The Edmonton Oilers are looking to have a quiet trade deadline day on Friday.

General manager Stan Bowman said during a media conference Thursday afternoon that the Oilers will most likely not make any more trades.

“We’re going to spend the next 24 hours talking through [it]. I would imagine that we’re done, but I don’t expect to make other moves,” said Bowman.

“But part of our job is to see what’s out there. If I’m looking at where we’re at, I think any further addition wouldn’t be a significant one, if it is, in a depth role. Something that made sense – certainly would look at it. But most likely, I would say, this is our team.”

The Edmonton Oilers and Chicago Blackhawks have completed two trades this week. On Monday, Edmonton acquired Connor Murphy at 50 per cent retained for a 2028 second-round pick.

GMs Stan Bowman and Kyle Davidson restarted conversations, pulling the trigger again. Jason Dickinson (with 50 per cent retained) and Colton Dach are now Oilers, while Edmonton shipped out Andrew Mangiapane and a conditional 2028 first-round pick.

There is a little cap space for the Oilers to make another trade, if they so choose, but not a ton.

These trade pieces were all talked about originally when conversations began a few days ago, but the GMs decided to go a different route.

“As things moved along with the Murphy trade, it was hard to put everything together,” said Bowman. “I think it became a time-sensitive thing to where Kyle [Davidson] wanted to make sure that we were able to close one deal.

“Then he said, we can revisit this as we get going into the week. So that was how that all played out. But yeah, this was something we were hoping might be able to come together.”

There were multiple paths the Oilers could have walked down to improve the team while also trading Mangiapane, said Bowman.

Ultimately, they came to the conclusion that it would cost more to do two separate deals, a cap dump with Mangiapane, and another improving the current roster, than just one trade that accomplished both.

“After the Murphy trade, we had a lot of conversations about different options for us, which involved sending Mangiapane to one team, trying to get a centre somewhere else, maybe getting a physical player from different teams,” Bowman said.

“We went down to a number of those scenarios… we realized [we were] probably gonna end up paying more in total with multiple trades, multiple picks going out. This is where I don’t know if there’s a right answer as far as what’s more valuable, one first-round pick or multiple seconds and thirds over several trades. We just felt that this solved our needs. We got the players that we really liked. Ultimately, that was really where we came down on it.”

The new acquisitions will get the chance to suit up Friday evening against the Carolina Hurricanes, as the Oilers begin a stretch against some of the league’s best teams. They go on the road Sunday to play the Vegas Golden Knights, face the league-leading Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday, and visit the Dallas Stars on Thursday.

Bowman was asked whether he was concerned that Murphy and Dickinson don’t have any term left in their contracts past this season. He said there are two ways you can look at that scenario, but that it “isn’t that big of a deal.”

“When you have a player who has term, then you know that you got that player,” he said. “The flip side to that is, if they don’t perform as you want, then you may not be excited they have term.  Then the other part of it is, if you have a player who’s a UFA, you get a chance to work with them closely.

“They get to see what you’re all about. Not only know your team, but your coaching staff, the environment here in Edmonton, and I think it’s an opportunity if they’re playing well, and we like them, I think the fact that their UFA isn’t that big of a deal, I think you can usually try to entice them to stay. There’s value in both of those scenarios.

“There’s certainty if you have a guy that has another year or two, but if they don’t perform the way you like, then that can be a negative too. I wouldn’t say that it’s clear-cut on which one’s better. I think there’s pluses to both of those.”

The 2026 Trade Deadline Special is going LIVE March 6th. Join the Daily Faceoff crew on Friday, March 6th from 9 AM-1:30 PM MT for wall-to-wall coverage of every single move as it happens. Get instant reaction, expert analysis, and exclusive insights from special guests throughout the day. Tune in LIVE on the Daily Faceoff YouTube channel and don’t miss a second of deadline day chaos.