about your goaltending?
I would say the goaltending has been inconsistent. I wouldn’t say it’s been a strength of our team. There have been certainly moments when the goalies have played great, and there’s moments when they’ve been off their game. I don’t think we’ve seen the best from them, but I wouldn’t say it’s like …
A five-alarm fire?
Yeah, or red alert or whatever. They’ve been inconsistent, but they’ve shown moments where they can really bail us out when we aren’t playing well. You’d like to try to have them bring that more often, and they’re working on it. But it’s not a big concern for me right now.
It seems like you’re trying to increase your cap space because you don’t have a lot on the roster that you can move out. So, what about your prospect capital and your draft capital? Do you feel like you have enough assets there to make a relatively significant trade?
Well, we’re going to try.
There’s a lot of factors in that. Like, I’m not setting the price, right? It’s a negotiated price, and it depends on who else is interested in the player, and how likely are they to get that price.
Obviously, it’s not complicated to say we don’t have a ton of draft picks. We traded a lot of them away. We haven’t picked a lot of players in recent drafts, so we were coming at it from a different position than some teams. But hopefully we can pull something off. That’s the art of the deal.
(Photo of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard: Codie McLachlan / Getty Images)
