Oilers general manager Stan Bowman had a good day yesterday. The trade of Viktor Arvidsson allowed the team to wheel, so the return (5th round pick is a little light, and 2027 is far away) can be forgiven.
The late evening news brought word that Andrew Mangiapane had signed for two years at $3.6 million with a no-trade clause. I believe that’s tidy business, and believe some of you would agree. This is a ‘yeah, but….’ blog and I love you for it, but if we’re playing along at home Bowman’s additions to the team (Podkolzin, Emberson, Walman, Frederic, Mangiapane, Kapanen, Tomasek) are younger and have greater utility than Ken Holland’s bunch. They are less famous, but that’s not a thing.
I would run Mangiapane on the second line with Matt Savoie the other winger in the Leon Draisiatl three-chord rock trio. There’s some goals on those wings. If that doesn’t work, Mangiapane could find a home on the third line, but I’d try him higher (even a few spins with Connor McDavid) because he can cash goals (see last night’s post below). I think Mangiapane will be a fan favourite, I’ve always liked him.
Lowetide lineup
- Nuge-McDavid-Hyman
- Mangiapane-Draisaitl-Savoie
- Frederic-Henrique-Podkolzin
- Janmark-Philp-Kapanen/Tomasek
I know we’ll spend the next several weeks sussing this out and that’s always fun. I do think Bowman made room for one of Savoie, Tomasek or Frederic on the second line, and that’s a good thing. Podkolzin gets squeezed a little here, but if he can score a few more goals he’ll land right back in the land of Leon.
There’s plenty of chatter about moving Adam Henrique to McDavid’s left wing. When the two men have played together five-on-five, the results are impressive. The duo has outscored opposition 9-1, and averaged 10 goals per 60! Unfortunately, it’s a small sample (54 minutes) but you can see the appeal. Before we switch out Nuge and Henrique, let’s look at isolated five-on-five outscoring from last year. To be clear, these are McDavid-Draisaitl together, then the rest of the group it’s minutes away from each other at five-on-five:
- McDavid-Draisaitl: 63 pct (67 expected) in 407 mins
- Draisaitl solo: 55 pct (58 exp.) in 713 mins
- McDavid solo: 44 pct (55 exp.) in 288 mins
- Nuge: 42 pct (51 exp.) in 502 mins
- Henrique: 44 pct (48 exp.) in 862 mins
- The rest: 40 pct (51 exp.) in 741 mins
I don’t see the massive difference between Nuge and Henrique others see, and remember the sample for McDavid-Henrique is small. I’m fine with trying it, but suspect that the searing numbers through 50 minutes will settle down and we’ll see less spectacular results.
I would also like to say that McDavid-Nuge went 54 pct (58 expected in 440 minutes that is not accounted for above. That’s a good and proven tandem.
One of the fine young voices around the Oilers these days is Kevin McCurdy. He’ll join me today on the Lowdown to breakdown the roster changes and to have a conversation about the idea of McDavid-Henrique next year. Lowdown hits at noon, Sports 1440.
New for The Athletic: Ranking the Edmonton Oilers’ 10 best free-agent signings in history
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6464440/2025/07/02/edmonton-oilers-free-agents-history/
Stauff thinks Savoie will join Mangiapane on Drai’s wing.
Jack Michaels thinks Savoie may spend more time as 3RW and also sees more Nuge/Drai.
The right answer is Podkolzin with Draisaitl. The Oilers need at least one line capable of playing a power game.
He’s an option, for sure, in particular after a strong playoffs (a playoffs that was objectively materially superior to that of Holloway’s the prior season).
With that said, i would stop far from pronouncing the opinion as “the right answer”.
I would suggest Savoie on the right wing is a very logical first option to try and Mangiapane said he feels most comfortable on the left side and will start in the top six. I don’t think the org is ready to move off of Nuge as a top 6 LW either.
There is also that fact that Podz produced at just under 0.5 P/G playing mostly bottom six in the playoffs – there is value there.
Per Gregor:
I’m not sure if Gregor has new information (other than the unofficial report back in like May) or if he’s just going off the prior unofficial report.
In any event, if the second sentence is true, this is good news as the Oilers will hold his rights indefinitely.
Bowman went to Sweden during the Four Nations to close the Tomasek deal.
Stauff calls him a wild card. Does not have a lot of personal views but there is a chance he’s a top 9.
Bob also makes a point to mention Regula as a name to remember.
Wonder if Emberson is moved at training camp? Not enough room at the inn scenario.
Not a chance in my opinion.
Stauff was not suggesting that Regula would be on the NHL roster out of camp but that the org sees a player there they will be working to develop.
The org values Emberson, he played 70 games last year and will be better this year and he’s on a cheap 2-year deal. He’ll be a value contract.
Good deal. Wait and see which one of depth dmen gets poached on waivers.
Both Emberson and Stecher will be on the roster.
Regula would be exposed but likely to clear with the masses in early October – although I do see a small risk in losing him (but, remember, any claiming team would need to keep him on their roster and he’s not NHL proven and didn’t play hockey last year).
Stauff suggesting that Bowman will be looking to get ahead of things and get Walman and Podz extended this off season.
Question for goalie crowd, walk away from Rodrigue after an .897 year but the previous 2 were .917 and .912 ( from memory) Tomkin last year was .906 and is 31. Rodrigue can still get better as is much younger. Why would you give up on and asset that could still get better???
They like the others better, only so many spots for goalies, and he’s not impressed at his age is my guess
Knights doing the PR legwork to give Pietro the season off on the LTIR before bringing him back for game 1 of the playoffs. Vegas is going to be tough to get by in the playoffs.
dont think you can do that this year …. but could be wrong
Not sure if the LTIR changes will come in to effect for this coming season (the transition protocols have not been disclosed yet) but, if they are, they could do that but it would mean their cap relief during the regular season is only equal to league average salary. Full relief for high cap players will only be available if there is certainty that the player is out for all of the regular season and playoffs.
