TALKING POINTS: Bowman discusses Oilers' trades & signings to open 2026 Free Agency

General Manager & Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Stan Bowman spoke with the media via video call on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the signings & trades by the Oilers organization to begin 2026 NHL Free Agency.

The executive opened July 1 for the Oilers by making two separate trades – first by acquiring goaltender Devon Levi and a 2028 seventh-round pick from the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for a 2028 third-round pick before dealing Darnell Nurse to the San Jose Sharks for blueliners Shakir Mukhamadullin and Zack Sharp.

The Oilers signed free-agent blueliner Ryan Shea to a five-year contract with an AAV of $4 million, along with extensions for forwards Kasperi Kapanen and Max Jones on one-year contracts at AAVs of $2.6 million and $850,000, respectively.

Before the day was done, the Oilers signed veteran goalie & Stanley Cup champion Frederik Anderson on a one-year contract worth an AAV of $2.8 million, before signings concluded on Day 1 with a one-year contract agreed with forward Mathieu Joseph.

Latvian forward Eduards Tralmaks also inked a one-year contract at an AAV of $850,000.

Read the full transcript and watch Bowman’s entire media availability below.

Stan Bowman delivers his opening remarks on Day 1 of Free Agency:

“Welcome, everyone. Thanks for taking the time.

"I just wanted to start off by recognizing Darnell Nurse. We made a difficult decision here to part ways with a true competitor, a lifelong Oiler, a tremendous teammate, and a tremendous member of the community. I really enjoyed getting to know Darnell and having him on the team. He's a class act. Nobody competes harder for his teammates than Darnell, so it’s difficult when things like this happen. So we certainly wish him and his family well. With that, I'll turn it over and you can start the questions.”

Bowman on acquiring Shakir Mukhamadullin and Zack Sharp from the San Jose Sharks in the trade for Darnell Nurse and the roles they could play next season:

“Sure. I think we have a lot of options now, so it's really up to Mike, D.J., and the coaching staff to figure out what the pairs will be. I'll just talk a little bit about the players themselves and what skills they bring to the table.”

“So first with Mukhamadullin, he's a big kid. He's kind of coming into his own right now, and I think there are a few things that really caught our eye with his game. He played more on the right side this year than the left. Even though he's a left shot, he's got that long reach; he's a big frame. He's pretty skinny right now. I think he can probably put on a little bit of weight, but he takes up a lot of space out there, and we liked his game. His penalty kill is something that I think is a strength for him. He's got a big shot, and he's got a competitive side to his game. So I think those things add up to being a really useful player for us. I think we did like the fact that he can be used on the right side if we want to, and that flexibility is always nice. He's a young defenceman that I think has a lot of growth in his game.”

“Then Ryan Shea, he's a player that I'm familiar with. I actually drafted Ryan way back when. He's come a long way from those years, so I thought he had an outstanding season this year. He was one of the players that we targeted in our meetings leading up to today. We were hoping that if we were able to get some cap space, we might be able to bring him in. I thought he had an excellent season, both offensively and defensively. He's got really good mobility. He's got the ability to make plays. His penalty kill was excellent this year – one of the best guys in the league at that this year – but he also could make some plays and score. He's not afraid to get up in the play and help the offensive side of the game, so I think his skill set is really going to complement the other guys that we have on defence right now. “

“We're certainly trading away a very good player in Darnell who ate up a lot of minutes, so I think we've got two defencemen now coming in who are going to be able to bring different elements to the table. But I think, all in all, it's going to be a big boost for our defence.”

Bowman on if Tristan Jarry will start the season as the No. 1 goalie or of he’s looking to add to the position following the trade to acquire Devon Levi from Buffalo:

Bowman spoke to the media in the afternoon prior to the signing of Frederik Andersen.

“Yeah, Tristan's going to be back. We're still looking at some other things. The most important thing was to find a good young goalie that I think has a lot of promise to his game, and I think with Devon Levi in Buffalo, he has played whatever it is, 30 or 40 NHL games, so it's not like he's totally new to the opportunity, but his most recent success has been in the American Hockey League, and I think he's probably knocking on the door waiting for that opportunity."

