TALKING POINTS: Bowman discusses the trade for Dickinson & Dach before Friday's Deadline

Oilers General Manager & Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Stan Bowman held a media availability on Thursday afternoon to discuss Wednesday night's trade with the Chicago Blackhawks to acquire forwards Jason Dickinson and Colton Dach.

Andrew Mangiapane & a conditional 2027 first-round pick were sent the other way as part of the trade, while Chicago will retain 50 percent of Dickinson's $4.25 million salary.

• RELEASE: Oilers acquire Dickinson & Dach from Chicago

The Oilers executive answered questions about the new additions pertaining to the details of the trade, their roles in the team, whether or not there's potential for more trades before Friday's Trade Deadline at 1:00 pm MST, and more.

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

Bowman on acquiring Jason Dickinson and Colton Dach, and if there were discussions to package the deal with Monday’s trade for Connor Murphy:

“Yeah, it did come up originally, but I think as things moved along with the Murphy trade, it was hard to put everything together. It became a time-sensitive matter, where [Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson] wanted to make sure we could close one deal. Then he said, “We can revisit this as we get going into the week,” so that was how that all played out. But yes, this was something we were hoping might be able to come together. And after we completed the Murphy trade, we had a lot of other conversations around the league about different options, and we kept coming back to what the trade would ultimately solve for us. That's how it all came together eventually.”

Bowman on Dickinson’s role as a third-line centre and where Dach will slot in moving forward for the Oilers:

“I’ll start with Dickinson first. I think the thing that’s really impressive about him and his game is the fact that he takes pride in that role. I think he's got a very clear job to do, and he embraces that. He does it very well. I've thought about this over the last few months here. I think the really important part for our team to be successful is that we're trying to build a team, not just a collection of players. There's a difference there. We’re trying to bring in players who individually are talented. We're trying to put together a team, and I think that's the thing that I kept coming back to leading into this week: we need some specific players that can fill some roles, and definitely, we think Murphy and Dickinson can do that."

“For Colton Dach, he’s the player I'm familiar with. I drafted him, and I think the part I love about Colton's game is his energy and his style of play. He's a big kid. The thing you notice about him is he's strong, he's physical, but he also has the ability to score. In junior, he was able to put the puck in the net pretty well, so he's got an offensive mindset. But I think he understands his role very well, which is to bring some energy to the group and provide some physical play. He's got a lot of enthusiasm in his game. He's a very excitable person, too. He brings a lot of energy to the group, which I think we've discussed internally here. It's important to have that, to have some excitement, and the fact that he's from here I think is also a great story. Playing in your hometown is a pretty good opportunity, but he's just starting his NHL career.”

“I think he's shown his first couple of years of pro, he’s really worked through the American Hockey League, rolled his sleeves up and got to work, and he earned his progression to the NHL. He's shown he can do it. It's now as a young player, learning the consistency to do that every night, bring an element your coaches value, and satisfy your team’s needs. Looking down the road, he's a power forward type of player. I think that's something where you look around the league, that’s what a lot of teams are looking for, especially this time of year. I think his skillset is going to match nicely.”

“When you look at those three players, they all have very specific identities, and they bring an element that I think our team was missing, and that's what we're most excited about.”

Bowman on having $475,000 in cap space left and if he plans to make any more moves ahead of Friday’s Trade Deadline:

“Well, that's what we're going to spend the next 24 hours talking through. I would imagine that we're done, but I don't expect to make other moves. But part of our job is to see what's out there, and I think if I'm looking at where we're at, any further addition wouldn't be a significant one. If it is in a depth role, something that makes sense, certainly we’ll look at it."

"But most likely, I would say this is our team.”

Bowman on why the signing of Andrew Mangiapane didn’t work out in Edmonton:

“Great question. We all thought it would, and we wanted it to work, but it just didn't. The way I look at it was that we started the year in October, and he was playing up in the top six, which is where we envisioned him finding his role this year. Our team didn't get off to the greatest start, and I think in the process of that, he kind of got swept up in it. I'm not saying he was outstanding. I didn't think he was actually that bad. But our team wasn't great, and then we moved some things around. Once he moved out of that top six, the rest of the group started their own game, started to play better, and it's kind of independent of Mangiapane. But then once he moved out of there, he had a hard time finding a role."

“So, a great question. Obviously, we wish it had worked out better. I gotta say, he was a true professional throughout all this. He has a great attitude. He never complained once. He just wanted to play hockey, and we’re happy for him to get a new opportunity somewhere else to hopefully recapture his NHL career.”

Bowman on his philosophy as a GM when a trade or signing like Mangiapane’s doesn’t work out as he’d hoped:

“I guess the philosophy is you try to give it an opportunity to come together, and when it just doesn't appear for whatever reason, whoever's fault it is -- whether it's on me as the manager for the players or the coaching staff or the player -- it's usually sort of a combination. I think it's rare that only one person is at fault, but I think once you make that determination that this just isn't working, then you don't want to double down on that. You want to try to turn the page after it didn't work. Ultimately, that's on me, and I own that. We want to make sure those things don't happen going forward, but when they do, I think you have to pivot as best you can. I think in this case, we ended up in a good spot.”

Bowman on Dickinson’s role as a third-line centre changing the deployment for top-line guys like McDavid and potentially helping reduce their ice time via matchups:

“You never want to take minutes away from Connor and Leon, but I think there's an element to that. It's not so much that we don't want Connor playing against the best players. I think what happens a lot on the road is if you have a third line that's not as strong, the other team's going to exploit that and they have the last change. We're comfortable playing Connor against anybody on the other team, but if you have a weaker third-line centre, they might choose not to play their best players against Connor. But right now, it's almost like you can play whoever you want against whoever you want. We're comfortable with any of those lines playing against our team, so I think particularly on the road, our coaching staff has comfort knowing that you have a D zone face off and you can put your players on the ice.

