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/
One thing that Toby Salmelainen mentioned last week and Kalle Larsson today, its impossible to get in to Russia to do any scouting these days.
Kalle Larsson on with Stauff today. An informative conversation – some good info on the entire player development team (6-7 people report to Larsson), the mental performance coach (distinct from their mental health professions), etc. – also their interplay with player procurement, their work with the Bako coaching staff, etc.
Dach is another added onto deal acquisitions worth including.
I’ve found that aspect of his deals intriguing. Those higher picks that don’t quite land as top 6 clear options have a history of taking a bit longer to redefine games into mid to bottom 6 effective players. Picking those 2 plus speed, physical with some scoring touch as throw-ins is savy. Like what are the odds the 31st overall puck that is centerpiece of deal even ends up as good as 2021 62 overall kirby dach or 2016 21st overall max jones?
This is important to remember. The Oilers don’t really need a first-round pick so much as they need what it represents. They need 21-27 year olds that can contribute substantially, cheaply and outperform their contract number.
I think under a systems coach like Babcock, the paradigm of mid level players shifts from needing to outperform their contracts, to just plain old outscoring.
Any players that commit and execute Babs system, and give up less than they get, will be how success is measured. Whether that’s 30 pts, or 60, the gf/ga will be tell.
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
It’s a 84 game schedule. Will 2 smaller forwards be able to hack the Big D on most teams now? The Panthers are even more filthy . I see a return to toughness no way do I see the Hurricanes surviving the Panthers in a 7 game bout. The move is to trade Howard while he still has some value for some functional toughness a Podkolzin type with a shorter fuse a Kostin with skill.
Savoie and Howard will be just fine. There are numerous successful smaller forwards.
These guys are even that small – they aren’t Nathan Gerbe out there.
If the Oilers have to worry about the Panthers, the season will have been a success.
Everyone is going to get thumped on by Panthers Gudas-Hathaway-Tkachuk-Bennett-Ekbald-Marchand the team toughness will rub off off on everyone. Tampa bay will load up players so will other teams. I would think Clattenburg passes Howard as our number 1 prospect.
Clattenburg worked his way down the depth chart upon reassignment this past season – playing on the 4th line behind ECHL call-ups and then not able to get in to the AHL playoff lineup once cleared to play. Last we saw he was getting hurt in development camp and in a walking boot!
Clattenburg has the raw skills to play in the NHL upon development but he needs to flip his current trend – he needs to (1) let himself develop and (2) find a way to stay on the ice.
Martin St. Louis must have been an anomaly.
Yes he was did ever see his thighs in shorts while he was golfing they’re like tree trucks. Sam goes for Theoren Fleury-Marchand-Debrincat These players are few and far between.
I have no idea about the shorts/thighs thing, what I was trying to point out was St. Louis spent his age 22 year mostly in the AHL.
For all the bull and bluster we all fire away in opinion, it’s just opinion. We have no idea what Howard will or will not accomplish this upcoming season. Maybe he comes in and pots 35 out of nowhere or maybe he just cannot do the job and is shipped down to the AHL or is used as trade fodder.
Nobody knew St. Louis was going to morph into what he became either. We’ll see what Howard can do in time.
You never know who’s going to make it. Unlike us there’s people making well over 6 figure salaries to find that diamond in the rough. Hell if we’re wishing uptown a star let Colton Dach turn into a Clarke Gillies with Max Jones being our Charlie Simmer
He was the definition.
The definition of what exactly?
My initial response was to Reja saying that “High end skilled smaller forwards don’t spend a year in the AHL at 21-22.” St. Louis did. And there was no one on hell’s half acre that said he was high end back then.
Howard could pull off something similar or maybe he doesn’t.
I am not comparing them in skill, drive or anything other than it might be plausible that Howard does play in Bakersfield this year and blows the doors off down the road, or maybe he does it this year.
Perhaps one is over-valuing exactly what this player is at this point in his career. My goodness, this isn’t a top 5 pick, he was drafted 31st, it wasn’t long ago that was a second round pick and, when the Oilers came in the league it was mid 2nd round.
His game clearly needed development. He asked Chaulk to help develop certain areas of his game and they worked to do exactly that.
You don’t know where Babcock plans on using Howard – Babcock is not shy on using young players up the lineup.
I will say this, without the development that Howard did in his overall game, there would be a MUCH less chance that he could play Babcock’s team.
We traded our best prospect by a country mile who Jackson went out of his way to secure after talking to his good buddy Hunter. Dale is arguably the best Coach probably in all amateur hockey. Dale also happens to be the Brother of die-hard Oiler Dave Hunter who was tasked at shutting down the opposition best centres as an Oiler. When Dale talks about prospects you listen. This might be a sleepy ass tuesday trade for you but it’s not for me.
They traded their best prospect to acquire their best prospect.
What the off was the point of that dribble?
There’s a pyramid in hockey small skilled wingers are at the bottom corners. Tough sob centres like messier are at the top with all around sob like Denis Potvin to the left of him with Lidstrom to the right. The point is Bowman needs to start winning trade after trade if we are to make it to the final. A lot can change in a few years as I seen a dynasty ripped apart within in 2 years. Who knows in 2 years from now we could see us wandering in the desert like Toronto has been for 60 years. Unfortunately we don’t live as long as Noah anymore.
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
So play Savoie RW not left. Play Howard LW. If you need a guy to play a guy on his off wing try Podz who’s game is more on the wall or net front power and less sniper
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.
Interesting post. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
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.
I fully expect there to be a shift in PP usage to some extent but I don’t think that starts with taking Nuge off PP1.
Also, I think Babcock will be looking for a fourth line that he can put out after a PP and that will be able to play against the opposition’s top players.
podkolzin was predominantly a right winger until he arrived in edmonton.
he played RW in the ahl for abby and rw in the khl.
Perhaps him playing RW was part of the problem?
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.
What? You no longer take me seriously?
He thinks you’re funny in a Henry Hill GoodFellas way.
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.
We had 2 allstar 1st line centres with 1 allstar point magnet D locked up for 12 years plus. Maggie the Monkey could have rounded out the team to 3-4 Cups. Instead we have retreads Peter-Holland-Stan that were lured to Edmonton by wine-woman-song. Meanwhile there’s currently 3 G.M’s from the Oilers regime that learned from the master Sather yet we hire over the hill Holland and Bowman that still has Hawks stink on him. The G.M of the year should be our coach Billy was one hell of an Oiler player so was Grier-Staios. Bowman has 3 years left to win a Cup if at that time we don’t have number 6 fire his ass and bring in an Oiler player from yesteryear.
The GM job Glen Sather had as an Oiler in the 80s has so little resemblance to the job the current GM has to do.
The Avs had Nathan MacKinnon plus Mikko Rantanen plus Cale Makar and their two GMs over the least decade were able to build one Cup Champion as the exception to year after year after year of playoff disappointment.
Yes, the one championship reigns supreme but the first statement above is not reality.
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.