TALKING POINTS: Bowman speaks at Oilers Training Camp

Oilers General Manager & Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Stan Bowman held a media availability from the Hall of Fame Room inside Rogers Place on Wednesday as the team opened its 2023 Training Camp with fitness testing and medicals.

The executive discussed the injury status of Evander Kane, the battle on the right side of defence, the expansion of his Player Development staff and more ahead of the first on-ice sessions of Oilers Training Camp on Thursday morning.

Read the full transcript and watch Bowman's entire media availability below:

Bowman on the Oilers signing veteran forward Mike Hoffman to a Professional Tryout on Wednesday morning:

“He's a veteran player. Obviously, he's had a great career so far and we think he'd be a nice addition to Camp. It's a competitive environment and he's a veteran. He's been a pretty consistent offensive player throughout his career, so we're going to take a look at him and see how he fits in with our mix.

"But it’s not [about] just him. I think we're looking for all of our guys to take a step forward here and show us what they can do and there’s a lot of optimism for our group. But it's always good to have some competition as well.”

Bowman on discussions with Evan Bouchard on a contract extension:

“Nothing on that yet and we might get to that as well, but think we were focused on Leon. Obviously, with him being a pending unrestricted free agent, that was a top priority. Bouchard's in a little bit of a different situation. He's still a very big priority for our team. He had a fantastic season. He's a great player and I think his best years are still ahead of him. So we'll definitely get to that at some point.”

Bowman provides an update on the status of Evander Kane heading into Training Camp:

“Yeah, Evander is going to have surgery. We'll announce that he's going to have it and it’s going to be soon, so he's going to not be available for Training Camp and the beginning of the season. So I don't really want to speak on the medical part. We'll get our doctors to comment on that, but he is going to be having surgery."

Bowman on the status of Darnell Nurse heading into Training Camp:

“Yeah, I do [expect him to be ready later in Camp]. I think if anything, we want to be cautious. He's a very important player for us. He plays a lot of minutes and Training Camp is important, but clearly, being ready for the season is the most important thing. So I think we'll take that as we go as far as when he'll be ready for full contact or participation.

Bowman provides a scouting report on off-season addition Vasily Podkolzin:

“I think getting him in here with our team, sometimes a fresh start is great for players like that. I've seen that over my time. He's certainly a high-profile player. He came in with high expectations and when that doesn't always match right away, there can be a challenge as far as the outlook, but I think we're looking at it as an optimistic situation. He's clearly got a lot of talent. There are a lot of things I like about his game. I think he brings the element of physicality, which is something that I think is important, and I think he can score. He's got a great shot."

"I think those are elements that he has, which will help him find a role on our team. But the thing I liked the most when we watched and we studied him was his willingness to be an aggressive player. He's a big body, he can skate. He's certainly got skill, but I think he brings maybe the power side of his game, which is something that we're looking for. We have a lot of skill on our team and that's great. You have to be able to score and you want to make plays. So he's got the skill side, but I think with his physicality, he's going to hopefully find a role for us.”

Bowman on the expected timeline of Evander Kane’s recovery from surgery:

“I don't [have a timeline]. I mean, he's going to be out for a while. I just don't want to speculate on that. I think our doctors will be able to give you a better handle on that, but he's not going to be here for a while.”

Bowman on the battle expected at Training Camp between right-side defenceman:

“Yeah, I think we have a few players to mention. Obviously, Troy Stecher was here last year, but he got injured. He didn't get a chance to play very much. And then, we've got Josh Brown and Ty Emberson, so those three righties are probably going to show us what they can do in Training Camp and we’ll see where they fit on our team.

"I would expect all of them to play a role for us this year. It's really over the next couple of weeks we'll see who fits where and which one is going to play a bigger role. But I would expect all of them to be a factor for us this year. They bring different elements to their game. Emberson's younger than the other two. The other two are more experienced players and obviously, Brown’s a big guy and he's physical and strong. Stetcher – even though he's a smaller guy – plays bigger. He's a competitive defenceman with a combination of skills, so I think one of the things I'm excited to see is how that unfolds over the next couple weeks here. But we have to sort that part of our game out. That is obviously one thing that's not settled yet and that's why we have camp and exhibition games to try to figure out who's going to play where.”

Bowman on the expectations of Emberson who has only played 30 career NHL games:

“Well, at the NHL level, his experience is limited. But I think the nice part about his background is that he has experience with Kris [Knoblauch] in Hartford. So there's a familiarity with our head coach, and I've watched a lot of his games and a lot of his video not just when he was in San Jose, but even prior to that I liked what I saw. I'm familiar with him just going back to his draft year. He was a player that we had followed closely at the US program and at Wisconsin, so he's a player I feel I'm comfortable watching and knowing what kind of things he brings to the table.

"But you're right, he doesn't have a big sample of NHL games. That's probably more due to opportunity than it is necessarily his ability. We want to give him the chance to show what he can do. I think familiarity with Kris Knoblauch is going to be important. He's got the advantage of being somebody he's coached before. He knows how he operates, how to motivate him best and how to utilize him best, so that's a benefit coming into the season."

