I credit the Edmonton Oilers for recognizing the negative impact of a decade plus of sending away picks and prospects. The team has clawed back with acquisitions of Matt Savoie (by Jeff Jackson), Vasily Podkolzin and Ike Howard (by Stan Bowman) and by the end of this coming season all three men could be playing feature roles on a team that has a chance at Stanley. Music!
Where does Stan Bowman go from here? Well, he’s been looking to Euriope, US colleges and fringe pro free agents (Eduards Tralmaks is a great recent example) and I like the work ethic. The numbers on some of these cats isn’t terrible. I think Max Jones might be a sneaky good middle six winger and maybe he pops 15 one year. They all count, you know.
I also think Stan Bowman needs to steal one. It doesn’t matter how he does it, but it has to happen. If you want examples of ‘stealing one’ from the past, I’ll give you Charlie Huddy, Randy Gregg and Jason Smith (Glen Sather), Patrick Maroon (Peter Chiarelli) and Vasily Podkolzin (Bowman).
What would that look like? Something like Ike Howard and a second-round pick for Kaapo Kakko and a legit prospect one year away from the NHL might do it, but these things tend to involve less famous players. I think Matt Poitras of the Boston Bruins is a worthy target. Shouldn’t cost much.
Any road, the way I see it the biggest hurdle to retaining McDavid long term is finding replacements for the key veteran forwards who are aging out. Matt Savoie has taken over for the Nuge on the top line, will Mike Babcock continue to roll that way? What about Howard on the Draisaitl line? That’s the right thing to do, you know. Bowman needs to steal a player and right soon.
Today on the Lowdown, it’s the round table as we discuss the Blue Jays knowledge of the rules of baseball, and the idea of a trade for someone like Kakko. Noon to 2pm, Sports 1440 and You Tube.
The Edmonton Oilers’ 2026-27 depth chart, one month before training camp
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7502327/2026/08/11/edmonton-oilers-depth-chart-summer-2026-27/
Babcock is pretty religious about handedness.
Yet people keep putting Savoie on the left side, and Howard on the right. I will be surprised if Babcock rolls this way.
Babcock plays four lines. That means Nugent-Hopkins or Samanski as one of the centres. Trent Frederic is NOT a centre. He is not remotely suited to what Babcock expects from a centre. Frederic will have enough trouble finding a spot in the top twelve on the wing, since there are far more reliable left shot forwards available to Babcock. One would be putting Frederic behind the eight ball again trying him out at centre.
Quinn Hutson is a Hutson, and a right shot forward. I half expect him to steal somebodies job. There is no reason he cannot jump over the lefties Frederic, Jones, Dach, Janmark, and Joseph. Those lefties are not high bars.
For the Oilers to play four lines, I think that means Nugent-Hopkins and Hyman have to anchor the third line. And Dickenson the fourth.
Babcock has to take everyone out of their comfort zones in order to make the Oilers play sound systematic hockey. I will be surprised if the deployment is not different from previous seasons.
Ditto for the defense.
I do not understand why people are expecting more of the same.
There are a couple of reasons Hutson isn’t likely to jump one of the lefties on your list. One, he is not a good skater at the NHL level, Chaulk says ‘straight legged’, not enough to offset that he is not tall and is light by NHL standards. Another is that Chaulk said he does not battle hard defensively. Not to mention the other than Dach those guys are NHL players, Hutson isn’t there yet. Hutson has a decent scoring touch, but so does the much bigger and tougher Dach who has an NHL season worth of games in already
What about this Owen Michaels is he a centre? If Owen shows well on the farm is there a possibility he gets called-up.
Yes. He’s a right shot center, there’s actually plenty of positive talk about him.
He might, but I don’t consider him as a realistic helpful player this season. He’s not a high end talent, so I imagine at least a season in the A will be needed. As LT always says, high end skill players (especially forwards) are the ones that are far more likely to get to the NHL early, and if they don’t there’s a problem. The rest take longer
I for one can’t wait to see some “out of the box” thinking when it comes to deployment. I’d love to see a third line built around Nuge and Hyman.
Whether or not someone can read Hutson is very quickly becoming a test of “hockey eyes or not” for me.
They already had the Centre who they traded for Howard. Maybe it’s a good thing they’re not putting Howard in a position to succeed. The Leo 18 million contract with his teammate Cutter asking the same has shook the strategy of G.M’s not seen since free agency. You’ll see ELC now get blocked more unless you’re willing to dole out huge chunks of your cap money to 20-21 year-old. Also this may change the signing date of ELC contracts, teams may wait a year before giving a mid to late 1st rounder or any other pick a ELC that first year in the organization. The Leo contract is going to change the landscape of the NHL not scene since the changes made to free agency.
