This is the 2015 rookie camp roster. One could reasonably have hoped several names would spend years with the North Star cluster (Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Darnell Nurse). I believed Anton Slepyshev had a chance, Griffin Reinhart and Ethan Bear too, and Laurent Brossoit already had a great resume.
As it turned out, Peter Chiarelli and then Ken Holland weren’t believers in Oilers draft picks. Chiarelli traded Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle and others long before the Steve Tambellini rebuild (Eberle, Hall, Nuge) could join the Craig MacTavish rebuild (Draisaitl, Nurse) in hammering opponents senseless and having lovely visits with Stanley.
Instead, both Chiarelli and Holland pursued veterans, established names, complete with higher salaries and onset erosion. Both men remained true to their styles, Chiarelli in clouds with icy altitude and Holland with an aw shucks delivery.
Stan Bowman’s approach to what was left for him has been unique so far. He is still trading draft picks, but also retaining enough to give his scouts and development department a fighting chance. He added a piece that could help immediately (Ike Howard) for Sam O’Reilly, but Howard can grow with the group and is the owner of an affordable contract for the next three seasons.
Bowman also added European and college bets. Ahead of the final game of the preseason, let’s look at those players in the context of certain, uncertain and distant bells.
CERTAIN OILERS
Bowman’s impact on the certain group consists of a young winger (Vasily Podkolzin), two veteran wingers (Trent Frederic, Andrew Mangiapane) and a veteran defenseman (Jake Walman). Just over one year from his hiring, Bowman’s impact on the certain group (four of 13) is within expectations. I would note it has more youth than Chiarelli and Holland averaged in their early days.
UNCERTAIN OILERS
Bowman once again has added youth in procurement among the uncertain group. Ike Howard is the prime example, but Ty Emberson and Alec Regula also qualify. His veteran pickups often come at little cost, as reflected here by the pickups of Kasperi Kapanen and David Tomasek. By the way, there are 26 names listed among the certain and uncertain group. That includes two goalies, eight defenders and 16 forwards. If Connor Ingram had been part of camp, he would have been on this list.
DISTANT BELLS
All of the distant bells are gone now, save the injured Damien Carfagna. Most likely recall? It might be Josh Samanski. That’s a feather in the cap for Bowman and his European scouting group. Also from Bowman’s summer are Carfagna, Riley Stillman, Viljami Marjala, Quinn Hutson, Matt Tomkins. Bowman has eschewed signing fringe NHLers (Stillman and Tomkins exceptions) in favor of European and college players. Are these names better than the previous administrations choices? We’ll see. Preseason indications were very positive, I don’t recall anyone in the last decade having the impact of Josh Samanski among the youth procured from outside the organization.
Finally, David Tomasek and Atro Leppanen. They look good to me. I don’t know if either spends a long time in the NHL feature role, but do believe they are most talented than Gaetan Haas, Joakim Nygard or Joel Persson.
On the Lowdown today, we will talk about Kris Knoblauch’s new contract, and we have two feature guests (Steve Lansky and Tyler Yaremchuk) and Declan Krueger will have his 12:40 Top Five list. We love your texts and you tube comments, keep them coming. Noon to 2pm today, Sports 1440 and You Tube.
Per Stauff:
The EdmontonOilers morning skate:
Draisaitl-McDavid-Frederic
Podkolzin-RNH-Mangiapane
Howard-Tomasek-Kapanen
Henrique-Philp-Savoie
Jones-Lazar
Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-Stecher
Kulak-Emberson
Walman-Regula
Skinner
Pickard
I hate Savoie on the fourth line. Absolutely dreadful.
Some real potential for that third line to have some looooong defensive zone shifts and some neutral zone pick responsibility issues…..
lol 🤣 LT!
Now without checking, I’m certain that I remember there was a blog post titled, “A Persson of interest.”
It’s stored in the brain cell right next to “A fine Bourgault.”
You may be right. Persson played 13 NHL games, maybe Leppanen plays zero. Haas got into 92, Nygard 42. I just like this group better, especially Samanski. We’ll see. In the “Persson of Interest” article you mentioned, I believe the evidence is framed well, including a quote from someone who saw him. The numbers produced by Persson were solid, but not at Leppanen levels.
https://lowetide.ca/2019/01/30/persson-of-interest/
Seems like the premise that Knob and Bowman are not on the same page is over blown.
I’m not thrilled with how he’s deploying some players in the here a now but we know coaching is so much more than line deployment and Knob’s team success speaks for itself.
He now has his chosen coaching staff.
Let’s go!
A three year extension for KK expires in 2029.
Same year as Bouch’s deal.
Same year as Nuge’s deal.
Three year extension for McDavid?
Should’ve kept Knoblauch on the hot seat for this year. He hasn’t shown he can elevate the big 2, or outcoach at the highest level. I wonder what factor #97 plays into this.
Two Stanley Cup finals in two seasons. I don’t know that any NHL team would leave the coach out to dry in the same situation. I have my issues with Knoblauch (why did he change the gameplan against Florida?) but this is, to me, a reasonable path forward.
Completely reasonable.
But they should be chasing greatness, not “reasonable”.
Sather wasn’t reasonable. Neither was Steinbrenner. Or Belichick.
Knoblauch’s issues may get him fired, that’s for sure. Sather, you may recall, had a helluva time finding a head coach before John Muckler finally arrived (I think it was Billy Harris, Bryan Watson and someone else who held the role as day-to-day during the era before Muckler).
Ha! Your anti-Knob posts are as predictable as HH stating how every team in the leage is better than the Oilers…
From Google:
“The shortest coaching tenure to win the Stanley Cup is two years, achieved by a three-way tie between John Muckler (1990 with the Oilers), Marc Crawford (1996 with the Avalanche), and Randy Carlyle (2007 with the Ducks).”
Not exactly a regular occurrence….
How many years did it take Sather to win (or even make the finals) with the greatest teams ever? How many for the winning coach of the last two seasons, Mr. Maurice?
Your expectations are decidedly and hilariously UNreasonable.
Injuries probably made him change the game plan
Outlet passes up the middle versus along the wall could have been completed. He abandoned what worked after a few turnovers. No sir. The coach needed to tweak, not abandon.
It’s K’s money and it doesn’t count against the hard cap. It is bad for the team to leave a coach hanging. Knoblauch is the coach for this season, so he had to be extended.
If one wasn’t going to extend him, then one should have replaced him this summer.
I’m on the “should have replaced him” track of course – and your point about it having no long term consequences to fire him is taken.
Yes you can’t have a lame duck in such a important position.
Fans of this team never cease to confuse me.
My low bar for this roster is a lot higher than most. I’ve been quite consistent about that.
Fire any coach that doesn’t win the Stanley Cup every year?
Everything points to a McDavid extension.So why doesn’t he sign? Why does every interview he does sound like he’s dumping a significant other at a coffee shop.
It’s a dangerous road for the captain, I agree. Sooner or later, when Friedman says “he’s making sure everyone is uncomfortable about losing two Stanley Cups in a row” someone is going to point out McDavid was ON those teams. Then it gets a little uncomfortable for everyone.