Some of the big swings that he’s made, like the Tristan Jarry trade and acquisition and extension of Trent Frederic, have really blown up in his face.

While it’s totally fair to criticize him for how bad some of those larger moves have looked, it’s also fair to give him some credit for some of the smaller moves that he’s made, and a lot of the good moves have been attempts to make the Oilers younger.

Acquiring Vasily Podkolzin for a draft pick was a great move. I’m personally a fan of the Ryan McLeod for Matt Savoie trade, and I think the value that Savoie is going to give the Oilers next season, while he’s still on his entry-level contract is going to be incredible.

I liked the move to bring in Ty Emberson while also moving on from Cody Ceci’s contract, even if it did cost a mid-round pick.

The move the team made last summer for Isaac Howard shows that this front office wants to get young players who are close to ready to make an impact in the NHL, and I think that next year, he could be another value piece for this lineup.

The question I want to look at today is based on the Oilers continuing to get younger.

Do they want to? Will they be able to?

The reality of the situation is that players like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman, who have been staples in the team’s top-six for the last number of seasons, aren’t getting any younger.

I still think Hyman has a few years of being a good top-six winger left, but Nugent-Hopkins might be a guy who is best served on the third line going forward, and that’s fine, but it shows that the Oilers need to keep finding good young players to add to their lineup.

Now, I’m not advocating for them making another ‘McLeod for Savoie’-esque trade this summer, I think they need to be totally focused on improving next year’s roster.

But as they look to go out on the trade market and make a splash, I think they need to be focused on acquiring players who are still in their mid-20s instead of their early-30s.

If a player like Filip Forsberg pops up, then that changes the conversation, but that’s not really who I’m talking about.

I’m talking about going out and doing what the Philadelphia Flyers did last summer when they acquired Trevor Zegras. A good young player, with a history of producing at the NHL level, who has simply fallen out of favour with his current organization.

The Flyers got him for Ryan Poehling, a second- and a fourth-round pick, and Zegras immediately started looking like a legit top-six player again. That’s the type of deal the Oilers need to look for.

It’s easier said than done because those types of situations don’t pop up all that often, but I would much rather see the Oilers go out and find a young player who needs a change of scenery over going out and targeting an aging veteran like Steven Stamkos, whose name has been thrown around in trade talk for the last year.

Young players are also generally cheaper, and considering the Oilers are still relatively tight to the cap, which I talked about in part two of this series, they might not have any other option but to find some young reclamation projects.

If they’re going to make a big splash, then I would even include players like Jordan Kyrou and Jared McCann in the conversation.

They’re both getting closer to 30 years old, but if you could find the assets to bring in a player like that, you could point to Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and show them a player who is still in their prime and will give the Oilers three to four years of really quality hockey in their top-six.

As much as winning a Stanley Cup is important to keeping McDavid in Edmonton past his current two-year extension, it’s also important to show him that if he sticks around, there is a wave of talent that can take over for the likes of Nugent-Hopkins, Hyman, and even someone like Mattias Ekholm on the blueline.

To do that, then GM Stan Bowman needs to prioritize finding young players who are still in their twenties.

Finding those players will be one of his biggest challenges of the summer.

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