TALKING POINTS: Bowman speaks before Friday's Trade Deadline

Oilers General Manager & Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Stan Bowman took questions from the media from the Hall of Fame Room at Rogers Place on Monday afternoon ahead of Friday's NHL Trade Deadline at 1:00 pm MST.

The Oilers executive discussed a range of topics that included the team's commitment to defending, the re-addition of Paul Coffey behind the bench, potential deals for Trade Deadline day, and more.

Following his availability, the Oilers acquired defenceman Connor Murphy from the Chicago Blackhawks (half-retained salary) in exchange for a 2028 second-round pick.

• RELEASE: Oilers acquire Connor Murphy from Chicago

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

Bowman on the team’s goals against ranking 26^th in the NHL and if he believes the solution will come internally or externally before Friday’s Trade Deadline:

“Yeah, we haven't played well defensively as a team. I think it's a number of factors, including goaltending, defence and forwards, where all of them contribute. I think the biggest challenge for our group is that we don't put ourselves in a great spot often in games. We score a ton of goals, and I think that's great. If you think back to the early part of our season, we weren't scoring a lot, so we've swung the pendulum probably too far one way, where we're pushing to try to make things happen. In the process of doing that, we put ourselves in really bad spots, and I think until we learn as a team to be smarter about the way we approach the games, we're going to see a lot of highs and lows where we look great some nights scoring a lot of goals, and other nights we're giving up a ton of chances and putting our defense and our goalie in bad spots. I think that's got to change."

“So that's more of a mentality shift for our group to understand what a winning brand of hockey is, and I think we’ve seen it in spurts this year. But I don't think we’ve seen it nearly consistently enough. Especially as the season progresses and the league changes heading into the stretch run, there has to be a better and bigger commitment from our players, all of our players, to play smarter hockey and not try to make plays every shift. I think that's something that we've been guilty of, especially lately, but even going back to the games in late January, I think it’s about maybe having more respect for the simplicity of the game. Sometimes, we want to put on a show, and we want to score goals, and I think we all love scoring goals, but there are two sides to it. We haven't managed that very well as a team."

“So yes, there are lots of details underneath. As far as players who need to play better, no question [that's true] among our forwards, defence, and goalies, I don't think we've seen our best. But I think the bigger way to fix that isn't going to happen magically with new players. It's going to be the approach we take as a team, understanding that going through a whole period without getting many scoring chances is okay if you don't give up many, and I think that's what happens in playoff hockey. I think our team has shown the maturity to play that way when the games matter the most. I think right now we haven't been dialled in enough and committed enough to play that way, and that's what's causing us a problem.”

Bowman provides his perspective on Paul Coffey re-joining the Oilers bench:

“At the break, I had conversations with Kris [Knoblauch]. It's kind of a unique situation to have a break in February. You never have a couple of weeks off like that. Normally, you have a day or two between games. We weren't playing well heading into the break, and I think it was obvious that we had to do something to change our group. In talking to Kris, that idea came up. Kris brought it up to me and said, ‘Do you have any thoughts?’ and then we talked it through."

“I look back at Paul's contributions last year and his perspective, and he was involved with our team this whole year, but not in a detailed way like the coaching staff does day to day. And then talking to Paul, I felt he could add something to our group. I think when you add it all up, he's familiar with our guys because he was here the last two years, but he also had some distance from our group the last few months. So that combination, I think, is good. When you're not behind the bench, you sometimes have a different view on things, so I thought I was kind of in agreement that it was something to help our group."

"Just talking to Paul this morning about what I was just talking about, and I think he sees that as the coach, too, and I think we have to have a different mentality to be more successful. So that's kind of how it all came to be.”

Bowman on being able to clear cap space before Friday’s Trade Deadline:

“I think we'll be able to do some things. And as I said, it'd be nice to bring a player or two in, but we have a lot of good players here, and they're talented. It's a talented group. I think there's more from within. That's probably the way that we're going to become a better team. Certainly, adding a player or two is something we're looking for, and I think it can be helpful. But it's not like it's going to completely change the fortunes of our team. We've got a lot of really good players here, and it's that commitment from our group to play smarter hockey, winning hockey, that I think is going to probably pay the biggest dividends.

