In sports, winning teams are often the best at making the right decision while under pressure.

On the ice, hockey players have to make hundreds of decisions, often in less than a few seconds, that can lead to winning or losing a game and ultimately the championship. Thriving under pressure, remaining calm and level-headed are attributes managers and scouts look for in players. Of course they need skill, but having the ability to make plays under pressure is often what separates good players from great players.

The Edmonton Oilers can’t panic this off-season. Making knee-jerk decisions won’t help them reach their ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup in the near future. There will be tough decisions, but their process can’t be rash or emotional.

President Jeff Jackson and general manager Stan Bowman want to win, and they have pressure to win. Owner Daryl Katz is the ultimate decision maker. He has no one above him, while Jackson, Bowman and head coach Kris Knoblauch do. All of them want to win, and the Oilers’ off-season decisions will start at the top of funnel down.

If there are any changes in management those decisions need to be made first. I’ve heard the Oilers are looking to add to their management team. Kalle Larsson did a lot of quality work this year, and I could see him getting a promotion to assistant general manager. Bill Scott, who quietly has done a lot of great work and gained significant experience over the past 16 seasons with the organization, has had multiple interviews with Nashville for their vacant GM job. He is on the short list of finalists. The Oilers don’t want to lose him, but if he is offered the Predators job he will take it and they will need to replace him.

When a team loses emotions run high. Owners, managers, coaches, fans and media at different levels will call for change. Some will be too emotional and call for massive changes, while others will be more calculated and take some time to analyze every level. Some fans have called for Stan Bowman to be fired. Same as Knoblauch. Let’s look at those scenarios.

Bowman was named GM on July 24, 2024. One of the first decisions under his tenure was to not match the offer sheets for Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway. Holloway just signed a five-year extension worth $7.75 million after he produced 26-37-63 last season and 22-29-51 in 59 games this season. Holloway and Broberg were good young players and losing them wasn’t ideal. Edmonton received second and third round picks in 2025 as well 2028 third rounder and prospect Paul Fischer on August 20th. The Oilers moved the second rounder to Boston for Trent Frederic and Max Jones, while they drafted Tommy Lafreniere with the third round pick. Edmonton lost this transaction. It might improve down the road, but they lost the two best players.

When the Oilers knew they weren’t going to match the offer sheets, Bowman acquired Vasily Podkolzin (August 18th, 2024) from Vancouver for a 2025 fourth round pick (they re-acquired the pick before the draft when they sent Evander Kane to Vancouver). Acquiring Podkolzin for a fourth has worked out incredibly well. Podkolzin scored 19 goals this year, 17 at 5×5 and added 18 assists. He skates well, his aggressive and will fight when needed. Podkolzin made $1 million the past two season and was great value, and his new $2.95 million deal for three seasons begins next season. He’s given the Oilers great value and if he continues to improve like it looks like he will be one of the best contracts in the NHL for the next three seasons. Bowman did a pretty good job replacing Holloway with Podkolzin at a much lower cost.

On the same day, Bowman traded Cody Ceci to San Jose for Ty Emberson. Emberson has emerged as a solid third pair defender. This was partially a salary cap transaction. Trade has been okay.

In November 2024, Bowman claimed Kasperi Kapanen on waivers from St. Louis. He’s turned out to be a great acquisition. He’s played very well in the playoffs last year and this season. He battled injuries this year and only played 41 games, and doesn’t have the stats to ask for a big raise. He made $1.3 million last season and he likes Edmonton and the Oilers like him. Re-signing him for two years at $2.1-2.4 million makes sense. He’s fast, skilled, can shoot, is physical and can kill penalties and he performs well in the playoffs. He’s been a big win for Bowman.