I think Pietro is done in any event.
Not a chance – they have basically said he’s unlikely to play hockey again.
Lets also not forget the LTIR rule changes that could possibly come in to effect this coming season (the transition rules for the MOU for the CBA extension are not out so we don’t know what might apply early).
Be prepared to eat those words OP.
The Golden Knuckleheads along with the Florida teams routinely get away with things that 29 other teams can only dream of.
The proposed LTIR rule changes would basically allow for teams to go over the cap by the average NHL salary, which is somewhere around 4-5 million dollars. They relaxed the loophole but did not completely eliminate it.
The NHL had the opportunity to completely level the playing field for all playoff bound teams by simply enforcing the salary cap during the playoffs … and decided not to. Instead, they’ve opted for a more complicated mechanism that will likely allow for a certain degree of ambiguity that favoured teams will be able to exploit.
I would not be surprised to hear about Pietro’s miraculous recovery after spending many months with an ayurvedic guru or some such nonsense sometime around late March, followed by the Vegas Golden Ones complaining loudly about how unfair it would be to not allow Pietro to participate in the playoffs.
“Simply enforcing the salary cap” during the playoffs would not work given how the salary cap is calculated (i.e. its calculated daily and, at the end of the year, the single day cap hit X number of days a player is on the roster is what hits the cap for each player).
In any event, Pietro is done – its very clear in this instance.
If he comes back for the playoffs, I’ll surely eat my words but I would be shocked.
Maybe he doesn’t care about the Olympics but its tougher to see him agreeing to play this game during an Olympic year (a healthy Pietro is a lock for the team still) – that’s neither here nor there – the player is LTIR retired I believe.
Dang. Just heard about Mangipane. Always liked the player when he played for Calgary. By eye he seemed to be an Oilers killer. Have not looked into the numbers yet. Seems like a useful add.
They have said they want ‘dogs on the bone’ and he’s like that. And can skate which every small guy needs
This quote was nicked from Spector’s latest piece from a couple hours ago – I’ll respect our host’s 24 hour rule, you can find the whole piece up at Sportsnet – it’s from Bowman’s video call with reporters this morning
On signing Evan Bouchard to a four-year deal, not a maximum term eight-year contract, Bowman was matter of fact: “The agent (Dave Gagner) indicated that never really made sense to them. A number for an eight-year deal would be so high, it wouldn’t make sense for anybody. It was never in the cards.”
It takes 2 to tango – if the other guy says no (take a max term contract) there is nothing much more to say
I don’t get why players do this. You have guaranteed contracts. All of the risk is on the team. Your health is not guaranteed. Klingberg supposedly turned down like a 7×7 offer. I bet he wishes he didn’t. Take the longest contract you can get.
I imagine they can take insurance on it. Might be an off cap aspect
Looks like Bread-Eater will continue to wear #88.
He will become the third Oiler to wear that number, after Rob Schremp and Brandon Davidson.
That number has been a bit cursed.
The first thing the new PK Coach needs to do is scrap whatever the hell they were trying to pull on the coverage. It worked the previous year but teams figured it out yet we kept deploying the same broken system. Our special teams cost us the Cup.
The problem was not the system, it was the execution. This is the same system that half the league uses
The box has been around for over a hundred years. Are today’s coaches smarter than Bowman-Shero-Sather-Arnour-Tikhonov-Muckler. I think not. Nowadays you get a individual (Eakins) “The Swarm” that thinks he’s smarter than the game. The game always wins.
Playing against this ridiculous system would have given me so much joy as a powerplay defenceman. So easy to beat.
I can’t believe they didn’t adjust. These guys are making some good coin and to be this pigheaded stubborn surprises me that they get a promotion.
They were essential playing 5-3 every penalty kill with a bonus chicken with its head cut off, worse PK I’ve ever seen.
The forwards and D don’t work in sync.
With Lazar the roster/cap looks like this:
RNH McD Hyman
Mangi Drai Savoie
Fred Hen Podz
Jan Lazar Kap
Philp
Ek Bouch
Kulak Wal
Nurse Stech
Emb
Stu/Pic
22 man roster with $1.6M left on the cap. $400k less if you swap Philp or Lazar with Tomasek.
I think the org thinks that Tomasek is likely to be a contributor on the roster from day 1. We’ll see how it goes, and I’m skeptical, but from all the talk since he signed that’s been the message.
I have Philp in pole position over Lazar heading in to camp. Again, from Bowman’s recent verbal, the expectation is for Philp to have a real role from the start.
They didn’t bring Tomasek over to play in the AHL either he’s NHL ready or he gets shipped back home with his tail between his legs. When it comes to judging overseas talent I do trust Bowman eye as he has a history of nailing it.
Perhaps but this is not necessarily true – for all we know, the player is willing to accept an adjustment to the NA game period in the AHL.
I don’t think that’s the current plan but its not out of the question for both sides.
I’ve read the same messages but also skeptical, shades of Haas and Nygard. Unless Tomasek catches fire with Jan and Kap he’s unlikely to impact the roster more than Lazar or Philp. Reasonable expectation is 20-30 games and 5-10 points.
Lazar is an AHL center. Wouldn’t hold my breath he makes it ahead of Philp or Jones.
Lazar has played 572 NHL games and his last stint in the AHL was in 19/20. He played 118 games for the Devils the past 2 seasons largely missing games due to a knee injury. Might be calling him just an AHL center a little prematurely. Great if Philp plays well enough to beat him out, but it is far from a given. Jones and Lazar will not likely be competing for the same role.
Philip ship may of sailed last year. Lazar is a safe 4-C that you don’t notice in a good or bad way. Coaches like having no drama when it comes to 4-C. Does Lazar kill penalties? I know he can win faceoffs at crucial times.
Guessing a certain goalie will take up some cap in a few weeks
A Ring a DIng Ding Ding.