Bowman on still being active in Free Agency despite the start of Training Camp on Wednesday:

“Well, the cap is always a big factor in our decisions. We are under the cap right now and we want to remain that way. Our goal is to try to accrue cap space so that we have the flexibility in-season to be able to make an addition. So there's a lot that happens in the next three to four weeks with waivers, with players that are currently unsigned. As well as around the league, there are going to be teams where players emerge in the next couple of weeks and look like they're better than teams expected, which makes other players available.

"Part of our job in the next month is to evaluate the options that we have, both internal and external, and it's an ongoing process. So I guess it’s hard to make a game plan when we’re in that process. We want to give the players who are here and signed a chance to show us what they can do. But I wouldn't be doing my job if I wasn't looking around to see if there are other players that could make our team better. So we know that's an area we need to focus on over the next few weeks heading into the regular season. We'll just see how it all plays out."

Bowman on adding more bodies to his Player Development department since taking the position as Oilers GM in late July:

“Yeah, I think Player Development is something that is of the utmost importance to us, both in the short term and in the long term.

"I think it does take some time before you can see the fruits of that labour because when you draft a player and they're part of your organization, oftentimes they're not going to actually help your NHL team for two, three or four years. But the Player Development people come in and they start working with the player from the day they're drafted. The whole reason you do that is you want to try to accelerate that progression, so instead of the player taking three years to make it, we get them there in two years or a year-and-a-half and they're actually ready to be an NHL player.

"Each player's timeline is a little bit different, but I think it takes focus and we had our full group in Penticton to get to know these players. And the way I like to explain it for our prospects is they all have coaches everywhere they are, whether they're in Bakersfield or they're in college or junior or they're in Europe, so they've got their coaches that are trying to help them improve our Player Development. Coaches are the personal coaches for those players because from my experience, and this is a bit counterintuitive, but often with these junior teams or college teams, the best players sometimes get the least amount of attention because the coaching staffs on those organizations are sometimes limited and they're focused on the bottom out of the lineup to try to get those players to be good enough to compete. And sometimes, the best players don't get as much coaching as you would like.

"That's where we come in. We have our Player Development coaches and they're like a personal coach, so they'll watch every shift of every game and they'll be there to watch them in person. And when they're not in person, they're watching video, they're talking to them weekly, they’re establishing that relationship and that connection so that by the time they eventually make it to pro hockey, whether that's in Bakersfield or here in Edmonton, they're going to have that close confidant and they're going to know the areas of their game that aren't up to the NHL standard yet. Then it's our job to help them.

"Sometimes it's technical skills, but often times it's other things like confidence. It's how to recover when you're struggling; if you're not in the lineup; if your role's not what you want it to be; teaching them how they go and meet with their coaches and have relationships with them. The conversations might be tough, but they need to be coached in all that. Nobody has really taught those players how to do it – how to be pros – and we're trying to do that from the time they're drafted. And eventually, we think it's going to pay off."

Bowman on Evander Kane not having surgery as Training Camp begins:

“I think the goal there was to determine the best path forward with his injury. And sometimes when players are injured, there's often times a couple of different ways that you can proceed. You can get a diagnosis and sometimes it can be rehab, sometimes it's definite surgery and sometimes surgery is an option, but you might want to try to rehab it before because I think at the end of the day, nobody really wants to have surgery. There are always complications that can come from that and Evander would probably be better situated to speak about that.

"But the way we always handle it with our players is that at the end of the day, it's their body and it's their decision to make. They can listen to the recommendations of doctors, but they have to get to the point where in their mind, ‘this is definitely what I want to do.’ And it was recently that we reached that point with Evander, and he can probably explain his thought process on that."

Bowman on the versatility of defenceman Travis Dermott playing both sides and how it plays into his role at Training Camp:

“Yeah, I think Travis has some flexibility with his game. He's a versatile player. He's another guy we haven't talked about when the name came up on right defence, but he does have the ability to play both sides. So he's another guy that we're going to be focusing on here in Training Camp to see how he stacks up to the other players.

"He's been a pro for a while, so he's got quite a bit of experience under his belt and I think we want to see a few of those players take a step forward and emerge to show us that they definitely should be the guy."

Bowman on Evander Kane going on either Injured Reserve or Long-Term Injured Reserve:

“We don't need to use LTIR right now. He'll be on the regular roster as we get into the season. If we run into a number of injuries that are shorter term in nature and then we need to bring bodies up, then we have the flexibility to put him on LTIR. But part of the reason we made the moves we did over the summer was so that we would not be required to start the season with LTIR and that hasn't changed.

Bowman on the departure of Brad Holland this week from the Hockey Operations staff and the next steps:

“We haven't decided what we're going to do. Obviously, that's something that just came along really recently here. So we certainly wish Brad the best. I have a great relationship with him. I think he's a really bright guy and wish him well in where he lands next. But that's part of our business is change, whether it's on the ice or whether it's in the front office, it's constantly evolving what we're going to do to fill that void. We haven't determined that yet. That's something we're going to talk about in the next few weeks here and come up with a game plan. But Brad's a great man and I wish him the best.”