“But yes, we’re always looking to add a player or two. I think we've been able to do that the last few years, and they've made contributions, positive ones, and I'm hopeful that we can do that this year too.”

Bowman on adding to the blueline this Trade Deadline despite trying to address the situation earlier this season with the trades involving Brett Kulak & Spencer Stastney:

“Looking at where we are now, I think Spencer's played well for us. I don't think Spencer vs. Kulak is really the issue. It's more maybe a different type of player coming in there. If we're going to add somebody, we might add a defenceman, we might add a forward, and we've had conversations on both of those, but I don't see that being the issue. I think if you're adding a defenceman, you can never have too many D going into a playoff run, so I wouldn't really agree with that portrayal of it. I think something that our group has struggled to have is the right mentality, so adding a new player to our mix would be good, but I guess I don't equate it the same way.”

Bowman on if he’ll be involved in the goaltending market at the Trade Deadline:

“I think our goaltending hasn't played great, but at the same time, I think a bigger problem is that we put our goalies in a really tough spot. I think they can be better. I'm not trying to communicate that they've had their A game or played at an elite level, but I think if you're stuck on the numbers, you kind of have to watch the games, which I know you guys [the media] do as well. We put our goalies in some really tough spots, and I don't think that's a winning formula, no matter who you have in that.

“I'd like to see our goalies find some more consistency in their game. I think the better way to do that is not only for them to find their game, but for us to put them in situations where they're more likely to find it. I don't think we've done a very good job of that this year, especially the last month or so. There was a stretch from mid-December to mid-January when you went back and watched some of those games, we weren't putting ourselves in so many bad spots. I think our goaltending looked solid in those times, so I think we need to find our game. I'm not absolving them. I think they can certainly play better. But I think the way that we play as a team is going to play a bigger role than that, more than just a new person in the uniform.”

Bowman on the Oilers still trying to find their defensive game this season despite two straight trips to the Stanley Cup Final:

“I don’t know if it’s that they don't know how to do it. I don't think it's a lack of knowledge. There are a lot of things that happen during a season, and as I said earlier in the year, we weren't scoring a lot. We didn't really have our offensive game. So I think It's hard to look at things from a high perspective. We're kind of in the middle of it now. Coming off the last couple of games, we gave up a lot of goals. But if you rewind this to October, November, when we were trying to find our way, our offensive players didn't score a lot in October. So I think we were trying to find it.

“I think we did find it, but in the process, we kind of went too far. So I think you're right. It's not a lack of knowledge on how to play winning hockey. You can't get to the Stanley Cup Final two years in a row if you don't play a winning brand. We definitely can do it, and we haven't done it frequently enough, so I think that's a part of sports. There's variability in performance, there are highs and lows to a team, and if you take a look at the best team in the league this year, they had stretches where they looked terrible. That's kind of how sports go.

“I guess that's not a great answer as to why we can't, but I think it's just that commitment. In a lot of ways, it's not super exciting to play a whole period and not really get many scoring chances and just play simple, boring hockey. But a lot of times that's winning hockey, right? It's just committing to it and convincing yourself that that's good enough in the moment, and I think we've got some incredibly talented players who have the best intentions. They want to help the team win, and they're not out there trying to do bad things. They're trying to score. But sometimes the risk, the reward, the trade-off is in the wrong order, and you end up where we've been lately. So there are a lot of elements to our game that are trending well. We are scoring a lot of goals, and I've been talking to a lot of GMs lately, and they kind of laugh like, ‘We wish that we had that problem. We can't score to save our lives.’ So we're kind of in that other end where we're scoring a lot, but we're giving up too much. So it's sort of finding that balance, and that's what good teams do. I'm confident we'll get there.”

Bowman on Andrew Mangiapane & Alec Regula hitting waivers on Sunday and if he couldn’t facilitate a trade before making the roster move:

“No. That move in particular was made for salary-cap reasons. Janmark is going to be out, and this is more of a transactional type thing with the way the bonuses work. We need to have a good bonus capture so that some of our young players, like Samanski and Howard, when you're in long-term injury and they're not in your capture, then their bonuses count, so they become much more difficult to recall. So the moves today and the moves that we'll make tomorrow are to put Janmark on long-term injury and put ourselves in a salary cap position, so it's got nothing to do with that. It's more of just a transaction.”