"We see a lot of upside in his game. Certainly, he’s had some really strong seasons. When you're able to replicate success at the AHL level for multiple years, that's usually an indicator of someone that's ready to break through, and we saw that last year, where Brandon Bussi was sort of in the same boat. He ended up in Carolina, winning the Cup, and we think Devon's ready to take the next step and show what he can do at the NHL level.”

Bowman on bringing back Kasperi Kapanen and discussions about a new contract:

Bowman spoke before announcement of Kapanen’s extension later in the evening.

“We have had sort of ongoing dialogue with Kappy throughout the day, and even the few weeks leading up till today, we've had many conversations. It's tough to thread that needle sometimes with the cap space, and up until the trade with San Jose, we really had no cap space to be able to bring him back. Now we've been able to add a little bit, so we're having conversations, and we'll see if we can."

"We'll see where that goes, not just with Kapanen, but with other forwards. We felt it was important, though, to focus on our defence, given that we traded away a player, Darnell, who plays a lot of minutes. Really, the most important priority for us in trading someone out is making sure we have a couple of good options coming back.

“So yeah, the day's not over yet. We're still having conversations. I don't know where those will go, but I like the way that our team is looking right now. I think we've certainly put ourselves in a much better spot with salary cap flexibility. Whether we spend that today or in the coming days or whether we wait a little bit, we'll have to see where it goes. But I do like the situation that we're in.”

Bowman on a right-shot, penalty-killing centre being a priority for the team:

“Yeah, we've talked a lot about this actually. If you were in our meetings, you'd know that whole topic is something we go over all the time.”

“You'd love to find that guy. You’d love to find a right shot centre who's great at faceoffs, and he's big, he can skate, he's physical, and he can match up against the best players. That's sort of the prototype everyone talks about. That player doesn't really exist on the market. Now, there are players that have elements of that, but it's a series of trade-offs. Maybe they don't have much quickness. Maybe their faceoffs aren't the best. Maybe they shoot left, maybe they have speed but not the right shot, so we've looked into all that, and you certainly want to try to find those attributes, but if you narrow your focus just to one set of attributes, then you're looking at just a couple players. We’re not going to do that just to say we signed a right shot, penalty-killing centre. We want to make sure they're the right fit and they can do what we need them to do.

Bowman on signing another goalie that’s experienced to shore up the position or letting Levi and Jarry have some leash in the crease:

“We've talked about both of those options. I don't think we've landed on one approach quite yet. I think you could make an argument for both being the right way to go, so we're having those conversations right now, and I guess we'll see where we land on it.

“But I think it's nice to have Levi here with us now as an option as a 24-year-old goalie with a bright future. Really, he just hasn't had much of an opportunity. It's not that he hasn't performed well, but he's looking for that chance and we're hoping he's going to be part of it here.”

Bowman on how important it was to not retain salary on the Darnell Nurse trade and how they planned to allocate his cap hit ($9.25 million) after it was taken off the books:

“There's a lot of conversations that go into these trades. I think when they're finished, it looks like, ‘Oh, that's a pretty simple trade. Why didn't you do that sooner?’ But there's a lot of factors that go into those deals to finally get it to the point where it is.

“But I think no salary retention was very important for us. I think the way San Jose was set up, they were in a different spot cap-wise, and they had the flexibility there. So I think for us, we can get a young defenceman with some really good attributes in Mukhamadullin, as well as a prospect I know pretty well. Zack Sharp was a kid from Chicago who I've known since he was growing up. Bit of a late bloomer. Really impressed with his season this year.

"We were in to watch Owen Michaels quite a bit, and every time I was in there, Zack caught my eye. I've known him since he was 13 years old, but now that I see where he is now as a 20-year-old, he's an elite skater. He's got a lot of really good attributes. He's grown now, about 6 foot 2, and prospects on defence are something that we're trying to add to our mix. So you put those two things together in the trade without the retention, and it was a deal that we were fortunate to be able to make.