If The Edmonton Oilers G.M. is going to hit a home run, he has to be willing to take a swing: 9 Things

When you are a winning team, and have been for a while, you generally have fewer assets with which to build going forward.

After all, a winning NHL team like the Oilers spends younger assets and picks to firm up softer roster spots.

As those assets become scarcer it is tougher for a General Manager to have a high batting average.

But that does not mean he should not swing.

That and more in this edition of…

9 Things

9. The Edmonton Oilers have yet to win three consecutive games this season. Unless they figure that out, it will be difficult to put enough points on the board to win their division.

8. I wrote in my Boxing Day article that the Oilers can look after themselves o.k.. But they are not well-equipped to impose their physical will on an opponent. A guy like Connor Clattenburg is no Evander Kane. But Clattenburg does provide more of that than any other forward right now.

7. There were two older players new to the NHL that the Edmonton Oilers took a flier on this past summer. And it was not a red-letter weekend for either of them. Atro Leppanen scored for Bakersfield on Saturday but then left the Condors game with an injury. More on the other guy in minute…

6. Wednesday the Canadian Olympics roster will be unveiled. We already know that Connor McDavid is on the team. But will there be other Oilers? With his goal and assist on Saturday Evan Bouchard is now third in NHL scoring by defencemen. How does he not qualify to at least be one of your eight?

5. Alec Regula had another nasty turnover against Calgary which resulted in a goal against. My Cult of Hockey colleague David Staples quite rightly points out that Regula is playing second pairing minutes. He is probably a different, steadier guy on the third pairing, an opportunity I expect he will get once Jake Walman returns. That cannot happen too soon, for the sake of the club and Regula’s confidence.

4. I get that your best players are your best players and that they were fresh coming off the Christmas break. But Kris Knoblauch will run into some trouble if he cannot trust his bottom six more. That issue was acutely obvious in Saturday’s setback. What exactly is Trent Frederic supposed to do in 7:15? Max Jones in just 7:36. Mattias Janmark in a mere 8:46. Andrew Mangiapane barely broke 10:00 of TOI, Adam Henrique 11:00-ish.

3. Connor McDavid’s goal on Saturday extended his points streak to 32 in 12 games. McDavid added 7 shots against Calgary and 13 Grade “A” chances (according to the Cult of Hockey’s running count). As impossible as it would seem, I think a case can be made that #97 is playing his very best hockey right now. And the apparent reluctance from McDavid to shoot that we saw earlier in the year is now gone and thank goodness for that. The Oilers have a few things to worry about right now. But Connor is not one of them.

2. Connor Ingram gave his team a chance to win again on Saturday. While he earned Wins in his previous two starts, I felt he had to be (and was) better in his third effort despite the loss. Ingram has not stood on his head but has been more than good enough to be 3-0 at this juncture. If this continues then it would be a massive win for Stan Bowman, to in essence acquired a 2A for next to nothing (that oft-dealt asset ‘future considerations’). At the very least, it buys Tristan Jarry time to properly rehabilitate from injury. In the meantime, you cannot forget Calvin Pickard. You will probably need him, too.

1.Later this (Sunday) afternoon, it is expected that David Tomasek will pass through waivers unclaimed and thus see his contract with the Edmonton Oilers terminated. The veteran started strong in pre-season. But as the regular season wore on the league sped up as it always does. And Tomasek did not have an extra gear. He simply did and does not not have the boots to be an NHL center, at least not on an elite-level club like the Oilers. And one assumes Tomasek did not want to come over to North America to toil with a bottom-feeder. So, back to the Swedish Elite League he will go. Some have proclaimed that this Stan Bowman experiment has been a failure. True enough, Tomasek did not ultimately stick. But he was a free player from an excellent league and as it turned out, extricating themselves from his contract when he ultimately could not crack the lineup proved easy and free.

Further: If David Tomasek was not to be an NHL center in Edmonton, then by keeping him on the Oilers as a winger would have merely been blocking the likes of Matt Savoie, Ike Howard and Quinn Hutson, all of whom move much better and likely have many more productive years ahead of them.

Faced with managing a roster that has had long, back-to-back playoffs runs and a shortage of draft picks, Stan Bowman must find useful organizational players by alternate means. It is the price of success. And they will not always work.

So, my final assessment of Bowman’s effort with David Tomasek?

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained”.

This article is not AI generated.

Recently, at The Cult…

STAPLES: Edmonton Oilers with bad-luck loss to hard-working Calgary Flames

LEAVINS: Stan Bowman’s Boxing Day bargain hunting

Bruce McCurdy, 1955-2025.

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