Even if the criminal courts rule not guilty a path back to reinstatement is not automatic. OJ was not guilty in the criminal trial but found liable in civil court. Hockey Canada paid over $1 million to keep this buried.
The NHL in administering its business and contracts is not bound by criminal standards. It can use similar standards to a civil court to render any judgement it comes up with based on its own investigation. They also have more leeway on what evidence to consider. Players can appeal, but a not guilty decision by itself would not necessarily be enough.
None of Bowman nor the rest of his staff were ever charged with a crime and it took years to get reinstated by the NHL.
And that all assumes that he will be cleared of the charges. I kinda have my doubts on that.
Hyman’s Brantford Bulldogs selected quite likely the world’s largest hockey player in today’s import draft.
Alexander Karmanov, a 7′, 273 lb. d-man, is originally from Moldova. Currently playing in Pennsylvania and has committed to Penn State starting in 2027-28. Eligible for the 2026 NHL draft.
At that size, he’s not so much a Bulldog as a Mastiff.
A Moldovan Mastiff if you will.
I have shat on the Oilers for their cavalier attitude towards trading draft picks away but Isaac Howard is exactly the kind of player I’d give up the 2027 1st (and more) for.
He is probably better than whoever that pick turns into, he’s NHL ready (even if its not in a feature role right away), and he could provide a good value contract for the next few years, and would be a prime/rare early-in-the-RFA-years-extension candidate.
Honestly if Tampa values O’Reilly more than the 2027 first and they’re willing to do a 1-for-1 I’d do that in a heartbeat. I wonder if TBL wants NHL-ready help and is trying to find a worse team willing to give up an effective veteran with some cap retention instead.
If Bowman gets this done this will be a surprisingly great offseason from Bowman
Always have enjoyed a good Rollercoaster.
I’d give then a 1st and Henrique.
If they can tease a mid round pick out of TBL and Henrique would agree to waive I’d do it.
Although I get the sense Henrique is staying put based on Bowman’s availability
Surprised but not surprised we have yet to see a goalie upgrade. I just finished a remote viewing session and we shall see a goaltending trade and announcement by July 29th. Bioooook it…….
Y do U h8 Matt Tomkins
a couple of quick hits on the new guys:
lazar seems like a caggiula replacement
as a person who has watched a ton of mangy play while he was in Calgary, I’d just caution about people getting too excited about him having a top six role. He hasn’t had the same dangles or shot since he had wrist surgery after that big break out year. He’s still great on the PK and very aware on the ice, great on the breakout, but expecting a serious amount of offence is not his calling card anymore. I hope I’m wrong.
I would imagine his numbers would go up having Leo sweeping those sweet passes right on the tape in front of the net vs the powerhouse “Lars” he was playing with… he will just need to know where to go when Leo has the puck and expect a pass when a pass doesn’t look like it can come.
I’ll be happy if Mangiapane can improve the PK and chip in with 15 goals. The PK was a mess last season, due to the loss of speedier forwards who could backcheck effectively, and pressure the points.
Right now the PK forward group includes: RNH, Henrique, Janmark, Mangiapane, Podz, Kapanen and Frederic. The wingers are fine, but Henrique is too slow to be an effective PKer. RNH’s foot speed is fine, but he’s never been strong in the dot. Can Philp PK and win draws? … if so, then I think this group is fine.
This: as I mentioned in a thread yesterday, Mangiapane has been a positive even strength player throughout his entire career. That goes for CF%, GF percent, and xGF percent.
He can play on second unit PK and power play, and should be good for 15 goals. Could be potential top PK unit.
I would beg to differ about Henrique, I believe most of the opinions about his speed are based on his age and repeating opinions from other people rather than the objective truth.
INFO FOR BELOW
Max speed measures the maximum sustained skating speed a player has achieved during the current season. Bursts measure the number of times a skater achieved a sustained speed above a given threshold. Results divided by positions groups (forwards, defensemen).
TOP SPEED MPH vs average
Henrique’s top speed of 22.64 vs 22.18 is in the 69th percentile.
22+ MPH bursts vs average are 6 vs 3.7
80th percentile
20-22 MPH bursts vs average are 71 vs 72.8
55th percentile
18-20 MPH bursts vs average are 424 vs 325.6
62nd percentile
All very good data and I look at it quite a bit. Their averages and percentiles are hard to assess since they don’t provide access to the data behind all this. And the speed burst ranges would be more helpful if they could add a per 60 metric, since top line players can have twice the ice time of the 4th line players. The percentiles are based on totals not averages which is not that meaningful for data like this.
For example, Adam Henrique’s 71 bursts between 20-22 occurred in 1186 minutes of play or 3.6 bursts in that range per 60 minutes. Nazim Kadri, by comparison, also had 71 bursts in the 20-22 range and the NHL listed with a percentile of 55 as well, but he played 1586 minutes, so only hit the range 2.6 times per 60, well below Kadri. Henrique is not only faster top speed than Kadri (he only hit 21.9 mph) but hits the higher ranges more frequently and that is not represented well in the NHL data that they present.
So he can still churn the legs from time to time … but he fatigues easily on the kill and is mostly just a stationary pylon.
If KK wants to have a successful PK, then he should fade Henrique’s minutes.
Bowman now working on coaches. The PP has been historic, but it needs to evolve. I hope they find that person
When you have the players the Oilers do it’s going to be a strong PP. But we saw them struggle when they really needed goals across at least two playoffs, at the most key times
I think they need a fall back or two for when nerves are high, the PK tough, to get the puck moving and require less thinking. When it’s rolling proceed as they have, if not set up some plays. The Panthers did that to us, picking apart the poor PK, which also needs a reset
It’s seriously looking like the Oilers are trying to recreate themselves.
It’s a shame the PP kinda got figured out after the 2023 playoffs. That unit absolutely cooked LA and Vegas and hasn’t really been the same since.