Ducks may need to shed some salary. Oilers might be able to take advantage.
Spender Stastney plus Marjala (or similar) for Ryan P.
Vatrano is not a contact teams are looking to take on.
That’s interesting because I was thinking of Ryan Poeling also but was thinking more along the lines of a second round pick as the acquisition cost.
By allowing Howard the privellage of developing his game in the proper league, they have 100% set him up to reach his ceiling. Great development arc to this point.
High end skilled smaller sized forwards don’t spend a year in the AHL at age 21-22. If he was a bigger player or a centre it’s a different kettle of fish. I would think Ike was told to work on certain things by K.K. With a new coach in Babcock it’s probably a 45-55% chance that Howard makes the team and even less of a chance in top 6. Will Mike go with a 45 second P-2 or start PP-2 if Leon Connor or both coming off a long shift. If Ike even makes the team and the answer is no for top-6 and PP-2. Tell me what exactly is the Iceman going to do that an old Babcock vet like Lazar can’t do more effectively.
They aren’t similar players but Savoie did fine with little PP just doing what he was supposed to. Howard is a better scorer, so if he can play reliably enough and have a good enough C he could contribute some in the top 9. It’s hard to see the roster construction from here with a new coach, but Babcock in Hyman’s words helped establish The Laughs current talent. Howard is not going to look like an alien to him
I won’t be surprised if he plays as Godot says all 4 lines more evenly, meaning Howard wouldn’t be with Dickinson who is probably going to play with wingers that can support going against any comp to free up air for the top 2 lines
Godot you’ve mentioned Babcocks preference for handedness, but given the Oilers have been allergic to having enough appropriate RS players, that will impact usage. At least until Bowman gets the players to support that preference
Based on what other than his brothers and his name?
His coach 10 days ago talked about how he doesn’t work as hard in the defensive zone as he does the offensive zone – not sure that’s a Babcock trait.
You never know with a new coaches. It looks like Joseph is a gimme to make the team especially with our dreadful P.K. Hopefully that diamond shaped strategy is dropped off at the greyhound station by Ralph Klein’s henchman. That was the ugliest PK that Oilers have ever had with the personal they were using.
Oh damn I thought you were going to say “The land of the ice and snow with the midnight sun and the hot springs glow”. 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8OtzJtp-EM
Savoie seems like the Nuge replacement in pretty much all areas – top 6 winger but versatile, PK and, shit, he seems to have the skill-set for the Nuge zone-entry plus other role on the PP.
I think Howard will fit georgeously with Drai but the issue there is Howard should play left wing and is Podz in that spot? Given that, I wouldn’t mind Howard on McDavid’s left wing with Savoie on Drai’s right wing.
While I enjoy Savoie’s development 5×5, Nuge is still easily the better player for the Nuge role on the PP as he is a PP witch that we’ve all seen is sorely is missed when not available.
I agree at this point, but if Savoie shows he can distribute to the right place close enough to Nuge (that being Nuge’s witchiness), being right shot adds another threat off the left wall. Won’t happen immediately or at all
Of course, zero chance Nuge gets moved off PP1 – this is in due course.
If Nuge plays on the third line then him on the pp splits up 3 lines which could impact the pp setup.
I think it’s likely we see some shifts in pp strategies. Maybe that’s a quicker change from pp one. Maybe Nuge and hyman come off early or could be pp2 actually gets time.
I also think it’s likely zone entries and in zone responsibilities are different under the new staff which could also affect the players involved.
Maybe Howard himself is a steal?
That deal takes away essentially ALL of the Oilers cap space this season – puts them in a tough spot for even a single injury.
What do the Oilers trade away to get Poitras – presuming they don’t trade to waive, that means three of Janmark/Jones/Joseph/Samanski/Howard are off the opening team.
He’s a RH center. You’ve listed two PK wings, a fringe checking center, Max Jones who is going to start in Bakersfield and Howard who should be on the roster. There’s no tragedy in sending out Samanski, Jones and Janmark (who might start on IR).
No dink-ness intended at all, I know nothing about Poitras so I’m totally ignorant to what he brings but a quick check on boxcars, pedigree and recent history, other than being only 22 he seems kind of underwhelming, what would be bring that Lazar doesn’t? Lazar could be had for nothing not money and not very much at that of we are looking for a RHC?
No worries. I wrote about him here.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7443640/2026/07/15/edmonton-oilers-trade-targets-2026-season/
I listed the 5 players current fighting for 3 forward roster spots (which would be two with an add).
