Seven days after the Edmonton Oilers made their controversial signing of Alex Formenton, general manager Stan Bowman fielded questions about the team’s decision to bring in one of the five players acquitted in a high-profile sexual assault case.

The organization has undergone much scrutiny in the days since, highlighted by a petition garnering 65,000-plus signatures asking the Oilers to reverse their decision and superfan ‘Mama Stanley’ saying she would no longer support the team.

Bowman said that while the team has “respect” for people’s opinions, he sees dissenting views as normal.

“I understand that people are going to view it differently, and that’s okay,” said Bowman. “That’s one of the things that I’m a big believer in is that we don’t all have to agree on everything here, and people are entitled to their opinions, and they have strong feelings on it, and I totally respect that. I think that makes sense.

“But we did put a lot of time and consideration into that. We also knew that it is something that is a polarizing topic. That’s why we did spend as much time looking into it to get us to the point where we do feel comfortable that Alex is a member of our team.”

Formenton, 26, has been out of the league since April 2022, having stepped away from the Ottawa Senators as news of the case became public. He spent three of the last four years playing in the Swiss National League, scoring 33 goals and 52 points in 88 games.

Bowman said a big part of signing Formenton was that he was the first of five players, including Carter Hart, Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube and Cal Foote, to be reinstated from suspensions by Hockey Canada.

“We spent a lot of time finding out why there was a different treatment of Alex than there was of the other players,” he added. “There were specific reasons why that was the case, which gave us the willingness to move forward with Alex relative to the other players. The people at Hockey Canada, they were very close to it, and they had a lot of information that isn’t out there in the public.”

It’s not the first time the Oilers have given controversial people in hockey a second chance, with Bowman himself in the middle of one for his role in mishandling Kyle Beach’s sexual assault allegations while with the Blackhawks in 2010. Bowman was out of the league for nearly three years before the Oilers hired him in 2024.

And while Oilers fans have been through it before, this one cuts deeper for many.

“I understand that some people maybe do have fatigue from that,” Bowman said. “That’s understandable.

“I think each person is going to have to navigate that the way that feels right to them. It’s not for me to say whether they should or shouldn’t feel a certain way. I think as an organization, I’ve really felt the support being here myself, trying to make a positive impact on the group that you’re with. And it is a privilege to be here working in this city for the fans here.

“You want to do right by the community, and you want to make people proud of you for the people that you are and the way that you operate moving forward. The message I would say is we’re trying to do the right thing and give us a chance to make (the community) proud and be judged on what we do moving forward here.”

It remains to be seen where Formenton will fit in the Oilers’ lineup when the season officially gets started with their Sept. 29 home opener against the Vancouver Canucks. Matt Savoie suffering an injury, Bowman said, is what kicked off the conversation around signing another player, with the team identifying Formenton’s experience as a penalty killer and his playing style as reasons for landing on him.

Questioned about a protest planned Saturday ahead of the Oilers’ first pre-season game and concerns about lasting reputational damage to the Oilers, Bowman said he hopes Formenton can prove people wrong.

“We hope in time that people will see that our situation is a good one and that Alex is going to be a good member of the community and a good member of our team,” he said. “So we hope that plays itself out.

“But we’re not here to tell people how they’re supposed to feel. We respect their opinions to have different viewpoints on it, and that’s okay.”

Zach Laing is Daily Faceoff Edmonton’s managing editor and The Nation Network’s news director. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.