Stan Bowman drops a surprising take on the Edmonton Oilers defence

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Patrick Frost
November 25, 2024 (8:17 PM)

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Edmonton Oilers general manager Stan Bowman recently did an interview with Mark Spector, making surprising comments about the Oilers defensive performance this season.

It's no secret by now that the Edmonton Oilers didn't get off to the start fans had hoped for, but things seem to be slowly getting back on track.

With that being said, Stan Bowman highlighted his personal feelings towards the Oilers season so far. He admits he's not overly impressed with the team's offensive performance, but has no problem with the Oilers defence through 22 games.

»Maybe on paper (the D-corps) doesn't look great, but when you look at actually the way they perform they've done a pretty good job I think our D has been fine.»
- Stan Bowman

Bowman then quickly spun the conversation around, calling out Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jeff Skinner, and Viktor Arvidsson for their underwhelming start.

»It's weird. We've got such poor production from those players, and if you look at the numbers under the numbers (the analytics), we're doing a lot of good things. We should be scoring a lot more goals.»
- Stan Bowman

According to Liam McCormick of Oilers Daily, What's most telling about this interview is the lack of quotes given about the Oilers goaltending situation, which is arguably the biggest factor by far in the team's struggles this year.

Stuart Skinner had a great bounce back effort against the New York Rangers on Saturday night, but his problem this season has been consistency. Coach Knoblauch even called out Skinner directly for his inability to string together two quality starts
-Liam McCormick, Oilers Daily

There have been rumblings of the Oilers shopping around for a right-hand shot shut-down defenceman, but the emergence of Brett Kulak has potentially changed Bowman course of action.

Now that the Oilers situation on the back-end has taken a positive turn, analysts seem to think that Stan Bowman should turn his attention to securing a back-up goaltender, or a left-hand shot defenceman on the 3rd pairing.

Regardless, GM Stan Bowman admits the Oilers have more to show offensively, but the overall defensive structure remains a non-issue -- for now.