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Sunday Scramble: Stan Bowman good at the margins, but big swings and misses sting
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Michael Menzies
May 3, 2026, 20:00 EDTUpdated: May 3, 2026, 20:59 EDT
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This week’s Sunday Scramble will be a free-flowing exercise, perhaps lacking structure. I guess to mirror the Edmonton Oilers’ performance this year. (We make fun of our teams like you would a sibling, after all). 
Here at Oilersnation it’s been a busy weekend pouring through the many soundbites. The table is set for a consequential off-season. 
So, first impressions of the exit interviews, anything else that rattles around my brain. 

Bowman yay or nay

I was curious what type of endorsement/non-endorsement Stan Bowman would give Kris Knoblauch. 
The response was appropriate, that everything would be evaluated, including himself. No promises, no fatally flawed “vote of approval.” I couldn’t help but think that CEO Jeff Jackson would have some relevance to speak to either Bowman or Knoblauch’s performance. 
We won’t know. Jackson doesn’t live in Edmonton after all, I’m told. Bowman didn’t hire Knoblauch. Jackson had a hand in hiring Knoblauch, in place as the overseer in his first season, the last of Ken Holland. Both have a connection to Connor McDavid in the past, of course. 
So do either survive? 
Thursday night when Game 6, we did a poll on Oilersnation After Dark about who is more to blame, who deserves to be fired: Knoblauch or Bowman. The response was literally 50–50. Much clarity there. 
Listening to both of them speak, I get the sense there’s a disconnect with what Bowman wants to provide the team and how Knoblauch wants to utilize the pieces. 
That played out on the ice this season. Trent Frederic’s role or lack thereof. Andrew Mangiapane. The number of forwards this team played with during the season and many couldn’t stick. 
However, too many players acquired during free agency end up with no role on the team and legitimate capital is used to get them. There isn’t a unified vision about how they’ll work in the lineup. 
I harp about Frederic a lot, but I think it’s really instructive. An eight-year contract for a bottom-six forward coming off an ankle injury that made him a non-factor during the 2025 playoffs with a full no-move clause was a rotten deal the moment it was signed. 
Then, as Bowman says, the team didn’t find a good role for him. Frederic said in his post-signing press conference that he was a centre. They tried that, it didn’t work. At no time was he tried on the penalty kill. How can you sign a forward with this depth skillset who doesn’t kill penalties? It’s a breakdown on all three levels.
And so on in the past two years under Jackson and then Bowman. The Oilers got impatient fast with Mangiapane, in retrospect. They mutually agreed to be frustrated. Day one of free agency? Tread lightly. 
When Bowman’s hands have been tied, whether it be limited money or assets to spend, he’s done remarkably well at winning on the margins. Vasily Podkolzin, Kasperi Kapanen, the price of Jack Roslovic. Connor Ingram. 
When Bowman’s had room to spend money or assets, it’s been scary. The Tristan Jarry trade is frightening for the future. Trent Frederic. To re-energize a team back to contention with immovable assets will be dicey. 
He skirted around the original question asked about his free agency moves very well, no fractured ankle for Stan, but was pressed and admitted defeat on Mangiapane. He isn’t wrong though to tout the improvements of Vasily Podkolzin and Matt Savoie. Both were silver linings to a tumultuous season. 
So my confidence level isn’t as high as it should be for Bowman, who didn’t build the contender Chicago Blackhawks, but he did make some necessary moves at the right times to win the Stanley Cup. 
But then I think, can the Oilers actually do this again with another GM and another head coach? Bowman probably escapes. To start from scratch again at that position is much more difficult than the coach. But there are still significant problems. 
Bowman also said this, “I think we do need some new players. I don’t know if we’re going to have a dramatically different roster next year. I think sometimes just a few players can make a big difference, whether that’s through a trade or a free agent signing or a younger player getting an opportunity.” 
How this meshes with the reports of a David Pagnotta saying the Oilers are going to be “bold” this off-season, following last year’s meeting with McDavid and Draisaitl, remains to be seen. 
Personally, whenever I hear the term “bold moves” I get ‘Nam flashback to Craig MacTavish’s introductory press conference. These bold moves did not materialize. 
You’d have to think we’ll get answers by mid-May at the latest. Bowman said he had his impressions of what the team succeeded in and failed at, but wanted the team to do their inner exit interviews first. 
How will the evaluator be evaluated?

Nurse

Many people were part of the exit interviews, but Darnell Nurse was not one of them. While there’s no pressing story with Nurse like there is with the pending free agents, he does wear a letter. He is a part of the team’s core. 
At least, today he is. 
I’ve read many a tweet that includes the phrase “under no circumstances can Darnell Nurse return to the team next year” and the like. Some insert Tristan Jarry or Trent Frederic in Nurse’s place in that sentence. Or all three. 
I get it. I don’t disagree, in theory. 
But how? That will involve a level of ruthlessness not yet seen by the organization, along the lines of Jacob Trouba’s exit from the New York Rangers. 
This was also a team of players who wanted to keep Calvin Pickard in the NHL, which inadvertently helped force the Tristan Jarry trade. A Connor Ingram-Stuart Skinner tandem would’ve tied them over into free agency and a clean slate. 
So when the room likes a guy, they like a guy. Just listen to how Draisaitl unprompted rattled off the names of departed teammates from the 2024 run. 
Are the Oilers willing to back up threats that make Nurse uncomfortable? With one more year left on his no-move clause, are the Oilers willing to threaten him with healthy scratches? Do McDavid and Draisaitl agree with the idea? 
Nurse’s penchant for redirecting shots into his net is met with a growing inability to make a puck play. Playing with Connor Murphy helped, but there’s no guarantee he’ll be back either. 

The future

On that note, you have to be encouraged with the pending free agents and how they like being Oilers, how positive they sounded about the possibility of returning. 
In the end, each of the key contributors acknowledged that this isn’t working. Nobody tried to pull the wool. Something is wrong. Leon Draisaitl sounded like a captain to me. The honest, mince-no-words replies were also thoughtful.
The Oilers are on notice and it will be a long summer of talk outside this market, but that comes with the territory. This season was concerning for the Oilers because as tired and needing-rest they were, the ways they lost games can’t happen for such an experienced team. 
Everyone must get on the same page. The lack of cohesion in 2025-26 cannot continue. 
Michael Menzies is an Oilersnation columnist and co-host of PreGaming and Oilersnation After Dark. He’s also been the play-by-play voice of the Bonnyville Pontiacs in the AJHL since 2019. With seven years of news experience as the Editor-at-Large of Lakeland Connect in Bonnyville, Menzies collects vinyl, books, and stomach issues. Follow him on X at Menzies_4. 

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