TALKING POINTS: Bowman discusses the signing of Mangiapane & more from Free Agency

General Manager & Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Stan Bowman spoke to the media over video conference call on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the signings of Andrew Mangiapane, Evan Bouchard & more following the first 24 hours of 2025 NHL Free Agency.

The executive discussed Bouchard, Mangiapane, the complexion of the team moving forward into Free Agency, and more.

Read the entire transcript and watch the media availability in its entirety below:

Bowman on the signing of forward Andrew Mangiapane to a two-year deal ($3.6 million AAV):

“The reasons we were interested in Andrew are multiple. We've been watching him for years now and like the contributions he can make in a number of different roles. Obviously, starting with offensively, I think he's got the ability to play in our top six. He's got experience playing right and left wing, so there’s some flexibility there. Whether he's going to play with McDavid or Draisaitl, we could try him on both lines. Certainly, he can score goals. He’s had considerable success doing that in his career.

"I think the other thing we like about him is just his ability to extend the play, sort of like a give-and-go game. He's an active player. He's also a competitive player. He's not the most fun to play against. We certainly played a lot against him when he was in Calgary, and I think you notice his ability to impact the game in a number of ways. Penalty killing as well is something that he's done, and he's been good at that. So in our conversations with him, we explained how we see him helping our team. He's really the ultimate versatile player in our top six, so we don't know which center he'll mesh the best with, but we know it's going to be one of those two. We definitely see him playing in our top two lines and contributing on our special teams as well. We know he can play on the power play, so we've got flexibility there as well.

"Overall, he checks all the boxes for the type of player and is going to bring a lot to the table with our group. I think he'll be a big addition."

Bowman on the Oilers roster following the signing of Mangiapane and the loss of Brown, Perry, Arvidsson and Kane:

“We did lose a couple of players that were big contributors last year, and we certainly thank them for their time with us, and we wish them well.

"I think a lot of it was a function of the salary cap and having some more flexibility. I think we weren't going to be able to meet their demands for fitting it into our puzzle. So we do have a few new faces coming in, but I think that's not a bad thing. I've always said it's nice to have some new faces join your group. They bring a bit of a different energy. They weren't here last year when we made the push and the year before, so I think they're hungry to get that far in the playoffs and to be able to play in the Stanley Cup Final. I think it's beneficial to have some new voices as well. Although the players who are gone were enjoyable to have here, I do think we're turning the page forward and looking at some different combinations with new players.

"I do think that's a positive, and it's something we're trying to build on, which is a little bit of newness to our group, and that'll help get us going next year."

Bowman on whether the competition for top six places will come from outside the organization or within:

“I would expect that probably to come from within. We've got a number of guys who played in that role last year. Both Kapanen and Podkolzin did for stretches. I do expect Matt Savoie to be on our team and to play a role. We’ve got David Tomasek, who's played a lot of wing as well as some center, so I think we've got a number of internal candidates who I think deserve the opportunity to show us what they can do. So I wouldn't be expecting to add any more players to play in that part of our team.

"I think if we're looking for anything else, it might be another body more for the bottom six. But I think we also have Adam Henrique, and he’s mostly played centre here, but I think he's someone that we could use on the wing if we wanted to try him on the top two lines as well. That's an option for us. Now that we have Frederic who can play center, I think that gives us some flexibility. Freddy can certainly play on the wing too on those top two lines to give it a bit of a different look, so I think we've got a lot of options. I think that's the one thing I like about this mixture is that in Nugent-Hopkins, Hyman and Mangiapani, there are three of the four wingers to play in the top six. The other one, we don't have just one person we're hoping can fill it.

"We're going to try some different looks, and I'm sure with the way Kris likes to mix and match, we'll get a bunch of different players getting the opportunity, and then we'll find out which one is the best fit as we move forward.”

