{"id":737890,"date":"2026-06-15T08:29:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T08:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/737890\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T08:29:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T08:29:51","slug":"dont-let-all-the-noise-surrounding-the-edmonton-oilers-fool-you-9-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/737890\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t let all the “noise” surrounding the Edmonton Oilers fool you: 9 Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is there more panic on the outside of the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> looking in than the other way around.<\/p>\n

Despite what you may read or hear, there is ample evidence to say\u2026yes.<\/p>\n

That and more in this edition of\u2026<\/p>\n

9 Things<\/p>\n

9. Fun to spot Connor McDavid<\/a> among the crowd at the World Cup game in Toronto. A reminder that athletes at his level are often multi-sport enthusiasts and fans just like us. It was also good to see him smiling and having fun, after a trying season.<\/p>\n

8. Connor McDavid<\/a> narrowly came second to Nikita Kucherov in the Hart Trophy voting. The gap was a mere 10 points. While I wanted Connor to win, I felt there were three or four players completely deserving and I might have been o.k. with any of them, Kucherov included.<\/p>\n

7. We will talk about Darnell Nurse in a minute. For the purposes of this paragraph, if Nurse is dealt by July 1 and not for another defender, does Stan Bowman re-look at Stony Plain\u2019s Brett Kulak. Kulak has earned a substantial raise, especially in this year\u2019s UFA field. Would he play ahead of Mattias Ekholm or Jake Walman? Or would a Nick Seeler-like player be a more affordable option.<\/p>\n

6. It is my understanding that the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> are trying to return both UFA\u2019s that they acquired at the NHL trade deadline. I see Defender Connor Murphy as perfect fit as Edmonton is likely to find on their right-hand side. And a healthy Jason Dickinson over 82 games would be a solidifying presence in terms of team defence. Neither will be especially cheap, and term will be a concern.<\/p>\n

5. A name of interest that often surfaced in-season as a possibility for the Oilers to acquire has re-surfaced: Alex Tuch. There is no doubt that if he can stay healthy Tuch is a Top six NHL power forward. But he is also 30 and will easily get a substantial raise over the $4.75m AAV he was making in Buffalo. What term he will demand in a thin group of quality UFA\u2019s will be a huge factor.<\/p>\n

4. I reported earlier this week on the Darnell Nurse situation. I believe that, while the club has been actively thinking about Nurse\u2019s future here in Edmonton, it was ultimately the player who proactively brought this to a head. Like you, I heard there was somewhere between three and five destinations on the list Nurse would be willing to waive for. And I think there are additional clubs that would also like to get some of that action. Don\u2019t know if the Nurse camp is interested.<\/p>\n

3. It is often completely fascinating to watch how media and a club\u2019s fans react to these stories (Nurse). Sometimes, those folks will volunteer to lead the parade out of town. Other times, the presiding sentiment is \u201che wasn\u2019t so bad, you know\u201d. And others still work pretty hard at \u201crehabilitating the asset\u201d, shall we say? My take: Over the course of his time in Edmonton, Darnell Nurse averaged out to being a second-pairing D-man making first-pairing dough. Period.<\/p>\n

2. I listened to Elliotte Friedman\u2019s new Thursday edition of 32 Thoughts this week. Elliotte has real credibility. I trust what he has to say, so the words he offered on the Edmonton coaching situation landed with weight. To paraphrase, it sounds as if the NHL will indeed investigate the Mike Babcock situation vis-\u00e0-vis his exit from Columbus. But that Gary Bettman holds a lot of cards in this instance, and that the league is of a mind to move this along expeditiously. Saturday, Chris Johnston at The Athletic conveyed a belief from the league that Babcock is \u201cgoing to be able to work\u201d. All this is good for Edmonton either way, frankly. That this situation has been left hanging out there to some extent is good for neither club nor league.<\/p>\n

1.There is one narrative out there that the Edmonton situation overall right now is a bit of a circus. On one hand, I will not pretend that anything Oilers over the past twelve months has gone especially smooth. I do not work for the team. I have no incentive to suggest otherwise. However, I do think that some of the authors of that narrative are those who would like nothing better than for the Oilers to fail in a spectacular fashion. I would avoid those bad actors like the plague. And further, I believe the relative uncertainly of the Connor McDavid contract and the general stress level of the fanbase (which I have compassion for) has built all of this up to be bigger than it is. Why?<\/p>\n

Stan Bowman is a veteran General Manager. You may choose to be critical of some of his decisions and that is fair. But I refuse to believe there is panic in his operating model. Not only has Bowman been through this before and seen most everything. His Hall of Fame father has that times two or three and would be a steady voice and influence as well.<\/p>\n

Is there a lot of pressure in Edmonton? Absolutely. And is there an owner in Mr. Katz that adds a level of urgency? Of course. But the Chicago market and the Wirtz family was not exactly a day at the country club, either.<\/p>\n

I am of the mind that in any organization, it is difficult to accurately judge a G.M.\u2019s success or failure until they have completed the task. There are lots of Stanley Cup winning managers with bad trades on their resume.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, it\u2019s whether the big hockey prize shows up at the top of that document. The rest of it quickly becomes collateral damage.<\/p>\n

This article is not AI generated.<\/p>\n

\"Leavins<\/a><\/p>\n

Leavins Cult of Hockey<\/p>\n

Recently, at The Cult\u2026<\/p>\n

STAPLES: Does this Edmonton Oilers D-man play too hard for his own good?<\/a><\/p>\n

LEAVINS: Oilers like what they see from this pivot\u2019s defensive game<\/a><\/p>\n

Bruce McCurdy, 1955-2025.<\/p>\n

Do not miss the news you need to know \u2014 add EdmontonJournal.com<\/a>\u00a0and EdmontonSun.com<\/a>\u00a0to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is there more panic on the outside of the Edmonton Oilers looking in than the other way around.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[37648,23986,49,48,12428,164392,29972,93273,23752,453,26795,9634,100816,23988,448,34148,28334,3302],"class_list":["post-737890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-alex-tuch","tag-brett-kulak","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-connor-mcdavid","tag-connor-murphy","tag-darnell-nurse","tag-david-bloom","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-oilers","tag-executive-vice-president","tag-jake-walman","tag-jason-dickinson","tag-mattias-ekholm","tag-nhl","tag-nikita-kucherov","tag-stan-bowman","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}