The Edmonton Oilers hired Stan Bowman to be their new general manager on July 24, 2024 after the contract of their former GM Ken Holland expired the month prior. Holland came to the club with experience as a high end executive, largely being credited with building and maintaining the dominance of the Detroit Red Wings throughout the 2000's and 2010's.
However, his approach was showing signs of growing stale and being outdated despite overseeing the Oilers make it all the way to the Stanley Cup finals in 2024. After looking for someone new to lead them through a delicate and important time in their contention window, they landed on a man with rich hockey bloodlines and a trophy case filled with the prize that McDavid and Co. covet the most, four Stanley Cups.
Although the club eventually crashed and burned and especially with revelations in recent years saw Bowman and others ousted from the league, no one can deny his prowess as the architect of the Chicago Blackhawks dynasty. Some point to Dale Tallon as the true architect but the former spent years keeping the team afloat and competitive to go on multiple deep cup runs.
This sounds exactly like what the Oilers desperately needed, someone who showed an ability to adapt on the fly and an executive who was willing to ship out beloved players as long as it helped the team win, right?
That is why now, it is no surprise that Bowman has been doing his best to try and not only recoup draft assets but to also re-stock the prospect cupboards in creative ways. Ultimately, to add to the Oilers depth, like he did with the Blackhawks for years.
The Oilers have done well to restock their cupboards
In a league with a hard salary cap like the NHL, it can be difficult, especially for teams who are constantly competing to try and keep their prospect pool capable of promoting players to fill out their lineup. Draft picks and prospects are a currency used in trades and with teams constantly competing against the cap, having players who can outperform their low cap hit is an extremely valuable asset.
Teams that are able to replenish their roster with young talent have had long term success like the aforementioned Blackhawks teams that were able to add depth players to their cup winning teams without having high draft choices. This has worked for other teams like the Tampa Bay Lightning and Dallas Stars as more recent examples too.
When Bowman took over, the Oilers prospect pool was seen as very weak and although it is still not amongst the best in the league, there has been moves that indicate it could be trending in a more positive direction.
One of the ways that the club has been overcoming this obstacle is by not even really adding prospects. Recent European free agent signings of David Tomasek and Atro Leppanen, both fall out of the definition of prospects by many but both show some potential of being able to contribute to the team.
The club has also made moves towards signing players who do fit most pundit's definition of a prospect like; Damien Carfagna, Quinn Hutson, Josh Samanski, and Viljami Marjala. The former two were college hockey players, playing in the NCAA who scored at good rates for their position. The latter two are also free agents from Europe who were standouts, leading their age groups in scoring in top tier professional leagues.
There were also two trades made to acquire prospects, one being made last summer before Bowman took over that saw the Oilers trade Ryan McLeod and Tyler Tullio to the Buffalo Sabres for former Ninth Overall pick Matthew Savoie. They also traded 2024 First Round pick Sam O'Reilly to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Hobey Baker winner, Ike Howard. The latter was a great showing for his prowess as a GM, taking advantage of a bad situation between Howard and the Lightning for his club's own benefit.
Acquiring Savoie and Howard for McLeod and O'Reilly is quite good business, as the Oilers were able to get two players who can play alongside their two superstars in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and should be able to perform well. Although McLeod and O'Reilly are good players, they are much better suited as depth pieces and would not have the same impact on the Oilers as the former two.
It should be noted that unfortunately, the Oilers did lose two good young depth pieces last summer in Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg to a pair of offer sheets by the St. Louis Blues. They were able to receive compensation; a 2025 Second Round Pick, a 2025 Third Round Pick, as well as a trade on the side of a 2028 Third Round Pick and the rights to prospect Paul Fischer.
Using the 2025 Second, Bowman acquired Max Jones and prospect Petr Hauser at the deadline and used the Third to select Tommy Lafreniere. Adding these picks and prospects to the system undoubtedly helped the prospect pool, especially with many feeling Fischer has some legitimate NHL potential.
The Oilers were also able to do all of this and hold onto many picks, currently only missing a 2026 First, Fourth, and Fifth as well as a 2027 Fourth Round pick in the next three drafts. Given the on-ice success, this is good for the Oilers and if used properly, could pay dividends going forward.
Overall, the team may be lacking some elements within their prospect pool but between the moves made via trade and free agent signings, the club seems to be doing work to address this deficiency and supplement their pipeline in ways beyond the draft table. This is how teams must stay competitive and if they can keep this up, they should have no problems keeping their contention window wide open.