‘It’s my job to connect with Connor’: Oilers GM ready and waiting to work with McDavid on new deal

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Oilers GM Stan Bowman says he’s looking at making changes in goal and at forward with the Edmonton Oilers, but he’s not looking at major change, given the success of the Stanley Cup Final team.

Said Bowman at his season-end press conference today: “Sitting here today with the way it ended, it certainly feels like a disappointment. And I think it’s hard to in the moment, to reflect upon how great a seasoning was. I think over time, you get some perspective on that. And I know from experience that emotions of the moment right now are are challenging, But I’ll try to do my best to explain, you know, the fact that this was a great season. We fell short, but we did a lot of great things we you know, there’s 30 other teams that would would trade with where we were… At the end of the day, Florida, you know, played better than we did in the Final, and they deserved it.

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“Leading up to that point, I think we played some very impressive hockey. And if you start from like Game 3 of the L.A. series, once we got going all the way through the Final, we played really, really well, and we made it. You know, I think we did to those other teams what Florida did to us, which is they they look like they couldn’t get to their game, like we just really were able to win a lot of different ways. It wasn’t just one style that we were winning with. Sometimes it was the goaltending, sometimes it was the forwards, sometimes it was how great our D was transitioning the puck. Sometimes it was our big guys found a way to score overtime goal to win the game for us.

“We left those teams LA, Dallas and Vegas scratching their heads, like, ‘What happened? And that’s kind of what happened to us… We didn’t play our best in the Final. Florida was excellent. I think you have to give them credit. They played really well.”

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Here are some highlights from the rest of the press conference:

Question: Obviously, July 1, the clock starts ticking on Connor McDavid to resign. Can you just give us a thought on that, and obviously, the importance of getting him signed, and where kind of, how do you kind of view that?

Bowman: Well, Connor’s the best player in the league, most important player in the league. He’s our captain. He’s our leader. So certainly he’s the number one priority. I think, also listening to Connor’s take on things, like, he’s earned the right for us to be respectful of his timing. Certainly we’re eager to meet with him whenever he wants, but also understanding that he just went through a very tough ending to the season, and so timing wise, Connor is going to drive that (negotiating) process… I’ve been just so impressed with how things you guys probably don’t see, but what kind of a teammate he is and and he’s incredibly important to our group, and whenever he’s ready, we’re going to dive into that.

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Connor is all about winning. I mean, from the first time I met him and talked to him, he talked about he wants to win, just wants to win the Cup. That’s all he cares about. He’s not driven by statistics or points or records or money. I think that’s what you love about them. So the objective is to demonstrate we have the same goal. And from that perspective, like everyone here, that’s why we do it. That’s why I’m working and that’s why (coach) Kris (Knoblauch) is doing this… I’ve been fortunate, very fortunate, to be able to win (three Stanley Cups as GM in Chicago). And there’s no feeling like that when you when everything comes together as a group, you know, and you achieve the ultimate accomplishment. That’s why we do this. And it’s my job, to connect with Connor that way and demonstrate that that’s what we’re all trying to do.

Question: You’re obviously going to make changes. How do you approach that? Do you see an area that it’s the most pressing that you need to change?

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Bowman: We’re not going to bring the same group back. How many is tough to say right now. Like, that’s where the work begins, really, yesterday, when we met with all of our players, and I also had several conversations with other GMs. I’ve had some again this morning already. That work will play out over the next ten days to find out what other teams are looking to do, what players we want to change out. I think looking at our team, the area with probably the least amount of change will be the defence. I think that we have guys under contract. They played very well. I really like the way our defence played this season. I think they did a good job. They grew as the season went on. I thought they were really important to where we were getting to the Final so I think probably won’t be big changes there.

I think up up front, we need some some different players… And we’re going to look at everything because I think now is the time when you have to look at your forwards and your goalies and see how can we get better? And sometimes it’s just an incremental difference where I wouldn’t expect wholesale changes. We’re not going to have nine or ten new players, but I do think we are going to have some changes. So we’ll have to look at, probably more likely, the forwards and the goalies are the ones we’re going to evaluate the most deeply.

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Question:  Connor McDavid said yesterday that he’d have no problem signing here if he sees that there’s a window to contend and to try to win over and over again. With that in mind, how do you view this off-season that you kind of see it as a really important couple of weeks here to really show a blueprint print to Connor for the future success?

Bowman:  Yeah, I think the whole goal is to always find a way to improve your team and also sustain the good aspects of this past season … There’s a lot of things to be excited about. And with the exception of maybe one or two guys, everyone is in their prime of their ages, like they’re not in their late 30s. I mean, Corey Perry is the oldest guy. He had a fantastic season. But other than Corey, we don’t have a team that can’t be just as good the next few years. So I think that bodes well for us. And then adding to it, is important. Want to try to bring some youth into our team as well…. We’re going to do our best to give opportunities to players, but you know, for where we are, it’s not like we’re going to put a bunch of inexperienced guys in the lineup, because our objective is to win next year. We’re not trying to take a different route. We want to be playing in the Final next year.

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Question: We had Trent Frederick here yesterday. What can you tell us, about where negotiations are with him?

Bowman: Yeah, I don’t have anything to announce on Trent, but, you know, we’re hopeful we can get something to the finish line there, and to keep him in Edmonton…. He’s incredibly competitive, great teammate, great team guy. He brings an element that I think you need, which is very competitive. He’s fearless. He gives other team to know that nobody’s going to push us around… He’s really impressive to have someone with his skill set that can play three different positions… He’s a young guy. He’s a free agent. Usually they’re a little bit older than that, so he’s got kind of the prime years of his career ahead of him… For a guy with his skill set, he’s a pretty unique player on the league. There’s not a lot of guys that have that combination of his age, his experience, his competitiveness, size, physicality, and I think when you add it all up, he could bring a lot to the team.

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Question: How aggressive are you going to be potentially making a goaltending change this summer?

Bowman:  I don’t want to single the goaltending out. I think it’s it’s just something that we’re going to look at and investigate what, what’s the best path moving forward for our team, and it’s really hard to predict where that’s going to go.

Question: Do you need to address your goaltending to show your team, your players, more than anyone, that you are trying to do something about the fact that you were the second best goaltending club in both Finals?

Bowman: Yeah, I was kind of expecting that question. I think goaltending is a strange part of a game. It’s on the one hand, it’s kind of simultaneously the most important thing, but also it’s the hardest thing to really understand, because sometimes the goaltenders who you think are the best, aren’t the best. And I think just this playoff run is a perfect example. Like in the four rounds, in three of the four rounds, we had the better goaltending than our opponent, and we, you know, you look at (Darcy) Kuemper, Adin Hill and (Jake) Oettinger. Our goalies were better than them in each of those series. And I think that’s the reason we went to the Final. And then the Final it flipped. So three of the four rounds we had the better goaltending…. So I can’t explain that. It’s hard to explain how that happened, or why it happened, and I’m not disputing that. In the final, Bobrovsky was excellent. He was he made a lot of big saves when we had chances early in games and we didn’t get the lead. And credit to him, or, you know, our players needed to pick the corners better, like it’s one of the two, right? And I can’t really explain how in the first three rounds, not that either, their goaltending was elite, but ours was always better than our opponent, which I think is strange. You wouldn’t think that, if you just were to talk to the casual fan, but you just got to look at the way the series played out. So it’s a fair question. I don’t have an answer for you right now. I mean, we’re going to examine not just our goalies, but our whole team, and see if there’s a way to be better prepared next season.

At the Cult of Hockey

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