In the regular season 23/24 their power play was still 4th in the league at 26.3% (and second in net pp%). They amped it up in the playoffs hitting 37.3% through the first 3 rounds before only going 3-24 against Florida (who only went 1-21 against the Oilers and gave up 2 shorties). Edmonton lost last year’s series at 5 on 5 not special teams. Even this season in the playoffs the Oilers converted at 30% through round 3, but once again only at 17% vs Florida. Florida had the best PK in this year’s playoffs and last year were second only to Edmonton’s historic run.
Agreed. The one thing that beats the Oilers in any game state is structured pressure, and in the Panther’s case, condoned cheating. They don’t seem to yet be able to counter it. I think because they don’t like to play in the way needed in those games, where there is no air and obvious play
To me they don’t seem to have a plan against a PK like Florida’s. Maybe it’s the players not executing one, maybe it was the wrong plan. It sure looks out of sorts at key times to me, the opposite of what you’d expect from that group
Edmonton’s PP did better against Florida than the Panthers other 3 opponents. Tampa (second best PP the last 5 seasons and 25% in the regular season) was 11% and Toronto (25% regular season) was 10%. Carolina with the weakest PP in the regular season among the 3 connected at 15% against Florida.
Edmonton’s PP per Naturalstattrick had expected goals for of 6.36 vs 4 actual (even 6/23 would have been 26%. They generated 23 High Danger chances over the 6 games while Florida generated just 13, but scored 7 goals.
Some of it is Bobrovsky out performing Skinner/Pickard in this (and every other) game state. Some of it may be even if Florida allows more “high danger” opportunities, they are applying pressure which give the Oiler’s less time to take the shot they’d like. Naturalstattrick has no way of accounting for this in its criteria. Not much time to elevate the puck when your getting slashed at. A lot of Florida’s PP goals came from fairly uncontested looks.
Good points. I think some of these things you mentioned need to be addressed with tactics and practice. I find the Oilers are not great at consistently setting up plays for better shots, and they can be allergic to taking shots that score, even if they have time
The Panthers are quite specific in how they attack. I’ve seen a few looks into it (can’t remember a specific one) and what they do is purposeful. They popped a fair few with low high plays on us because they were looking for it and if there was any space they attacked it. We need more of that
I don’t think Edmonton needs to model Florida’s PP. It is nothing special. That is unless Edmonton’s power play is going up against Edmonton’s 24/25 PK. Florida had an 11th place power play in the regular season and while they scored at 30% vs the Oilers, the LA PP lit the lamp against the Oilers at 40% and Dallas at 35%. Vegas had a very respectable 23% as well. Meanwhile, Florida’s PP scored at 17% vs Toronto, 25% vs Tampa and 29% vs Carolina to end up at the same 25% success rate in the playoffs as Edmonton.
All those open looks in the finals for them was poor coverage by the Oilers that pretty much every team was able to exploit. The Oilers had the worst playoff pk kill rate (67%) of any team to make the Stanley Cup finals since the Oilers joined the league. Ironically sitting his 2nd and 3rd worst playoff PK’s for cup finalists are Florida and Vegas form 22/23 so Vegas’s poor performance was offset by the ever worse Florida PK although both were around 71%. Vegas poor PK also didn’t hurt as much because they take so few penalties.
The Oilers allowed more power play goals against (23) in the playoffs than any team since the LA Kings in 1993. And since they managed no short handed goals, they were -23 on the pk, the worst in league history. Almost a miracle they could overcome that PK to get to the cup finals and win 2 games.
On that note, the Gully signing as head coach of the Stars was made official today!
Hard to take the Stars seriously when they signed our assistant PP coach who was likely on the way out of Edmonton regardless.
I think Gully has much more respect around the league than you suggest.
Not saying that he’s not a good coach … he did a very good job on the PP for a number of years for us. But this is his second kick at the can as head coach in Dallas; feels a bit like the Sabres rehiring Lindy Ruff (aka – rehiring your own retread coach).
It’s funny you mention Lindy Ruff as he is the coach who replaced Gulutzan in 2013 (fired from Buffalo for the first time) It was one of the first things Nill did as the new GM.
Nill in relieving Gulutzan, who’s NHL coaching career up to that point was just the last 2 season in Dallas, told him he needed someone with more experience than Gulutzan to run the room in Dallas and told Gulutzan to go build his resume a little more. Glen sandwiched 2 seasons as head coach in Calgary between 2 assistant coach gigs in Vancouver and Edmonton over the next dozen years.
Ruff lasted 4 seasons making the playoffs twice in years 1-3. He was replaced by the recycled Hitchcock.
Puck P says 14 forwards. 10 are regular NHLers. Seems like something else might happen at some point. You would think they’d want to see Savoie up he’s ready and if they don’t give him the season to get used to it they won’t play him later unless they have to
Kaliyev to Ottawa on a 2-way deal – surely given the choice between two destinations for the same contract, he would have chosen Edmonton over Ottawa, right?
Seems like the type of high upside/low-risk contract the Oilers should have been pursuing. Literally 0 downside, at worst he’s a good AHL forward.
But the Oilers want to bring a 30 year old former Oil King back home instead …
Meanwhile Stan is working on landing Isaac Howard out of Tampa.
I like this strategy.
Not mutually exclusive with signing a guy to a 2-way deal lol
If I’m an offense-first winger, there’s no way I sign a prove-it deal with Edmonton.
All the PP time is spoken for.
I don’t think he’s getting a lot of NHL PP time on a 2-way deal in Ottawa
I imagine ‘one dimensional winger’ vs ‘center/pk/vet’ came into play
Nailed it. The Oilers don’t need more offense, they need more players that have a complete game and can play the way you have to when it’s really tight
The Panthers aren’t on paper an offensive team, but they can score, because of how they play. We need more of that so the top talent we do have can be the difference. As it’s been Connor and Leon need different help to also do that in the hardest games
Yeah probably but one of these guys has upside and the other doesn’t. Players also aren’t mutually exclusive, especially if one of them was willing to sign a 2 way deal
Arthur K. would be a horrible fit for this team – a very poor defensive player that is really just a PP shooter.
