The Edmonton Oilers‘ next acquisition will likely be a forward, according to general manager Stan Bowman, but he’s not in a rush to make an addition just yet.

Bowman was a guest on Friday’s edition of Oilers Now with Bob Stauffer and was asked about his roster heading into the season. Edmonton is in a unique position compared to years past with a little salary cap flexibility, and the opportunity to add if they like.

“We have three goalies and a lot of D, so it’s more likely if we were going to be adding a player, it would be a forward,” said Bowman.

“But we’ve got to see how some of these players play in the new system with Mike [Babcock]. He’s going to get familiar with the players, number one, but also the style that he wants to play, the accountability that he’s going to hold. I think some players who maybe didn’t thrive in the past are going to have a chance to start fresh, and maybe the way that Mike wants to play will be up their alley.”

There are still a handful of useful forwards available without contracts: Vladimir Tarasenko, Eeli Tolvanen, Michael Bunting, and Patrik Laine.

According to PuckPedia, the Oilers have $4.725 million in cap space, and Bowman said that’s around the number he expects entering the season. If that holds, that would mean the Oilers wouldn’t necessarily be looking to add a late free agent, but he does say it gives them flexibility if an opportunity comes around.

“That’s probably in that neighbourhood ($4 to $4.5 million),” said Bowman on his cap space. “That’s more than enough. You don’t even need that much to start the year. It’s just hard when you start the year with like $800,000. Then you get one injury, and you’re already worried about LTI. We’re not in that position. I think we’re going to be able to pivot if there are opportunities that come up.”

He likened the situation to how they were able to get Connor Ingram last season, after the Utah Mammoth retained money on his contract. This summer, the Oilers’ balance sheet got a little healthier by moving the Darnell Nurse contract, giving Bowman options moving forward.

“This is sort of the ideal situation,” he said. “You can’t always put yourself in this position because things change, or you have players that are going to get raises that you definitely need, and sometimes your team is in a spot where you don’t have much room. That’s how we’ve been operating the first two years that I was here. We had no space at all.

“We were not in a position to if a player comes available in November that makes $2.5 million that you like, but they don’t want, they’re just trying to shed salary, we were never even in the market for that. It was impossible. But now we want to leave some money available.

“We’re not trying to just accrue cap space ad nauseam, you can never spend it all. But I think that you have to have some flexibility. We’ve put ourselves in a good spot. I like where we’re at. The team that we have to start the season is not going to be the exact same team in the playoffs. We’re going to have some new players, whether they come through trade or free agent acquisition or like trade deadline acquisitions. We’ll have to see how that shakes out.”

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