Bowman on the Dallas Stars hiring Glen Gulutzan as their head coach and the process of rounding out the Oilers coaching staff under Kris Knoblauch for 2025-26 and beyond:

“Yeah, that’s something that we have to spend some time on now, and I haven't had the chance to focus on that.

Over the last two days, we've been giving our full attention to free agency, which was yesterday, and it was a long day to finally close the deal with Andrew. So starting today, our top priority is trying to round out our coaching staff. I've had brief conversations with Kris about that, but we're going to spend our next few days here focusing on that. So I won't have anything on that in the near future, but it's a priority now that we've gotten through the beginning of the free agency, and I think we essentially have the key components to our team, so we're going to turn our attention to the coaching.”

Bowman on how he’d characterize the goaltending market over the last week or so:

“I don't know what word you're looking for, but it's been interesting to see. There's certainly been some movement. Goaltending is a very unique situation because there are only two per team. So it's a bit of shuffling of chairs. There hasn't really been much movement on the number ones around the league. A lot of movement filling in on the number twos. So we had some conversations, but nothing really made any sense. So I think where we are now makes the most sense for us, and we continue to have conversations. But we’re doing our job and talking to teams and agents, but nothing there really made any sense for us to move forward on.”

Bowman on whether the approach is to make small changes this offseason after going to the Stanley Cup Final two years in a row:

“Well, I think we just went through that. We are going to have some new faces. I think our defence is stable. That's the one thing that I feel very good comfortable with, because we've got the same crew coming back just without Klingberg. But I like the group we have.

"The seven defencemen we have all played very well for us last year. We never really had that whole group together because we didn't add Walman, and we had some injuries. But I think starting the season without question on our defence will be an important one, because I do think your defence really drives your team. If you're struggling to defend and to move the puck out, it doesn't really matter how good your forwards are; you end up having a hard time getting much going as a team. So we do have some sorting out to do up front, that's true. But like you said, the key pieces are there, and now it's just trying to find the right combinations.

"A lot of that's going to be the coaching side and understanding how they want to run the team. There are a few different ways to run it. We've seen Nugent-Hopkins play a lot of wing. He's done great at center as well. So that's an option if we want to do that, and that gives us a different look. That gives us three of the probably best three centers in the league if we choose to do so, but he's played so well on the wing. So I think knowing that we've got those anchors in the forward group, but we do have some new faces that are coming in, and I actually think that's a good thing. I don't think that's a negative. We're not just coming back with the same exact group of players in the same blueprint. It's going to be a new team, and I think that's the one thing I talked about last year when I started, which was that there's a tendency for everyone to always look back to the previous season and try to replicate the things that went well.

"I guess I would challenge people to try to just turn the page on the last season and look forward to next year. It's going to be a different group, particularly up front, but not a completely new one. I think all the key players are back. It's really about finding the right mixture, but I think that's what makes it exciting, and I think for that reason, we're in a really good spot right now.

Bowman on the extension of Evan Bouchard and the decision to go with a four-year deal and not an eight-year one:

“That was an important signing. We haven't talked about that yet, but Bouch had a tremendous couple of seasons. He's emerged as a very important player on our team. So getting him signed was critical.

"I guess in the negotiations, an eight year term was really never in the cards. I think the agent indicated that that wasn't something they thought made sense for them. I think it's really a function of the salary cap and where that's going. We certainly know that over the next three years, it's going to increase considerably. We do know what those numbers are, and I think we don't know where it's going beyond that. But there's a projection that it could continue to rise, and I think at that point, from the players’ side, from what they've been saying, is that they weren't interested in a number for an eight-year deal that would be so high that it wouldn't really make sense for anybody. So we, you know, we certainly were hoping to do an eight year deal, but that was never really in the cards. So I think on that side, it's the deals that get made when the two sides meet at something they're both comfortable with. So they were never interested in pursuing eight years. At that point it's not like we can force them to do it. We have to try to still get a deal done, and after some back and forth, we finally got there.”