I am feeling really hopeful with Bowman at the helm. He is much more patient than either Holland or Chia.. he doesn’t seem to overpay for the wrong guys.
I like both signings thus far and am reminded (on the flip side) of what Holland brings when he has a little spending money.. I don’t miss that! He blocked the kids at every turn and overpaid for vets… did the same in later years in DET and now doing it on LAK org. As much as I like and respect the man (I genuinely do), I think he is far out of touch with the modern game and managing in a cap system.
I think Bowman is working well around the edges and am so happy he hasn’t jumped into markets he cannot afford right now. He can wait and evaluate and make trades later in the year, as necessary. He doesn’t have the luxury of tax free, guys willing to take pay cuts, no huge superstar salaries.. that Florida does, so his team building has to look different. Waiver pickups, low cost additions, walk away from overpays no matter how much you like the player (looking at you Perry and Brown, etc).
This July 1 is opposite last July 1.. we all know how those bets turned out.
He is also the best deal maker we’ve had since Slats and Mr Lowe’s out of body experience 2005-2006
Bowman is turning over every stone out there he’s being a proactive G.M with the cupboards ransacked by Holland old school culture. Bowman is accumulating as many darts as possible and there’s a few that might just pop for him.
No surprise that neither Vinni nor Salonen were taken in the import draft.
Barring any changes, this year’s crop of NAmateurs numbers nine.
Prospecting begins anew Friday, September 19.
Thanks for all your work on updating on prospects’ stats throughout the season!
Curtis Lazar signed 1 year at league min. Right handed faceoff guy in the mix for 4C.
Younger Derek Ryan 4 RC, PK. Zero risk, solid move.
Attention Noah Philp: Your competition has been identified.
Knock, knock.
Yup, I suspect they will compete for 4C but I suspect that Lazar is really just a PK and faceoff specialist at this point and that he spends most of the season in Bako or as an injury call-up.
Bowman has spoken a few times recently about Philp playing a role this season and he is likely penciled in ahead.
I watched a ton of Lazar when he was an Oil King. Probably my favourite Oil King of all time. Love that we got him for league min.
Poor Philp.
I wouldn’t say poor Philp – its his clear competition but Philp has the pole position.
Woohoo more blocking prospects with fringe NHLers. Hopefully Philp beats him out of a spot at training camp
Philp is a fringe NHLer with the ceiling of 4C, good grief.
There’s nothing wrong with strong competition. Tomasek might be in there battling for a job too.
Tomasek is likely a lock on the team unless he has a terrible camp.
He is waivers exempt but, from all accounts, the org expects him on the roster and contributing.
I couldn’t agree more. He’s also an RHC that can play on the wing. The fact that he’s waiver exempt means he might start off in Bako.
Lazar strikes me as the perfect 14F.
Can play C and RW, kills penalties, doesn’t need to play every day (would prefer he doesn’t play everyday actually), cheap as borscht.
Good signing.
Agreed – of course, the 14F will be in Bakersfield this season.
Every indication is that they will only be able to carry 22 (unless Ekholm or Hyman start the season on LTIR).
Considering Bowman has already spoken a couple of times about Philp having a role this year, I suspect he is in pole position and its his job to lose.
Lazar is likely in Bako for much of the year and an injury call-up.
What does Mangiapane provide that Arvidsson didn’t. Height and weight are nearly identical. Arvidsson scores at a slightly higher rate.
Defence, PK ability.
PK? Doesn’t look like he was playing the PK this last season.
He didn’t PK in Washington but did consistently in Calgary – about a minute per game.
Bowman spoke about using him on the PK.
Mangiapane is a more rounded player – he’s a much better 2-way player and this is shown by the fact he’s consistently outscored almost every season in the league (and its backed up by positive expected goal shares) – looking back, Arvidsson has been the opposite.
Mangiapane had a real good run of 4 years in Calgary right at or over 2 P/60 – close to 2.3 one year I think.
Last season, Mangiapane scored 14 goals playing with Eller and Arvidsson scored 15 playing mainly with Drai.
Mangiapane is younger and more durable.
We’ll see where it goes but decent chance its a better fit.
Doesn’t fall down as much
It’s all about fit Vicktor may score 20 in Boston but he wasn’t doing it here. if Magpie has chemistry with Leon or Connor the man will bury it. If I’m the coach I pump Magpie tires early and often as getting out of the gate could mean a 25 goal campaign.
Mangiapane is even more pesky than Arvidsson.
Arvidsson was my most disappointing and frustrating Oiler since Lucic.
Agreed, his season was disappointing.
Arvidsson is on the wrong side of 30, can’t stay healthy. His best days are well behind him. That Bowman got out from under his contract was a good day’s work.
Watched a lot of Arvy when in Nashville. Will always remember the GWG in Game 6 vs San Jose in the 2016 playoffs. Great motor and fearless. Never been the same since he got rammed into the crossbar by Robert Bortuzzo of St. Louis. Absolutely filthy check.
Mangiapane is younger than Arvidsson. Arvy used to be a horse, but it seems that his injuries took a toll.
(Or maybe it just takes a year to get rolling again. He used to be a guy that scored 29G 29A per 82 games. That’s why I liked the signing last year. I guess we’ll find out next year.)
We acquired Arvisdsson for nothing and effectively traded him and his cap space 12 months later for Mangiapane, Lazar and a 5th round pick. That’s a quality piece of work by the GM.
Would have preferred to keep Kane but Frederic replaces him. After all is said and done with cap space that swap is effectively Kane, Wanner, LaChance and R4 pick for Frederic, cap space for Kapanen and R4 pick. Again pretty solid work for a guy people said could not be moved without a sweetener.
Still want Kostin back on a cheap deal.
Since Kostin has left the Oilers, he’s been a below replacement level player (just like he was before he was an Oiler) – he’s likely looking at a PTO – I’m fine bringing him in on a PTO but he’s unlikely to be more than 15F.
