The Edmonton Oilers made some intriguing moves this offseason. However, one of the more talked-about moves involved veteran forward Trent Frederic. Frederic, acquired at the NHL Trade Deadline from the Boston Bruins, signed an eight-year contract extension this summer. Despite public discourse, general manager Stan Bowman is not backing down from his decision.
Bowman appeared on the 100% Hockey Podcast to discuss various topics. At one point, the Frederic contract came up in the discussion. The Oilers general manager did not show any regret for the deal. And he explained why he was comfortable giving Frederic this sort of term.
“He’s a very unique player with the skillset that he has. He’s a big guy, he’s a physical player, he’s not afraid, he’s got that intimidation factor where he’ll go to the other team’s bench and challenge anybody, like stop messing around with our group. That’s something that I find, you either have that or you don’t. It’s really hard to bluff your way through that,” Bowman said, via Postmedia reporter David Staples.
Oilers’ Stan Bowman believes Trent Frederic compliments other moves
Perry Nelson-Imagn Images
Bowman touched on a few other reasons why Frederic was given this deal. His character and scoring ability were among the main reasons. However, there was another intriguing factor that came into play. Bowman felt Frederic complimented some of the other moves made.
The Oilers are expected a few smaller, younger forwards to break camp in the fall. Matt Savoie hopes to make the team after being traded to the Oilers last summer. And Edmonton swung a trade for youngster Isaac Howard in a deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Bowman wanted a forward with size and physicality to go along with these two prospects.
“I knew we were gonna have a couple smaller guys that I wanted someone with some physicality and some size. And so when you add that all up, I think, you know, he’s someone that is gonna be an important player and we’re gonna be happy to have him with our group for years to come,” the Edmonton general manager said, via Staples.
The Oilers open their 2025-26 regular season schedule on October 9th against their Albertan rival Calgary Flames.