Stan Bowman knows what he’s looking for in the trade market.
With the deadline officially a month away, pro scouting meetings in the rearview mirror and the trade market taking shape, the Oilers general manager spoke with The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, letting teams know what he’s looking for: a left-shot depth defenceman and a bottom-six forward.
While Bowman’s been impressed with what John Klingberg has brought to the mix thus far, that doesn’t mean the Oilers won’t be in the market to bring in another blue liner.
“We’re spending a lot of time with our staff really looking around the league at different teams and players that could be available,” Bowman told LeBrun. “Depth-wise, I think if we’re going to add a defenseman it’s probably going to be a lefty. We’ve got a lot of righties now.
“Our top three lefties have been excellent between Ekholm, Kulak and Nurse. … But I think underneath that, if one of them were to get injured, then yeah, we don’t have that experienced depth on the left side. So that’s one area to look at.”
The trade market seems to have more left-shot than right-shot defenceman if you judge it based on Daily Faceoff’s Trade Target list. There’s six lefties — Bowen Byram (No. 4), Ryan Lindgren (No. 6), Jamie Oleksiak (No. 10), Brian Dumoulin (No. 22), Zac Jones (No. 25) and K’Andre Miller (No. 29) — versus four righties in Rasmus Ristolainen (No. 3), Seth Jones (No. 8), Connor Murphy (No. 14) and David Savard (No. 24).
All of them have their various pros and cons on ice, as well as a plethora of different contract options. Do the Oilers want to try and grab some mid-20s lefties who are pending restricted free agents in Byram, Lindgren, Jones, or Miller? Or do they value more seasoned defencemen like Oleksiak or Dumoulin?
Bowman also highlighted how a depth piece up front is of interest, but the jury is out on whether they want to grab a centre for the second straight season, or if they want to grab a winger. That’s something the team is trying to figure out in real time, with Bowman noting how the coaching staff is trying Ryan Nugent-Hopkins up the middle more as of late.
“That’s something we’re evaluating with our coaches,” Bowman told LeBrun. “Whether it’s a winger or a center, it’s going to be dependent on where we think we want to use Nuge.
“We have a few ways we can go about it. When we use Nugent-Hopkins on the wing, then we probably would like to look at a depth center. But if we choose to use him in the middle, then we’ve got four great centers (Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins and Adam Henrique).”
Bowman, meanwhile, dispelled myths about the Oilers goaltending not being good enough.
“Our goalies have been great (since November),” Bowman told LeBrun. “Calvin Pickard is 10-1 in his last 11 games. And Skinner’s been excellent, too. Based on the performance of the team and their performance individually, they’ve done a really good job for us.
“So, I’m not sure where that comes from. … We certainly believe in both of them, and we think they’ve been a big part of why our team has been so consistent over the last several months here.”
LeBrun figures there’s one goaltender who would be willing to waive their no-trade clause: Anaheim Ducks netminder John Gibson, but given Bowman’s comments, that doesn’t seem to be an area of concern for the team.
Other quotes…
Bowman on John Klingberg:
“He brings a different element. He’s only played a handful of games here, but the good news is he will end up getting 30-odd games in (before the playoffs), which will help him a lot. He missed a whole season and training camp and jumped in. So it’s going to take him some time to get up to speed, but I think he’s going to give us another look back there. He’s very comfortable with the puck, and we’ve seen that in these few games where he’s shown he’s still got that ability to see plays and buy time and space and find guys.”
Bowman on the Oilers defence as a whole:
“There was a narrative that was formed over the offseason that the defense wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t sure that I bought that, necessarily. I was new to the team so I wanted to see how it went when the games began. I don’t think it’s accurate.“First of all, your defense as a team is not always the six defensemen. The one thing I’ve discovered with getting to know our coaching staff and our team is we are a very in-sync group between the forwards and our defensemen. Our defensive metrics are excellent, and it’s because the defensemen have played well but I would say it’s also a representation of the team’s performance where our forwards do a good job. We really are a unit of five most shifts.“We don’t expose individual players to a lot where they’re forced to do a lot by themselves.”
Bowman on Jeff Skinner:
“Skinner’s playing better lately and getting a bigger opportunity. He hasn’t had probably as big a role maybe as he wanted, but I think that’s trending in the right direction.”
Bowman on the Oilers bend, but don’t break mindset:
“We just sort of stick with it. There’s a competitive confidence with the group. You’ve got to give the coaches and the leaders a lot of credit for that. They do a great job of not overreacting to when they face adversity in a game or a stretch of games.“We have a mature group. They believe in their ability to continue to compete, even if they aren’t on top of their game to start. They stick with it. Those are good signs because you’re going to face adversity in the playoffs.”
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.