Need to firm up McDavid this offseason, as next offseason could be an avalanche of RFA/UFA players…
Centers (5) McDavid, Henrique, Tomasek, Grubbe, Philp
WIngers (7) Jones Hamblin, Petrov, Podkolzin, Hutson, Jarventie, Kapanen
L Defence (4) Ekholm, Kulak, Dineen, Leppanen
R Defence (2) Walman, Stecher
Goalies (3) Skinner, Pickard, Ungar
I count 21. Some prospect RFA’s may be gone but the potential impact at G, LD and on the WIngs could be pretty substantial! I would try to keep the RFA’s due to cost wherever they are sufficient enough to consider, and be very careful about the UFA’s due to inflated market due to CAP rising for next 3 years… time to get those value contracts going forward!
Add Lazar to that list to bring it to 22…
I’m interested to see what Ekholm, Kulak and Walman sign for and if we see a discount from any of those three.
Each may have a reason to want to stick around.
Ekholm : Age, wouldnt want to uproot his family again.
Kulak : Stoney Plain native… Been here long enough to not want to leave?
Walman : Probably looking for a place to call home with ample opportunity
Walman 7mil per, Kulak 5 per, Ekholm 6 per is what I would guess
If we traded Nurse, yes to Walman and Eks. Big no to Kulak at the price. We are not trying to reach cap floor like Columbus, we cannot pay a dman on the 3rd pair 5 mil.
You’re not trading nurse
Even with the likes of Codi Ceci getting $4.5MM for 4 years, I would walk from Kulak at $5MM. He will remain 3LD with Nurse and Walman here (even without an Ekholm re-sign) – yes, he has the ability to move up but need more of a value deal for the 3LD.
Plus you re-sign guys at less than you’d sign them on the open market. I’d guess that’s true in 80-90% of cases.
Walman is the must re-sign.
We’ll need to see how Ekholm recovers and plays this coming season – his injury was clearly relatively serious (even if he isn’t having surgery – and I’m not so sure) and, at his age, sometimes players don’t recover back to their pre-injury prime.
If a re-sign is in order, even with these wild contracts being given out for external older players, I would suggest a VERY short term and a lower AAV.
We are doing that Oil King thing again
What’s Mark Pysyk up to these days?
Magpie scored a career high 35 so he does have a good shot and hands. He just needs a Centre that can feed him. It was hard for him to live up to the big contract he received fresh off the 35 goal campaign. He always works hard even if he’s not scoring and is defensively aware. This does quietly sound like a match made in heaven for Andrew. He knows If he scores back-to-back 20 goals he’s getting another nice payday from someone not named Edmonton.
I like his compete.
Interesting hit from Seravalli this morning with Karius re: Isaac Howard.
He said that many around the league, and some close to Howard, believed he was going to the Oilers, who reportedly offered TB a “late 1st round pick,” for his rights, which I have to assume is just their 2027 1st.
Frank said “the arrogance” from TB is getting in the way and they are holding out for more, even though Howard was a late 1st himself and if they lose Howard next summer they only get a late 2nd in compensation.
Interesting the Oilers were/are(?) that close in acquiring the Hobey Baker winner. I’d have all the time in the world for this move, similar to the trade up 1 year for SO’R but supercharged.
Saw that, too! Would be a really nice add and way of securing a better bet at a top-6 F than whoever that pick might eventually be.
“I actually spoke with his agent yesterday prior to the opening of the draft,” BriseBois said after the draft. “We don’t have anything right now. It’s tricky because the teams that are willing to offer me something that I think would be worthwhile for our organization that actually makes us better and kind of fits with the plan we have for our organization, they haven’t been able to agree to a contract with Isaac and the teams that he feels he can get a deal done with have not been able to get a deal done with me.”
https://thehockeywriters.com/lightning-still-struggling-to-find-solution-to-isaac-howard-dilemma/
Thanks for the additional info. Certainly seems like we fit in the latter category of just not being able to get a deal done with the GM (so far). At least the ticking clock on his rights are working against Brisebois in this case.
pardon my ignorance, but why does Howard not want to sign / play with Tampa ?
Not fully up to speed but, from what I’ve gleaned, there are some hard feelings between the two sides from not being able to agree on an ELC and timing of the player turning pro.
I’m guessing they would rather get a piece they could use earlier.
Agreed, I imagine a similar tier prospect closer to contributing. I wonder about the 2027 1st + Berezkin rights if that changes things for them (if it seems unlikely he’d sign with the Oilers but be open to TB)
In my understanding of the situation, Berezkin has signed in the KHL and is not eligible to come over next year. If Tampa is looking for a piece they can use now Berezkin isn’t the answer.
Being short on RHD, I think Emberson would be something they’d be interested in. Emberson + 2nd?
There was a report that he was going to re-sign but we haven’t seen anything official, we really don’t know.
Even if he has, as we just saw with Demidov, there are ways to get players under contract in the KHL over.
With that said, I would NOT throw this guy in to a trade – we have his rights indefinitely and he’s a lock NHL player – if he ever wants to play in the NHL, its with the Oilers at this point.
Caveat: the new CBA rules that, for the most part, create 4-year rights window for drafted players, I’m presuming that does not apply to KHL players as, without any NHL/KHL agreement, they’ve always been treated differently than players from any other European league.
I might have to say that I side with Brisebois on this matter. A Hobey Baker winning forward entering his draft+4 year is worth more than a late 1st in 2027. That is pretty close to a best case scenario for a player taken after pick 20.
Would be impressive business if we manage it. I’d certainly circle back with a slightly larger package or at least be talking with a third team to try and make a swap for a 2026 1st.
Adding Howard would be a major boon and (along with Savoie, Hutson, and O’Reilly) offer a pretty solid foundation of hopefuls for the next cohort of core forwards.