In March 2024 the Oilers acquired Trent Frederic and Max Jones for Max Wanner and a second and fourth rounder in 2025. Frederic was signed to an eight-year, $3.85 million extension last June. The term was, and is, a concern. Frederic did not have a good season. If, and it is a big if at this point, he can rediscover the player he was in Boston and score 15 goals and add 15 assists and play physical the AAV will look okay for the next few seasons, but this deal aging well is unlikely. Jones played much better this season, until getting injured late in the year. I’m not sure he will re-sign with the Oilers or not.

A few days later Bowman acquired Jake Walman from San Jose for a first round pick in 2026. Walman played very well last season in the playoffs, had an inconsistent regular season, but played well again in the playoffs. His new seven-year, $7 million AAV deal begins this season. Bowman signed him to that deal last summer. Walman and Mattias Ekholm essentially swamped AAVs. Ekholm’s salary for the next three season will now be $4 million while Walman will be $7 million. It would seem the plan is for Walman to take over Ekholm’s minutes over the next season while Ekholm moves more into a 15-18 minute/game defenceman. Walman needs to stay healthy, which has been a challenge as he misses 20-25 games each season. That is the risk with his contract. When he’s on, Walman is a solid contributor, but Ekholm has been more consistent in his career, and the Oilers will need Walman to find that consistency for this deal to work out.

On April 2, 2025, Bowman signed Josh Samanski out of Germany. It didn’t get a lot of fanfar, but Samanski has an unexpectedly great first season.

He played well in the American League, represented Germany at the Olympics, and then played well for the Oiler down the stretch. He is reliable defensively. His first instinct is to play solid defensive hockey, which the Oilers need. Samanski will need to get stronger on the puck, and work on creating a bit more offensively, but he looks like a solid bottom six forward moving forward. A great free agent signing.

Bowman’s first free agency as the Oilers general manager wasn’t great. He signed Andrew Mangiapane for two years at $3.6 million AAV. It did not work out. Mangiapane was given opportunities and it didn’t work. Bowman ended up moving him to Chicago along with a 2027 first round pick for Jason Dickinson and Colton Dach. If Dickinson signs a new deal in Edmonton the deal will look very good. Dach is a pending RFA and will receive a qualifying offer, if not a contract before July first. Edmonton likes his speed and tenacity and he has decent hands.

Curtiz Lazar signed a one-year deal at $775,000 and lived up to his contract. He chipped in offensively won faceoff, and in the playoffs, he led the Oilers in penalties drawn. Solid low-cost signing.

On July 8, Bowman acquired Isaac Howard from Tampa Bay for Sam O’Reilly. Howard is more of a scorer, while O’Reilly is pegged as a solid two-way centre. Howard signed a three-year entry level deal with the Oilers the same day and had a productive rookie season. Howard scored 24 goals and 50 points in 47 games in Bakersfield and chipped in 2-3-5 in 29 games with the Oilers. He will be given every chance to replace Roslovic next season. Howard and O’Reilly are both good prospects who offer different skill sets. It is too early to say with certainty how the deal will work out for both clubs.

Just before the season began, Bowman acquired Connor Ingram from Utah for nothing (future considerations). Ingram started in the American Hockey League and was recalled in December and played well. Getting him for nothing and having him play well was a win for Edmonton.

A few days later Bowman signed Jack Roslovic for one year at $1.5 million. He gave the Oilers great value scoring 21 goals in 69 games. A great signing for the price.

Bowman traded Stuart Skinner, Brett Kulak and a second round pick in 2029 for Tristan Jarry and Samuel Poulin. The Oilers gave up a lot, and the trade did not work out well for them this season. Jarry got injured in his third start with the Oilers and missed a month. When he returned, he couldn’t find his game and the Oilers, due to underachieving all season, didn’t have time to let him find it. He lost the starting job to Connor Ingram. The trade doesn’t look good right now, but it could improve next year. Jarry will have all summer to work with Peter Aubrey in Edmonton, and he needs to get fully healthy. If he does, there is time to salvage the trade, but he will need to play well for that to happen. So far, the trade hasn’t worked out well for Edmonton.

