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‘You have to evaluate everything’: Oilers GM Stan Bowman talks Knoblauch’s job security, his own, and more
Edmonton Oilers Stan Bowman Kris Knoblauch
Photo credit: Walter Tychnowicz-Imagn Images
Michael Menzies
May 2, 2026, 17:00 EDTUpdated: May 2, 2026, 17:27 EDT
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General manager Stan Bowman would not make any announcements about the future of the Edmonton Oilers during his media availability Saturday morning.
But he did address questions about the future of head coach Kris Knoblauch, and everything about the organization in his 30-plus-minute exit interview on Saturday morning.
“When you don’t have success, I think you have to kind of evaluate everything. So that goes for my staff, coaching staff, players,” said Bowman, when asked about Knoblauch’s job security. 
“That’s what we’re going to do over the next little bit. It’s only been 36 hours since we finished… I’m sure people will evaluate me as well. That’s the way it goes in this business. It’s a results business, and you have to see other things you can improve on.” 
The Oilers head of hockey operations, Jeff Jackson, was not part of the media availabilities to speak to Bowman’s job security.
Knoblauch signed a three-year contract extension before the 2025-26 season began. As the team failed to generate “momentum” through various stops and starts, battled injuries, and were just an “average” team, as Connor McDavid put it after Game 6, questions loom about whether Knoblauch will return.
“You have impressions when the team doesn’t succeed,” said Bowman. “Sometimes those are right, sometimes they’re not right. What you don’t want to do is make quick decisions without… part of it is we want to talk to the talk to the players, talk to the coaches, get their views, talk to my staff, and then kind of look at what actually happened.
“Like I said, we have impressions on why we didn’t succeed, but you want to make sure that that’s actually lining up with what actually happened. So today is not a day for making announcements on anything… that’s going to come in time.”

‘Too far’ in the direction of offence

The Oilers struggled defending and gave up too many goals, an aspect that could fall under coaching in terms of Knoblauch’s future. Edmonton surrendered the eighth most goals against in the NHL during the regular season, and 25 goals against across the six games against Anaheim, three of which were empty-netters.
Bowman was asked whether the Oilers lack a defensive identity to their game, something that would fall on the coaching staff, or the players he chooses to add to the organization.
“I think that’s a fair comment,” he said. “I think that we’ve struggled with that, more so this year, but even in years past. I think if you’re trying to maybe define the style that we play, we’re more of an offensive team. And with that, it’s a bit of a give and take. It’s hard to be an offensive team if you’re playing safe, simple hockey all the time because you’re not going to generate as much. But I think sometimes we go too far that direction.” 
That’s why Bowman said he targeted Jason Dickinson and Connor Murphy at the trade deadline, hoping it would grab hold amongst the team. But it also speaks to how the team struggled to hold leads throughout the season, missing that balance.
“They have a skill set and they have a mentality, and if we can get that to take hold in our team, other guys will also grab onto it,” Bowman continued. “But at the end of the day, you need a little bit of a mixture of both. You don’t want to be just a team that defends and doesn’t try to make plays. 
“But there was a reason we targeted those players. I felt like that was something our group was lacking. As we look at next year, can we find a way to do both, which is have that mentality to score, but also be responsible. 
“That’s really the balance that the coaching staff is working on with our team all the time, it’s a push and pull. If you try to push too much for offence, you’re going to give things up. If you play too conservatively, you’re never going to score enough. We didn’t have the right, I guess, balance between those two things this year.”

Free agency misses, trade miscues

The last two free agency periods have not helped the Oilers in the most crucial games, which leads many to wonder if Bowman’s job is safe, or whether the coaching staff is failing to integrate these players into roles well enough.
July 1 additions of Jeff Skinner, Viktor Arvidsson, Andrew Mangiapane, and Trent Frederic all struggled to find footing on the team over the last two years, were healthy scratches in important playoff games, or were traded early on in their contracts.
Now, two of those signings were done by Jeff Jackson (Skinner, Arvidsson) during his interim role in 2024, and others by Bowman (Mangiapane, Frederic extension) in 2025.
Bowman was asked about the process of evaluating pro talent and how the Oilers need to improve. He replied talking about the improvements of Matt Savoie and Vasily Podkolzin, saying that free agency isn’t the only time to add depth.
Bowman was pressed again by TSN’s Ryan Rishaug about the team “burning through some money” on players that weren’t working out.
“The only one I can speak to really is Mangiapane, and he didn’t — it didn’t work here,” replied Bowman.
“We tried, we thought it would work, put a lot of thought into it, looking at his skillset, natural ability to play both sides, play with offensive players. And then sometimes when you get in a situation, it just didn’t happen for him. So that’s why we had to pivot.
“I think Roslovic did come in, whether it was a July 1st signing or an October 5th signing, he did bring a lot of value for us. It’s a fair question, but at the same time, we’ll have to see which players are the ones that we’re approaching this July 1st. Or are we not looking at free agents? Are we looking at trades? That’s possible too.”
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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