If we manage to get him, I’ll have to admit that the team has done an impressive job of finding real prospects while trading 1st and 2nd round picks.
Agreed Howard is likely worth more than a late 1st, but a unique situation where you risk losing him for only a late 2nd, so late 1st still preferable and at least recoup the late 1st they used to draft him.
Having said that, also agree I’d offer more to get the deal across the line asap.
Haha, guessing a 1st along with one of Hutson or O’Reilly would be the ask 🙂
But you always run the risk that he doesnt sign with you if he goes back to college
The deal doesn’t get done unless Howard signs with the new club. That’s why he has some control over where he ends up.
That would be a no..
Yeah, good luck with that.
Noone trading 2026 draft pick for a late 2027 pick especially when 2026 draft is supposed to be much stronger.
go get this kid….sweeten the pot…add a 5th rounder…whatever, just go get this guy
Bowman said they talked to teams and agents about goalies but nothing made sense at this time.
Bowman thinks the team is pretty much in place and will focus on the coaching staff now.
Except for maybe another player for the bottom six. Maybe they can sort out their goaltending during the season. Do you think a new goalie coach is going to help?
Wilkins asked about the last spot in the top six in addition to Mangiapane – basically said it will come internally.
Expects Savoie on the team, Tomasek could be an option and Henrique can start to play more top 6 wing.
Any additional forward acquisition will be depth.
So no need to continue talking about Ehlers.
Seravalli has also reported Ehlers to be looking for a “warm” and “quiet” location so we were never really in the running anyway haha.
Florida?
Haha. I’d bet all of King Midas’ Silver on Carolina.
How many goals on his salary is the line in the sand for this top 6 scorer that recieves limited PP time. (16) ?
Gonna need a couple of good wingers at the trade deadline and we don’t have much assets to trade.
Per Elite prospects the Oil are now the 10th oldest team in the league. Obviously subject to summer limbo but we wanted younger we got younger.
Did we get faster?
Getting rid of Perry and Ryan will do that!
From listening to Bowman this evening (evening in Albania), they definitely see Mangiapane on one of the top two lines and PK.
Ehlers lite. Mangiapane might even have more functionality in the Oiler lineup for half the cost. This could be a very astute signing.
Considering the price of centers in the open market, Henrique for $3 million is good value. It would be tradeable if he chose to waive his NMC, but replacing him would be more expensive.
I would rather accrue cap space in season so stuff can be done at the deadline (goaltender, forward, and D)
If it were up to me, I would staple Podkolzin to Draisaitl’s left wing. Draisaitl plays a more complete game with him. The Full Draisaitl. Probably with Savoie.
Mangiopane and Hyman with McDavid.
Philp between Nugent-Hopkins and Frederic
Janmark, Henrique, and Kapanen.
accruing cap space is not useful. All it takes is a 4th or a 5th to have a third team retain salary. Having assets to make trades is what matters
Accruing cap space is very helpful – very.
Extra assets for double retention is costly and we aren’t even sure it will be available.
The transition rules for the changes to the CBA have not been put out so we don’t know which changes are taking effect for this coming season (it may be none and they all might go in to effect for 2026/27 but the parties may agree to implement some early).
The changes include practically getting rid of double retention as retained salary transactions can only be made with something like 75 days between transactions (can’t remember the exact number of days but its around there).
3/4’s of the forward group have the potential to play center. There’s plenty of flexibility. There’s more than one way to skin a cat.
Why would a person want to skin a cat?
It’s just an old saying and I’m an old guy.
To make violin bows? (they historically used catgut, as it was called…)
Is anyone else worried that the Oilers top two wingers are coming off injuries and poor regular seasons? Oh and they are both in their thirties.
Yes. But I don’t see an immediate solution. I’d consider offloading Henri and looking for another scoring winger and using Nuge/Philip/Freddy/Janmark/Rookie in the bottom two center positions.
No.
As long as they’re there when it counts. That’s all that matters.
Maybe? Nuge also had 20 points in the playoffs when it mattered and Hyman was a massive contributor before he got hurt.
Nuge was the team’s best player in the third round before he broke his hand…… the man still has lots of runway left.
Weren’t we all reading/fretting the whole year about how McDavid-Nuge struggled last year markedly compared to their past performance? 93 will be 33 when next post-season starts and it’s not unreasonable to expect him to continue to regress, and for the results for McDavid-Nuge to trend downward. I don’t think going into the season banking on 93-97-18 to revert back to pre-2024-25 levels is a good bet.
I think in a perfect world this team trades Henrique for a 5th or a 6th, and finds bonafide top 6 LW to play with one of 97 or 29 to push Nuge to 3C (creating a strong 3L that can go toe-to-toe with the Lustorainen line), or a good 3C who can slide up to play top 6 LW with skill players (ensuring we have a good 3C but providing some flexibility if Nuge struggles next year). Henrique (and his line) were overmatched in the finals and strength down the middle should be this team’s calling-card.
Ehlers is a pipe-dream given the Oilers cap situation (can’t see how he fits unless a player making $9M+ is headed out, and the only player with that type of cap hit we’d want to move isn’t waiving his NMC). Maybe the Oilers think Frederic can be this player but he’s never played against elites and hasn’t shown he can hack it as an actual centerman in the NHL, so I don’t think he can fill either role. I don’t see any players available in FA so if this piece is coming (maybe Pius Suter?), so trade is likely the only way they add this player.
I hope Bowman did what many other teams in the NHL did to the Oilers for many years – take advantage of stupid GMs who are willing to give up a good-not-great player with flaws for peanuts because they aren’t a superstar. Maybe Buffalo is willing to retain 50% of Jason Zucker for O’Reilly? Maybe Columbus gives up early on Voronkov and sees O’Reilly as the 2nd coming of Boone Jenner? These all seem like wishful thinking but who knows.
?/93-97-18
Mangiapane-29-Savoie
21-93/?-92
13-Philp-42/Tomasek
I still think the Oilers need a “?” and a goalie. Both might be in-season additions
Mangiapane is about as well as the day could have gone. A realistic target on a decent contract. What a strategy!
