Edmonton Oilers general manager Stan Bowman admitted that he is partly to blame for the team’s downfall this season.
The Oilers fired head coach Kris Knoblauch and assistant coach Mark Stuart on Thursday after a failed season where the team was bounced in the first round of the playoffs by the Anaheim Ducks. Given the Oilers made it to the Stanley Cup Finals the past two years, the fact they couldn’t even make it out of the first round this season is a bad look on everyone involved with the team.
Indeed, Oilers captain Connor McDavid said after the season that the Oilers were an “average team” this year, and with the captain showing his disappointment with the results, you knew that changes would be coming to the squad. Knoblauch’s firing is the first step, but there are surely other moves to come in the next few weeks and months as the Oilers look to rebound.
Stan Bowman Admits Part Blame for Oilers’ Bad Season
Speaking to the media following his dismissal of Knoblauch as the team’s head coach, GM Bowman admitted he is partly to blame for the Oilers’ poor season. In Bowman’s mind, Knoblauch wasn’t the only issue with the team this year, though he ultimately took the fall for their loss in the playoffs. In Bowman’s view, it was a combination of management, coaches, and the players all failing to live up to their end of the bargain as the team failed to make it out of the first round.
“I think we (management) are part to blame for where we are at today. When a team doesn’t have success it isn’t just the players, or just the coach or just the management. It usually is all parts and that is the case here. There is blame on many, including myself,” Bowman said (via Jason Gregor).
Stan Bowman Made Bad Moves for the Oilers
Bowman is a big part of the problem here because he has made bad moves as the Oilers’ GM.
The worst move, by far, and one that many fans feel should cost Bowman his own job, was trading for goalie Tristan Jarry and the two years and $5,375,000 each season left on his deal. Jarry was terrible for the Oilers after they picked him up, and the team would surely love to have this trade back. In return for Jarry, the Oilers gave up goalie Stuart Skinner, a 2029 second-round pick, and defenseman Brett Kulak, who just scored the game-winning goal for the Colorado Avalanche to help them advance to the Western Conference finals. At the time, this deal felt like a high price to pay for an inconsistent goalie in Jarry, and in hindsight, it looks even worse.
In addition to the Jarry trade, Bowman also signed depth players like Jake Walman and Trent Frederic to long-term, big-money deals that are already looking like major overpays. The Oilers are basically capped out this offseason, so if they are going to make improvements, they will have to keep digging into their future draft assets to do so. It’s a big mess, and one that Bowman helped create, so if the Oilers once again fail next season, he’ll likely be the next one in Edmonton to lose their job.
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