At trade deadline Bowman acquired Connor Murphy for a second round (2028) pick. The deal looks good now, but if Murphy signs (which I think is very likely) the deal will look great for the Oilers. Acquiring a second pair right shot D-man, who will play three playoff years, maybe more, for a second-round pick is a great acquisition. But they need to sign him for it to be great.

He also did the Dickinson and Dach trade for Mangiapane as outlined above.

Bowman hit homeruns with Podkolzin and Kapanen. Walman was a solid acquisition as was Murphy. Dickinson could be great if he signs a new deal.

The offer sheet decision cost them two quality players. The Frederic contract was awful in year one as was the Jarry trade. Bowman will need those players to perform much better otherwise those will be two huge misses, and some would argue they already are.

I expect Bowman to remain GM. He recognized the team needs to get better defensively by adding Murphy and Dickinson. Now he needs to sign them. He has experience in re-tooling a Stanley Cup Final roster. He won a Cup with the Blackhawks in 2010, although he inherited that roster. Then the Hawks lost in the first round in 2011 and 2012, before winning the Cup again in 2013 and 2015. The Oilers have repeated that cycle through two seasons. They made the Cup Final (lost, didn’t win) in Bowman’s first year and then lost in the opening round in his second season. He will want the third year to be better and go more than one round. But he should have the experience in seeing how to re-tool a team to get back in the mix for the Stanley Cup.

Since being hired on November 12th, 2023, Kris Knoblauch has the fourth most regular season wins among NHL head coaches with 135. He trails Jon Cooper (136), Rod Brind’amour (143) and Jared Bednar (146). His 31 playoff wins are second to Paul Maurice’s 32. Knoblauch currently has the most wins regular season and playoffs combined since joining the NHL with 166 followed by Brind’amour (164 and counting), Maurice (162) and Bednar (160 and counting). Knoblauch has had a lot of success.

However, I do think he had a bit of an off-year coaching this past season compared to his first two. The Oilers never found any consistency in their defensive game. They had a very good 25-game stretch defensively in December and January, but other than that they never got on track in their own zone. I asked Leon Draisaitl if the team needs to improve their defensive focus.

“Yeah, for sure, and I take myself right to the top of that,” said Draisaitl. “I wasn’t necessarily happy with the way I defended all season or the details in my game. I feel like they slipped away from me a little bit, and that’s certainly something that I really want to focus on. Those things are hard to focus on in the summer. The summer skates, they’re summer skates. But when I’m coming back here, and I think that should be our focus for next season, at least to start the year, that those little details, they go a long way. And I can only speak for myself, but I do think that it slipped into our group a little bit and it got away from us a little bit.”

In 2025, Knoblauch sent a message early to the group when he benched Leon Draisaitl in the fourth game of the season. Draisaitl had taken four penalties in four games, and three of them were undisciplined. Draisaitl sat on the bench for almost seven minutes. Message sent. Draisaitl only took one minor penalty in the next 33 games. Give Draisaitl credit for handling it like a pro. He didn’t pout; he took responsibility and played smarter.

Knoblauch had ample opportunities in the first few months of the season to get the group’s attention. He could have sat a veteran for seven to 15 minutes to get the group’s attention. Too many of their top minute-eaters weren’t playing well enough defensively. Evan Bouchard, Darnell Nurse, Mattias Ekholm, Draisaitl, Connor McDavid. Any of them could have been used. Knoblauch opted not to, and I think the standard to where they need to be defensively wasn’t drilled home strong enough. He can learn from that.

Glen Gulutzan got the head coaching job in Dallas and Paul Coffey wasn’t on the bench to start the season. Goalie coach, Dustin Schwartz and skating coach David Pelletier also didn’t return. Mark Stuart was promoted to run the defence, while Paul McFarland was hired to run the power play, Peter Aubry was the new goalie coach and Conor Allen the new skills coach. The PP remained solid, Aubry worked with four goalies, two of which came in during the season, while Allen’s skill work before practice was received very well by the players. Many of the young players really enjoyed it. I do think the Oilers lacked some experience on the bench, and Coffey returned late in the year. Essentially demoting Stuart.