I agree that Jones and Janmark are likely the odd men out to start (Stauff alluding to Janny maybe not being healthy).
Shouldn’t cost much, they could send Howard to the Bruins for Poitras.
We know that not even you would be in favour of that.
It feels like a “cake and eat it too” scenario. We want to win, so we trade away picks and prospects for the likes of Ekholm, Walman, Murphy, Dickenson, etc., but we also lament the fact that our pipeline is pretty empty. Personally, I love the draft and prospects, but I care little about that at this stage of the arc. I realize that at some point in the future the chickens ate coming home to roost, but I accept that.
Same here. I think this is a key distinction lost on many.
You can’t have a pipeline full of blue chip prospects and be a perennial contender. They’re at odds given the way capital is exchanged in a salary cap league.
That said, drafting almost becomes more of a key; need to find some late round gems to prop up the farm and ease the cap pressure on the big team when a guy pops.
The other half of it, discussed by our host, is to win trades, and ideally fleece a GM here and there. Send away a fading vet before their performance outweighs their reputation and get a prospect and young/useful player back. Rinse, repeate.
The Gernat+ for Maroon trade was exceptional. Too bad they didn’t cash in on the other end of the deal, value was lost and it negatively impacted the team. A similar transaction sequence in principle if not age range is MPS for Perron, who then begat Klinkhammer (warm body) and the 16OV in a stacked draft (le sigh). MPS was struggling hard, but DP quickly became one of my favourites to don the jersey. Had things worked out and he turned into Joel Eriksson Ek (as rumoured) that would have been a staggeringly efficient trade tree that would have set up the team for a decade plus. Alas.
I ssume all 32 GMs and their front offices are are pretty in tune with what is going on and the intell on all players is detailed, so kind of hard to expect your team’s GM to fleece another team’s GM. Sure you can win trades. Sometimes it’s a win for both teams, or sometimes someone doesn’t turn out like expected. However I think any trade is 50-50. I’m old enough to remember the Sam Pollock, Glen Sather fleecings that used to happen, but I think front offices are way more sophisticated today
How about the Kane for Podkolzin fleecing?
I mean, they traded a 4th for Podz and then re-couped that exact 4th in exchange for Kane.
And yet I’m positive that with better management from 2015 on the Oilers could have done exactly that – continue to grow their own while being contenders nearly this whole time. The unnecessary wastage and loss of value so great, throughout, that having much of any of that back would profoundly impact the roster today, and probably have meant more silver on the shelf.
Oh well.
What negative impact from sending away “draft picks and prospects”?
Really?
The OIlers should have 3 Stanley Cups by now if not for inadequate goaltending and the incessant failures of Nurse. That is obvious to every Oiler supporter, if intellectual honesty counts for anything.
Bowman can never be forgiven for losing Broberg and Holloway.
“draft picks and prospets” have limited present value in any expected value sense.
And Chiarelli was a greater cause of agony over the McDavid era than any traded draft pick.
The present is all.
‘struth.
Nothing clears the mind like an impending hanging.
It should be noted that when one hangs out with one’s wang out, it keeps everyone clear.
Thank you verdud, for being the sole arbiter of the truth and the way for all of us intellectual lightweights who cannot perceive a shred of nuance. It’s too bad none of us have the mettle to make a case by numbers to take out bias.
Certainly. Holland and (to a lesser extent) Jackson had no role in that debacle. Let any culpability be permanently expunged from their records.
Might as well sell the farm club and give up the rights to the prospects for an AI vending machine. You make it sound like we only have one year to set the stage so McDavid extends his contract.
Such odd takes, time and time again over the years, binary positions that rarely turn out to be true.
This is bang on. I would also add a coach willing to except Bennett-Tkachuk-running around clocking people with very little push back from K.K.
Janson Duench
@reporterJD
Incredibly excited for this next step in my writing/reporting journey. I’ve moved to Edmonton to cover the EdmontonOilers for The Athletic.
Is a Carleton grad who was covering the Soo Greyhounds for the Sault Star.
His first:
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7499727/2026/08/11/janson-duench-edmonton-oilers-reporter/
That article was skimming the surface with a telescope.
I sure hope he has some investigative chops and knows how to suss out the underlying context to explain how situations pan out in the first place. And likely/potential implications.
From the Soo and straight into the stew.
This should be interesting for him.
I wonder how much engagement he had in Sault St. Marie… he may wish for less.
Good scoop, Jimmy!
I like that you posted some Oilers content that didn’t have a negative skew.
You okay?
Oh it’s there… make no mistake… just squint a little more.
It’s about time.
I look forward to reading Duench. I hope we get to hear him on-air with you LT. I missed the DNB spots.