“Maybe in the past, or maybe up until today, we always had to be careful who we deployed in those situations, and you end up ramping up the minutes too much. Now we don't have to do that. So I don't think it's going to dramatically change Connor or Leon's ice time. I think it's more the matchup, and in the playoffs, I would say that's when matchups become really important. You play these teams -- Carolina tomorrow and then you have a new team on Sunday -- it's a different team every night. When you play in the playoffs, the same team, in a seven-game series, matchups really matter. That's why I think we've got three centres we can put out there on the road in the defensive zone, and we won't be holding our breath if they don't put their best players on the ice.”

Bowman on the impact of the Olympics and changes made to the salary cap (no double retention, playoffs salary caps) affecting this year’s trade landscape:

“We didn't approach it too much differently. I think you're right. The spacing was different because we had that break, and there was a trade embargo during the Olympics. You could still talk to teams. I don't know if we prepared any differently. I think there weren't many games between the restart after the Olympics and the deadline. You had a few games, and I think some teams were deciding whether to sell or buy based on just a few games.

“This deadline was also different because you've got the playoff cap and you've got no double retention. Those are things that I think factored into more trades maybe in the past, but I think this year there'll probably be fewer trades quantity-wise than there was, and it's probably due to those phenomena. But you have to adapt. I think we knew a week ago that we wanted to bring in some players to bolster areas we thought weren't quite where they needed to be, and now it's up to the team to find it.

“When you have new players coming in, it's not like it's automatic plug and play. I think we've got to get them used to our group. Our coaches have to get used to them. It'll take a little bit of time, but I do think that we're positioned well now for all that to get together and for our team to get going on a winning streak.”

Bowman on utilizing a late first-round pick in the deals for Dickinson and Dach instead of multiple second-rounders and how they look at the difference between those:

“Yeah, obviously after the Murphy trade, we had a lot of conversations about different options for us, which involved sending Mangiapane to one team, trying to get a centre somewhere else, and maybe getting a physical player. When you look at those, we went down the road on a number of those scenarios, and then before we did anything, we realized we're probably going to end up paying more in total with multiple trades and multiple picks going out.

“I don't know if there's a right answer as far as what's more valuable: one first-round pick or multiple seconds and thirds over several trades. We just felt that this solved our needs. We got players that we really liked. Ultimately, that was really where we came down on it. The value of the trade was certainly part of it, but the players that we were talking to in some of these other trades, we like Dickinson and Dach better than those players. So we were able to put it all together in one trade.

“In order to do that, you have to pay a price, and I think that I recognize that there are two sides to that. I think for where we're at right now with our organization trying to put the best team on the ice, you're going to have to pay. Something has to give. And really for us, it was a future draft pick, and I certainly like our team a lot better today than I did a week ago.”

Bowman on the Oilers having 48 contracts signed out of a maximum of 50 and if that could leave the door open for them to sign an NCAA player like Quinn Hutson last year:

“That's not necessarily the reason. Having the flexibility to do that is nice, but we’re kind of working on the free-agent track concurrently, and there are some players we like, so we'll have to see where that all plays out. But I guess we do have that option, which is kind of a nice possibility. When you get to that 50-contract limit, it can be a little trickier and limit your options. So I think for where we are right now, we're in a good spot.”

Bowman on the contracts of all the players acquired this week expiring at the end of this season as opposed to arriving with term left on their deals:

“Yeah, there are two ways to look at that. I think when you have a player who has term, then you know that you've got that player. The flip side to that is if they don't perform as you want, then you may not be excited to have term. And then the other part of it is if you have a player who's a UFA, then you get a chance to work with them closely and they get to see what you're all about -- not only your team, but your coaching staff and the environment here in Edmonton.

“I think it's an opportunity. If they're playing well and we like them, I think the fact that they're UFA isn't a big deal. I think you can usually try to entice them to stay. So there's value in both those scenarios. There's certainty if you have a guy that has another year or two, but if they don't perform the way you like, then that can be a negative, too. So I wouldn't say that it's clear-cut on which one's better. I think there are pluses to both of those, and this year we have two pending UFAs.”

Bowman on not having many right-shot centres (Dickinson and Dach are left shots):

“Yeah, for sure. We’ve talked about that. I don't want to diminish the value of face-offs because they are very important. But even the best face-off guy is probably 57 to 58 percent. It's a little bit better than a 50-50. It's not like the top face-off guys are 90 percent, and if you get them, you win every face-off, so I think sometimes there's a little bit too much of an emphasis on that because we're talking about the margins being between 49 and 57 percent for a great face-off guy.

“But yes, we did look at that. At the end of the day, there's more to the game than just face-offs. We have to find a player that we think can play the game. If you lose the face-off, you still have to finish your shift there, and we like Jason's ability to do that."

Bowman on Dach and Samanski potentially rotating in on the fourth line and if there’s an opportunity to add someone else before the Deadline:

“Yeah, those are things we're going to focus on today and look at what our opportunities are. I think Josh has had a great year. You think of how far he's come. A year ago, he was playing in the German league, then came to North America, played pro, went to the Olympics, and played in the NHL. He's come a long way, but I think you’ve got to credit our group in Bakersfield. The coaching staff and the development staff have done a great job working with him, so a lot of that has come through their hard work and his ability to play.

“So you're right. If he's not going to be an everyday player, then we want to make sure he continues his progression. So that's something we're going to talk through over the next day here, and ultimately we'll decide. But I think it's clear that he can play in the NHL now, and it's just a matter of whether he's going to be playing every night. If not, then we'll look at options there.”