Hockey Club vs Oilers, G68 2024-25

We talk about it in-season, and at the end of the year it’s good to look at just how much the minor league team can help the big club. From Charlie Huddy to Andy Moog to Mr. Kostin listed above, the organization has benefitted from a strong farm team over the years. During 2024-25, management has eschewed much of what Bakersfield has to offer, and it is the job of Stan Bowman to improve that situation.

WHAT TO EXPECT IN MARCH

• On the road to: CAR (Expected 0-0-1) (Actual 1-0-0)
• At home to: ANA, MTL, DAL (Expected 2-1-0) (Actual 2-1-0)
• On the road to: BUF, NJD, NYI, NYR (Expected 2-2-0) (Actual 2-2-0)
• At home to: UTA, WPG, SEA, DAL (Expected 2-2-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
• On the road to: SEA (Expected 0-0-1) (Actual 0-0-0)
• At home to: CGY (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
• Overall expected results: 7-5-2, 16 points in 14 games
• March result: 5-3-0
• Oilers in 2024-25: 39-24-4, 82 points in 66 games

I have tonight as a win, with Winnipeg and Dallas being the evildoers during the home stand. Of course, if Edmonton plays the same Manhattan game we saw on the weekend, well hell’s bells March is going to be just lovely.

HEARTBEATS ACCELERATING

Mattias Ekholm’s return is imminent and it brings up the idea of running the veteran away from Evan Bouchard. On the Lowdown yesterday, Rachel Doerrie suggested finding out if Ekholm and Darnell Nurse could form a second ‘top pairing’ behind the clearly effective (in a small sample) Jake Walman-Bouchard duo. Ekholm-Bouchard have been paired for 66 minutes at five-on-five this year, delivering a 55 percent goal share (57 expected). It’s nice to have depth, this is the strongest group of Oilers blue since the late oughts.

Trent Frederic is also on track to return in the days to come, I wrote about him here.

THE STREETS OF BAKERSFIELD

There hasn’t been much from the Condors the coaching staff liked this season. Opening night roster size (22 players) included two goalies, six defensemen and 14 forwards. I’m going to count Matt Savoie’s appearance in the NHL as a recall, although he was in fact on the opening night roster. Here are the GP this year from Condors:

• Noah Philp 12, 0-2-2
• Josh Brown 8, 0-1-1
• Drake Caggiula 7, 0-1-1
• Matthew Savoie 4, 0-1-1
• Cam Dineen 1, 0-0-0

That isn’t many games, and really the only player to get something close to a full lash is Philp. I think management’s assessment of the minor-league roster showed some belief in the forwards; the offloading of several AHL defenders (Noel Hoefenmayer, Ben Gleason, Max Wanner) and the continued avoidance of a Phil Kemp recall speaks volumes.

For next season, I think it’s important for the team to have more AHL players on NHL contracts. During the Ken Holland era there was always a pile of guys who signed AHL-ECHL deals. It can work out (Vincent Desharnais, James Hamblin) but the better plan is to have scouts identify the very top end of the free-agent prospect pool and then sign a few of those guys.

This blog, at its heart, is about ‘playing along at home’ and watching teams being built. In the last decade, the Oilers haven’t been terribly interesting in this area. No one to blame, trying to win the Stanley Cup requires loading up every spring. That’s just good business.

However, Stan Bowman is in a unique situation. He is general manager of a team with a prospect pool that resembles a decade of deep runs and one or two Stanleys. In Edmonton, there is no pool and there is no Stanley. Hard nose the highway this spring, Mr. Bowman. Find the future.

The Lowdown will be live at noon today on Sports 1440. Daniel Nugent-Bowman at The Athletic will be around to talk about Stuart Skinner and the return of Mattias Ekholm. We’ll also talk baseball with Donovan Paulson and Declan Krueger will stump the panel with “Hi, my name is….” today. I’m at Lowetide on twitter, in the comments section here and on the Sports 1440 text line at 1.833.401.1440 directly. We can be heard at sports1440.ca; iHeartRadio, Radioplayer Canada, it’s available post-show on apple and spotify, and we tweet it out on X.