I think history will show the real winners of free agent frenzy 2025 to be the teams that did the least (damage).
Hear hear. Last offseason most expeced Nashville to be a juggernau in the regular season, given their history of good team defence and a lot of big signings in Free Agency. That didn’t exactly pan out, did it? They stunk the joint out…
Yeah, the real winners locked their guys up before July 1.
Like Florida. *spits*
I’m ok with the addition of Mangiapane. I think he’ll fit in well. What stands out for me with this new look Oiler forward group can be summed up in one word “utility”. Knoblauch is going to love it, because like it or not, the lines will be in constant adjustment. I was thinking they should move out Henrique but now his utility fits in just fine. They might need to add another piece to this group of forwards, one that could help Frederic out with the nonsense that so often occurs within the game. But fortunately, those types can be found in the bargain isle.
I can see the line combo’s looking something like this on most nights.
Henrique-McDavid-Hyman
Mangiapane-Draisaitl-Podkolzin
Frederic-Nuge-Savoie
Janmark-Philp-Kapanen / Tomasek & maybe Kostin
It will be interesting to see how they deploy. I for one think the blender needs to go in a box. Part of the breakdowns that sink them I see as players not being used to each other enough, especially on D. I think it has an even larger effect on offense
Every player I have heard talk about it prefers regular lines or pairs. Then you get to know what to expect from the others. If Knobby thinks he has to because of performance issues Bowman needs to make a change and find a better fit, regardless of movement clauses
I see more than half of the players in the forward ranks are new to the team in the last year or so. The other half remains intact. So, that seems to me that they will need to figure some things out. Their defense remains stable which is good and of course their goaltending remains questionably stable as well. They understand now that the regular season is for preparing for when the season really starts in the playoffs
Could be but I think the coaching staff will continue to use Nuge as 1LW and Henrique at 3C most often.
I’m not sure that Henrique is best suited to 3C – he’s been more of an offensive player through his career but the staff seemed to want to turn him in to a defensive center. Not sure it works and, at this stage, I think he’s more of the 2LW/3LW but, alas, the coaching staff has not agreed thus far.
100% I put Savoie at 2RW over Podz. I have time for Podz/Drai/Savoie but wouldn’t shift Podz over to the right
Nuge & Rico could be interchangeable. They’re similar players in most respects.
IMO Draisaitl likes Podz, and Mangiapane is way more experienced than Savoie, who can learn considerably from playing with two veteran centers like Nugent-Hopkins & Henrique who both could be utilized as his primary centers on the third line. I just don’t think Savoie is better than Mangiapane at this stage of his career.
Drai “likes Podz” but yet Podz was moved away from Drai for much of the playoffs, right?
Drai also liked Yamamoto and, well, Savoie is a sturdier, more skilled and smarter offensive Yamamoto with a much better shot – Drai will love Savoie.
I like this, but could Frederic and Nuge be swapped?
Hire some sellswords at the trade deadline to bolster RW and away we go to get clobbered by Florida’s SOMEHOW STILL INTACT juggernaut.
Frederic is another player that can potentially play all three forward positions. It’s mind boggling to say the least. I like what Edmonton’s doing so far. They still need to play all the games. Nobody knows what might happen. Florida could fail miserably.
Bowman talked today about Frederic playing center and Henrique playing some top 6 wing.
Bowman also mentioned he likes the flexibility of the group.
I’ve been on record for months that I think Leon Draisaitl is the perfect center for Matt Savoie – based off watching about 50 Condors games last season.
Matt Savoie is not a driver, he is complimentary skill winger that excels when playing with smart and skilled offensive players. He is great in the “give and go” type games, is very good at finding “soft ice” and is great with the puck in small spaces.
He also battles larger than height on the boards and is tenacious – if Drai liked playing with Yamo before the rigors of the NHL took hold of him, he’ll LOVE playing with Savoie.
I expect the coaching staff to start Savoie on Drai’s wing to open camp and I really hope they give the kid some runways. He’ll be a rookie, mistakes and inconsistencies will happen – I hope Knob gives him rope to make mistakes and work through struggles. If not 3RW is another position that Savoie can excell at.
As far as Mangiapane at 2LW, I can see that – it could work very well.
I also have some time for Podz there to keep going on the playoff momentum – without checking, I think Podz had like 10 points in the 22 games and much of that was in the bottom six. I don’t see a Holloway like pop production wise from Podz but Holloway’s pop came after a lowly 7 points in 25 playoff games……
Blog is acting up today, apologies.
Gracias for saying that, I was concerned it was my computer and was abou to get into a heavy amount of diagnostics… it is a sad day when I don’t get to read my Lowetide in the morning!
I wake up looking forward to it!
Mangiapane was very popular in Calgary before he went to Washington. If he can be both effective & a dink while playing in Edmonton he will be popular there too.
Lost amongst the hoopla of free agency is the CHL Import Draft this morning.
We’ll see whether Vinni and/or Salonen get picked. Not holding my breath, but the draft is now three rounds instead of two. Also, picks can now be traded, and 2026 Memorial Cup host Kelowna has already swung a deal with Moose Jaw for the top pick.
Let’s see how fast Kelowna can rebuild and not become the worst host team of the Memorial Cup ever. It is actually quite ridiculous that the last place team (11 points behind the next best team) in their conference was given a bye to the Memorial Cup.
Bad host teams usually give up their spot to a nearby team that’s a serious contender. Last year Calgary was third in the Dub, and I can see Calgarians heading to Kelowna for the May long weekend.
Medicine Hat was also in the running, possibly as an incentive for Gavin McKenna to stay. But if getting to the finals wasn’t already enough of an incentive for him to stay, then this probably wouldn’t be either. And if the Tigers suck next year, it might have been a harder sell to get Calgarians to Medicine Hat than to Kelowna.