Oilers GM Stan Bowman focusing on ‘full picture’ ahead of trade deadline

TAMPA BAY — Are the Edmonton Oilers a worse team today than they were 12 months ago?

Can a team that needs one more win come June look itself in the mirror today and say, “We’re good enough to make it through four rounds again this spring, the way we are currently constructed?”

Well, let’s dig in on that a bit, shall we?

Edmonton’s record is almost identical through 57 games this year (34-19-4) compared to last year (35-20-2), and the Oilers are two points out of the Pacific lead this year compared to 11 points back a year ago. There is still a trade deadline to come, and the possibility of Evander Kane re-joining the team at some point.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is, it appears that CEO Jeff Jackson shot blanks on July 1 when he spent $7 million on ageing wingers Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson, only to watch the St. Louis Blues offer sheet Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg in response.

That “trade” is looking worse and worse, as neither Skinner (11-10-21) nor Arvidsson (7-12-19) are outperforming soon-to-be 40-year-old Corey Perry (12-8-20), who has more goals than both while playing almost exclusively on the fourth line this season.

They dearly miss the speed of Holloway and Ryan McLeod, while it appears that the best years are behind Arvidsson and Skinner. Neither have shown to be top-six forwards on a contending team, and both seed fears that they will be even less impactful as the rigours of playoff hockey expose their shared lack of size and ability to compete for pucks — and in Skinner’s case, a genuine lack of foot speed.

Then there are Stuart Skinner and Evan Bouchard — two lynchpins to any Oilers’ success — who have both slightly regressed. Neither’s numbers from this year equal last season’s.

The Bouchard-Skinner question is a legitimate query and one that general manager Stan Bowman likely wishes he did not have to field, his team on a three-game losing skid and playing quite likely its worst hockey of the 2024-25 season.

But he spoke with Sportsnet on a rainy Monday in Tampa, a GM whose team lost 6-3 and 7-3 over the weekend who is trying to keep his focus big-picture.

“They are important players for sure. But so are Connor and Leon, and Nurse and Ekholm. There are a lot of important players,” said Bowman Monday in Tampa.

“Yeah, I’m worried about everything,” he admitted. “I mean, part of the job is to be concerned about having not only the right group of players, but also having them perform to their fullest. To be on top of their game. Most of our guys have had good seasons, but not everybody. So there is room for improvement.”

On defence, Darnell Nurse is having a better season than a year ago, while Ty Emberson has been fine as a third-pairing guy. We will hold our opinion on whether or not John Klingberg can hack it as a top-four defenceman at this level. He has only played seven games, with a two-week break between Games 5 and 6.

But Bouchard is not the player he was last season, for whatever reason.

The prodigal righty has the ability to raise the tide all by himself. That’s how good he can be.

So when Bouchard under-performs there is a deficit between where a team’s defensive game is and where it could be. And in Bouchard’s case, his mistakes can really sting because he has games where has to create two goals all by himself to even out the two he was responsible for in his own end.

Meanwhile, in goal, Skinner’s regular season numbers have gone from a save percentage of .905 and goals against average of 2.62 last season, to .898 and 2.81 this year.

We can have the conversation about defensive structure in front of him, but the numbers are the numbers and Skinner has to own them. They, too, are a net negative from a season ago.

Bowman would not rule out exploring the goaltending market prior to the March 7 trade deadline, but when asked about his level of concern he sounded very much like a guy who collected Stanley Cup rings with Chicago teams playing in front of guys named Antti Niemi and Corey Crawford.

Good goalies, but not great ones.

“There tends to be a lot of noise around the goaltending position, league-wide,” Bowman said. “Because when the puck goes in, it’s like, either that was a good goal or a bad goal.

“I just think there’s a lot of attention given to that. I’m not sure it’s the most productive conversation all the time.”

Bowman’s bottom six can look old, slow and small at times — Connor Brown didn’t take the leap they’d hoped he would  — another area of concern for a team with Cup aspirations.

And Bowman will only be able to scratch so many itches at the trade deadline. Some of what he has is simply going to have to step up its game.

“Nobody played well enough last weekend. They’ve all got to play better,” he said. “But for a large sample size this season we’ve been a pretty good team — and not because of one or two players.”

He would not tip his hand on deadline targets. This far ahead of the March 7 deadline, it’s still unknown exactly who might be available.

“We’re just putting our heads down, readying ourselves for a lot of different scenarios. Whether it’s adding a forward, adding a center or winger with some size, speed with grit. A left defenceman, a righty defenceman…,” Bowman said.

“I tend to try to take the full picture into play and not be too focused on the noise of the last couple games.”

That is probably wise.

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