Bowman on his assessment of Darnell Nurse’s play this season:

“I'm not going to single Darnell out. I think he's part of a group of probably seven or eight guys that are all very good players, and they've played well at stretches this year. But it's just committing, so I don't think he's any different than anyone else. I would say he's in a long list of guys who are very important players to our team, and we believe in them, but we need all of them to dial in the commitment to playing a simpler game. I think it's top-to-bottom. It's not just Darnell.”

Bowman on if his ideal trade acquisition would be a right-shot defenceman:

“Well, we have more lefts than rights, so I think in this simplistic way, yes. But also, you don't want to overdo it too much, because sometimes a better player is a left shot who can play the right side. But yes, ideally you'd like to have three lefts and three rights in your pairs. It doesn't always work out that way, and probably over half the teams don't have that. But yeah, that's fair.”

Bowman on giving Josh Samanski another opportunity with the Oilers after his strong play before the break and with Team Germany at the Olympics in February:

“Yeah, I like the way Josh played. He came up there right before the Olympics and he was pretty effective for us; not in a big role, but I think he's kind of been that player all year. That seems to be his identity as a player. I think he understands what makes him successful. He's more of a lower-risk guy. I like his energy. He's a bigger guy, pretty smart about avoiding bad positions. I think he doesn't take a lot of risks, and maybe that's why he's not a bigger scorer. But I think he's been an effective player in Bakersfield on an offensive line. When they put Howard, Samanski and Hutson together, that line was really successful for a large stretch of the year, and I think Samanski was a big part of that. I think he can play with good players and play offensively, but I think he understands the style of play that he needs to have in order to be successful, and we would like to see if he can do it in the stretch run here.”

Bowman on Evan Bouchard emerging as a top defenceman in the NHL who’s currently leading the League in points among blueliners:

“I continue to be unsurprised and impressed with Evan’s progression to be an elite all-around defenceman. I think most people who don't watch him that closely, if you were to ask them, what they think of Bouchard, they’d say he's a good power-play offensive defenseman, and he definitely is that. But he's shown the ability this year to be great at a lot of things, not just offence. So yeah, he's found a role on the penalty kill this year. You can't play 25 minutes without being a guy who can play against everybody, so you don't have to shelter his minutes and pull him off the ice when the other team puts their best players out. He can do it all. So yeah, I’m very impressed with his performance this year.

“ I think the offensive contributions are obvious. His patience with the puck is appreciated by the forwards who are on the ice with him. He's got a lot of talent to see plays, find plays that maybe aren't there right away, but they materialize into plays. He's done it all. He's been tremendous this year, and he probably doesn't get enough recognition for his all-around game because he started out mostly as an offensive defenceman. But I think in the process of becoming an all-around player, he hasn't lost the offence -- he's just gained the other parts of his game.”

Bowman on discussing new contracts for Jack Roslovic and Kasperi Kapanen:

“Yeah, nothing really to report there. Kappy hasn't been healthy. He's had a couple of injuries this year. He's played really well, though. He got off to a great start, then he got hurt and was about to come back before getting hurt again. I think when he's been in the lineup consistently, he's been very effective for us. Jack has scored a lot of goals without much power-play time. I know he got some early on when Hyman was injured, but for the most part, he's been a five-on-five-only player, and he's done some good things for us. So I think they both are interesting players and guys who could have a future with us. But I think right now our focus is more on the here and now leading into the deadline.”

Bowman on Janmark’s injury status:

“He hasn't had surgery yet, but he's likely going to need that. So I think when we get that all sorted out, we'll make an announcement. But he's not going to be back playing for a while.”

Bowman on the pressure to add to the roster with McDavid and Draisaitl under contract:

“We're always looking to add, so I don't know if there's any added pressure. But I would say that we want to win. That hasn't changed, and if we can bring in new players to help us, that's great. I think my point earlier was just that there are a lot of ways to improve as a team. Part of it is new players, and part of it is our existing players to dial it in a little bit better. But certainly, we're not looking at the team in a couple of years. We're looking to try to win right now, and that's the way it was when the season began. It hasn't changed at all and we're going to keep pushing.”