I have an analogy for Knoblauch. Look at him like a 35-goal scorer. He isn’t an elite coach yet, but he’s shown really good promise his first two seasons. If a player has two seasons with 37 and 36 goals, but dips to 22 in his third season. Do you trade him, or do you think he can rebound? That’s how I view Knoblauch. He didn’t match his previous two seasons, but I think it is premature to fire him. Let him grow and learn.

Many Oilers fans commented online dreaming about Jon Cooper leaving Tampa Bay. Sorry, but that was never happening, unless Cooper decides he wants to leave, similar to Paul Maurice leaving Winnipeg. Tampa Bay GM Julien Brisebois said today, Cooper “will be here for a while.” Cooper is a great coach, but he didn’t win right away. He lost in the first round his first season, then lost in the Final in year two (2015). Then they lost in the third round, missed the playoffs in 2017, lost in the third round in 2018, lost in the first round in 2019, after winning 62 games, and then won the Stanley Cup in 2020 and 2021. What if Tampa Bay had decided to fire him after missing the playoffs in his fourth season? They didn’t overreact. They let him grow and develop as an NHL head coach.

I’m not saying Knoblauch is destined to be on the same path as Cooper, but a few missteps in his third season aren’t enough for me to fire him. He can learn a lot from this season and develop more next year. I do think he needs to hire one or two assistants with some NHL experience this off-season. I’d be surprised if Stuart returns. He wasn’t happy being demoted, and I think it would be difficult to bring him back to run the defense. Not to mention, the penalty kill has struggled mightily the past two playoffs. Stuart put in an entirely new PK system this season and it never took.

I can’t get a good read on if Coffey returns to the bench, but my gut says he won’t, so I think the opportunity for Knoblauch to hire two new assistants is there. The hiring cycle for coaches begins now. Unlike last season, when Gulutzan left after the Cup Final, and most of the experienced coaches had jobs, this year Knoblauch will be able to interview more candidates.

From my seat, retaining Bowman and Knoblauch makes sense. Both need to have a better year in 2026-27 than they had last season, but both have shown they are capable of making the right decisions and strategies to help the team.

— I don’t expect Jack Roslovic to return. He will test the market, and some team will offer him at least $3m likely more on a multi-year deal. I like him as a player, but the Oilers want to make room to give Isaac Howard an opportunity to play in the top-nine and Roslovic is likely the odd man out.

— I don’t envision Adam Henrique returning. The Oilers missed him on the penalty kill in the playoffs, but Josh Samanski will get a chance to play that role next season.

— Calvin Pickard won’t be returning either. The Oilers will either re-sign Connor Ingram or look for another backup not named Pickard. He was a great teammate and good backup during his time with the organization.

— Curtis Lazar likely won’t return either. They have Mattias Janmark, Samanski, and Trent Frederic already signed. And Colton Dach is an RFA who will be signed. I could see Max Jones coming back though. They like his size and speed and his AAV will fit in their cap structure.

— Looking at the pending UFA class of goalies, I don’t see many options clearly better than Ingram. I like Daniil Tarasov, but I expect Florida to re-sign him before July 1. Sergei Bobrovsky could be interesting, but he had a rough year, and right now I’m told his salary demands are pretty high. If he is still unsigned on July 10, then you could look at him as the cost would be lower. Ingram could be the safest bet, unless the Oilers go the trade route. I’d be interested to see what Buffalo does with Alex Lyon, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Devon Levi. Will they keep all three? Something to monitor.

— Edmonton could use a right-shot fourth-line centre. Kevin Stenlund would be a great option. He’s big, can kill penalties and he’s great on faceoffs. If Utah doesn’t extend him before July 1st, I’d be calling his agent right away.