EDMONTON — Things We (Think We) Know. Series V, Volume I.
I’ve covered 35 years of the National Hockey League, give or take. Which means I’ve been to 35 years of exit interview press conferences, roughly speaking.
Not once — on a team I was covering or some other team that I watched from afar — have I heard the top two franchise players come out in such strong unison about the need for fundamental change the way Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid did on Saturday morning in Edmonton.
Together, they eviscerated their front office with quotes both literal and implied.
And when Draisaitl, invoking McDavid’s contract status, said, “He is signed for two more years, and God knows where that goes,” he broke the sacred covenant among hockey players of never opining on anyone else’s contract status. That’s how passionate Draisaitl was: he forgot to remain cool and say as little as possible.
This is good. They do this because they care.
Things We (Think We) Know
The passion and desperation outlined above weren’t phony. These guys are well aware that the window is closing, that the Oilers may opt to trade McDavid a year from now if he won’t re-sign, and that they all — players and management — lost the plot this past season.
That sets the 2026-27 season up as a “Last Dance” to some extent. Because there is no guarantee the ‘Nuclear Option’ will exist in Edmonton in 2027-28.
So, if you can entrust the reinvigorating of Edmonton’s dressing room to the current leadership group — and I see no reason why you would not — then the true unknown falls to the people who are paid to stock that dressing room.
And that’s where folks start getting nervous.
GM Stan Bowman made the disastrous Tristan Jarry trade, and although acquiring Jason Dickinson and Connor Murphy at the deadline was top-shelf work, let the record show the guy going the other way was Bowman’s prize signing on July 1, Andrew Mangiapane.
The eight-year deal given to Trent Frederic was every bit as poor a transaction as the Jarry trade. And who the hell signs Jake Walman for seven years, anyhow?
If Bowman bats 1.000 from here on out, we believe that Edmonton can once again be a serious Cup contender. But what are the chances that Bowman — who absolutely defines the term “hit or miss” — stops missing?
From the very top — and we’re talking owner Daryl Katz — there are heavy discussions taking place this week rooted in keeping McDavid in Edmonton. He is a revenue machine, driving ticket sales, playoff dates, apparel sales and ultimately, franchise value.
Then there’s the personal pride of having to walk through the rest of a hockey life as someone who was gifted the greatest player in the world and never turned that into a Stanley Cup.
Full disclosure: Two management teams built two rosters that were good enough to reach two Stanley Cups in Edmonton. From there, I blame the players for not finishing the job, not a bunch of guys wearing suits in the press box.
But blame means nothing. Banners mean everything.
Edmonton needs one — next season. If you thought it was “Stanley Cup or bust” in 2024, wait until you see an organization where everyone from the towel boy to the P.A. announcer has their job security based on bringing home Lord Stanley in 2027.
Things We (Think We) Know
There will exist an element of ruthlessness in Edmonton that we haven’t seen before, starting now.
If Kris Knoblauch is not deemed able to wring every bit of success out of this team, he’ll be fired. If Knoblauch bucks at the concept that his coaching staff needs retooling, same result.
If Bowman cannot present a tangible, realistic, executable plan for improving his goaltending and defensive play, he’ll be vulnerable. If a GM like Julien Brisebois suddenly became available, Bowman’s plan might not matter.
And in the dressing room, someone has to coach McDavid and Draisaitl. Not enable them — coach them.
They are open to it if anyone has the gravitas to be that coach.
“What makes Connor and I who we are is because we want to be out there in every situation,” Draisaitl said on Saturday. “(But) we know very well — we’ve been around long enough to know that we need everybody. You need your third line to get their minutes for them to feel great about themselves. We’re very aware of that.
“Connor and I are both (open to) whatever a coach wants from us. We’re willing to do it if it makes our team better. If it gives us a better chance to win, we’re open to it.”
There are about 10 true No. 1’s in the game — with surnames like Vasilevskiy and Hellebuyck — and another 10 Logan Thompsons or Lukas Dostals that are getting the job done in their markets as a No. 1. Short of a McDavid deal, Bowman can’t trade for any of them.
So, if you are destined to be a team that must win with something less than an Ilya Sorokin or Igor Shesterkin, then you’d better shore up your defensive game. This season, Edmonton played Carey Price defence in front of Mikko Koskinen goaltending.
Things We (Think We) Know
Bowman outlined Edmonton’s defensive game as a 200-foot problem, not a D-zone problem:
“There were times this year, even in the playoffs, when … we’ve got the puck in the offensive zone, and then five seconds later, we’re giving up two-on-ones. Those are things that aren’t really a defensive zone issue,” he said Saturday. “That happened in the wrong times for us this year, and it hurt us.”
Let the record show, the disparity in defensive metrics between Edmonton’s top players and other teams’ top players was stark. McDavid wins the Art Ross and he’s plus-17. Nathan MacKinnon has 11 fewer points, but he’s plus-57.
A healthy Draisaitl was on pace for roughly the same production as Nikita Kucherov. But Kucherov was plus-43, while Draisaitl was plus-13. Evan Bouchard’s game simply has to shed itself of some risk — even if it costs him some points.
It’s not good enough anymore for these superstars to keep winning scoring races and front a defensive posture like Edmonton’s.
Goaltending has been the low-hanging fruit here for too long. Bowman’s job is to figure out what he has in net, and like so many teams that won with average goalies, play a game that can win in front of them.