By: Chris Nosek
The pressure continues to build in Edmonton for a Stanley Cup. The start of the Stan Bowman era only took that pressure to new heights. Last year was his first at the helm and he made 12 trades. Coming into this season, it was widely expected that he would make a move to upgrade the goaltending. Bowman was supposed to come in and help them earn their first Stanley Cup since 1990.
After making 12 trades in his first season, Bownman has made eight this year. Arvidsson wasn’t working out so moving on from him and his contract was a good move. He also was able to add Connor Ingram at the AHL level for future considerations, which provided depth behind Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard in goal. After back-to-back runs to the Stanley Cup Finals, there were still several questions regarding the ability of Pickard and Skinner to help them win a championship.
Bowman made some great adds later on and just before the trade deadline. Connor Murphy, Colton Dach, and Jason Dickinson will all be important players throughout the Oilers lineup. Aside from those three, Bowman was also able to move off Andrew Mangiapane and his contract. That signing simply didn’t work as well as anyone thought it would. He was able to accomplish all this and all he gave up was four draft picks, Brett Kulak, and Sam O’Reilly. While he gave up one 1st-round draft pick for the 2027 draft, it is top-12 protected, and can be deferred to the 2028 draft if Edmonton wants to trade it again.
Bowman has made some really good deals since taking over. This trade deadline, he added solid players while not taking anything off the NHL roster he couldn’t afford to lose. However, we must account for the swap of Skinner for Jarry. Instead of doing a move in the offseason, or waiting until the deadline was closer, this move came off as very desperate. Jarry only has 8 playoff games to his name, and is 2-6 in those starts. His cap hit is higher than Skinners was and he has two more years. Skinner was and remains the better of the two for this team.
Aside from needing to re-address the position again this offseason, Bowman will be a lot more limited when he does. Until this is properly handled, and the team defense improves, they will continue to fall short of their ultimate goal.
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