The Edmonton Oilers are taking an aggressive approach to this offseason, and fans are noticing. The promise of a modernization of management has been in evidence before, only to return to the ways of the past. For an organization gifted with consecutive drafts (2014, 2015) that delivered Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, not taking advantage of available analytics and other advancements led to finishing shy of winning the Stanley Cup in the years that followed.
Is an aggressive approach a sign that the team will use every tool available to a modern NHL team? With the careers of McDavid and Draisaitl over a decade in, there are signs the club is willing to do the things other organizations have long since refined into useful tools that help in winning. Is this a mirage? This summer will tell us a lot.
Two specific storylines run out of time with Edmonton’s established best practices.
Management with an edge
Oilers fans have observed other NHL teams making some tough decisions that are unpopular in the industry in order to maneuver rosters into a championship position. A famous example came in July 2021, when the Vegas Golden Knights dealt star goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to the Chicago Blackhawks in order to get out from under the final season of his $7 million contract. It was not popular at the time, with fans and in the hockey industry.
The Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup two years later in 2023. The organization continues to shock and surprise the competition with unusual transactions considered too aggressive by many other NHL managers and owners. It cannot be lost on Edmonton owner Daryl Katz that the unusual behaviour of Golden Knights management has the team back in the Stanley Cup Final this year.
The recent handling of Darnell Nurse this offseason suggests Oilers management is prepared to take that road less travelled. The well-sourced article by Mark Spector at Sportsnet contains information that left little doubt about which way the wind is blowing regarding Nurse among Edmonton’s management.
That’s a tell. It’s impossible to misinterpret the quote “there were discussions around healthy-scratching Nurse during the 2024 Final” could only have come from someone very close to the situation. The public at large had the impression at the time Nurse was not at optimal levels due to injury. The reporting at the time had Nurse sustaining an undisclosed injury in Game 2 of the Final, a game that saw the Edmonton defenceman play just three shifts over the final two periods.
It’s fairly easy to make a list of Oilers personnel who would have known Nurse’s handling was due to frustration over his performance as opposed to injury. The only conceivable reason to leak it now is to frame the player in a negative light, which is, in fact, what happened this week in Edmonton.
Why would a team do that to a veteran player? The Golden Knights built the cap era template for offloading a high-profile veteran when dealing Fleury.
Nurse doesn’t have to waive his no-trade rights and may well play another season in Edmonton before the language of his contract eases. The article, with sources and confirmation that general manager Stan Bowman is planning the offseason around a Nurse trade, serves to bring the story to the public and apply pressure to the player.
Many Oilers fans have been calling for this kind of approach for several years, and the initial reaction has been favourable among a large group of fans. Backlash may come, but the business of improving the Oilers appears to depend on sending Nurse to another NHL city.
Procurement
The second unusual sign of change came in the team’s significant shuffle in hockey operations announced at the end of May. The major moves included a higher profile for Michael Parkatti, known in the analytics community for innovative ideas, and an elevated role for Kalle Larsson, regarded as a rising star in management. An increased presence in European scouting and procurement is also evident.
The Oilers have already shown signs of being more aggressive in Europe and college recruiting. Last season, Josh Samanski (DEL, Germany’s top league), David Tomasek (Sweden’s SweHL, one of the top European leagues) and Quinn Hutson (Boston University) all made appearances in the NHL with Edmonton. Samanski and Hutson are two of the team’s best prospects, with Damien Carfagna (Ohio State) having delivered a strong season with the AHL Bakersfield Condors. The procurement in Europe and college hockey is showing real signs of promise, important for a team that trades away most of its top draft choices.
This spring, Bowman has continued the trend, signing defenceman Tomas Cibulka (Czech league), centre Owen Michaels (Western Michigan) and winger Aku Raty (Liiga, Finland’s top league) as this year’s recruits. Based on verbal from the hockey industry, Michaels is the best NHL prospect in the group.
Parkatti’s analytics team would be part of that process, and no doubt contributed to what is shaping up as an impressive 2025 draft haul. Despite sitting out much of the draft, Edmonton found value in the third (Tommy Lafreniere), fourth (David Lewandowski) and fifth rounds (Asher Barnett).
It’s important to note that none of the players mentioned are destined to emerge as NHL impact players, but Samanski, as an example, has already shown enough to project into a depth role with the Oilers. This is a significant advancement for the organization.
Bottom line
The procurement in college and European leagues has been in overdrive since Bowman arrived. The players being signed are young with real potential, suggesting the Oilers are being aggressive in areas the organization appeared to be bullied out of at times over the last decade. The college procurement, as an example, more closely resembles the Peter Chiarelli era in Edmonton. The Oilers signed some actual NHL talent (Drake Caggiula, Matt Benning) out of college during that time.
In regard to the Nurse situation, it represents a major shift in strategy for the Oilers. In previous management incarnations, publicly criticizing players tended to be milder and tacked on to media avails or season seat holder events. This is far more than “if you have to ask the question” or “there’s something in the water,” and there is a reason for the approach.
Impatient Oilers fans are reacting (mostly) positively to the new management wrinkle, but many want more. The question now surrounds Bowman. Can a general manager who has relied on his own opinion (and had enough success to win Stanley Cups doing it his way) give real weight to what analytics is telling him about his team?
The handling of the Nurse dilemma this offseason suggests the answer could be yes.