On having an older team with some veteran free agent additions:
I think there's a couple of ways to look at that. Certainly, if you look at the way that went, it was nice to see that the Oilers are a destination for players that are focused more so on trying to find a championship as opposed to... each player is different and they're at different points in their career. But I think certainly it was obvious that the players that chose to come to Edmonton and likely leave money on the table, it's because they see something in our group and they want to be part of that. So that's something that's great, and we certainly hope that continues, and that's a goal for our team. And the way to make that a reality in future years is to have a competitive team where players around the league look, and they say, "I'm looking to win, and that's where I want to be."
I wouldn't say we're only looking at older players. I think there's a benefit with older players, they come with a certain set of experience and they've been in a bunch of different situations, so there's value in that. But we also brought a couple young players into the organization as well who have NHL experience. They're trying to establish themselves as everyday NHLers in Podkolzin and Ty Emberson.
It's not an either-or situation. There's certainly benefit in having young players in your lineup and they bring a different mix. There's usually a little bit more energy, excitement. They haven't experienced the NHL or they haven't been here for a number of years. So having younger players, we're not averse to that by any means. I think it's probably going to be a combination of both. I think what I would say is the key common element to those players in Podkolzkin and Emberson is manageable salary cap hits, because with where our team is, not only in the current state but going into the future, salary cap room is going to be imperative for us and flexibility. Typically young players and veteran players are usually where there's lower cap hits and then in between tends to be where the contracts go higher.
On the possibility of two younger players dictating the team's salary cap position:
I go back to my opening comments, which were we were evaluating the situation that we were in when those offer sheets came in, and given that as well as the other constraints that we have, we didn't feel like it was the right move to essentially limit our options moving forward, not only this year but in the future. So it's less about the players and their abilities and their talents. It's really about trying to set ourselves up in the best position that we can be so that we have some options. We're sitting here in August and there's going to be ups and downs to every team every season, and you're going to have to navigate that. You don't know which players are going to perform well, which ones may not, so you want to be able to adapt if possible. And I think the other scenarios, which was either matching both or matching either one of them, would have put us in a much different position with the salary cap for this current season, let alone future years. So for that reason, we did what we did.
On losing two defencemen from last season in Broberg and Cody Ceci:
We have, that's true. And that's something that we want to make sure that we have a strong defensive route by the time we get into the stretch run. So I do think we have a lot of options at this point, and we have players that we're optimistic are going to be able to come in and fill a role for us. So it's true, we don't have the same mixture that we did in Game 7 a couple months ago. So one of the things that we want to do is give them a chance to show us and we have some new defencemen.
Stecher, he's not new in the sense, but he didn't really get a lot of opportunity late last season. And then we have Brown and we also have Emberson. So there's three new players there that we have to give an opportunity to show us that they can be valuable and pick up some of those minutes, because it's true, we do have a different group than we did, and we're hopeful that some of those players can emerge and take on larger roles. But the other thing, which I've mentioned a couple times now, is this situation gives us more opportunity to hopefully be able to accrue some cap space and be in the mix if the situation calls for it and we want to make an addition to our team down the road. That opportunity could be possible under this scenario.
On the start of contract extension negotiations with Leon Draisaitl:
I was expecting that question, and understandably so. There's a lot of interest in Leon, and so I'll say that we have begun our conversations with Leon and his agent. Beyond that, I don't want to comment on it. My experience over the years has been it's best to keep those between the agent and out of fairness to Leon and his agent, I think it's best for us to. I'm not characterizing them any way. You shouldn't read anything negative into that. I just don't want to try to put timelines on it or whatnot. We have begun the process and as it plays out and we have an update, we will certainly reach out and let everybody know.
On the injury status of Evander Kane heading into the season:
I should clarify a few things. I think there is maybe a slight misunderstanding about how this all works relative to injured players and long-term injury and replacing their cap hit and whatnot, so I'll try to give a brief summary here. So when there's an injured player like Evander is, in this case, his moving forward plan is going to be between Evander and the doctors. I don't have any say so in that, nor should I. The most important thing for me is to support Evander and make sure that he gets healthy.
When there's any injury, there are a couple options that come into play. You get treatment for it, you do rehab, and over time that injury heals and the player's able to return to play. Sometimes you have injuries where surgery is required right away where it's obvious that's the only solution. And then you have another type of injury where it's not as black and white – there's a few different ways that a player can move forward with it, and that's his decision. We're going to be supportive of Evander in that. So I think that third scenario is where things are right now. So whether he's going to be out for a little bit of the season or, if he needed surgery, a longer part of the season, we don't have that information. I don't weigh in on that and that's something that he's going to sort through with the doctors.
I think the reason it's relevant to this discussion would be the impression that because he is injured, then he just goes on long-term injury and you don't need to make trades or it's not a problem. That's not really accurate in the sense that you do need to account for that player in your salary cap. Either he's going to be off LTI and just as part of your normal team capture, or if he is going to be out for longer than 24 days and 10 games, he can go on long-term injury. But you need to be able to activate him when he returns from that injury. So that's something that came into a lot of our discussions was you may be able to start the season in long-term injury, if that's the case, and he's going to be out at least a month, but we have to have a game plan for when he's healthy and ready to play, and that was much more problematic.
The other thing I'll mention is with long-term injury, you don't accrue any cap space. So if you're using long-term injury for a few months and then you come out of it and you activate the player, you're starting with no cap space and you're trying to build it up. So you're not going to be able to build up a lot in just a month or so. These were all factors that went into our decision. So the way we're situated right now, we're going to be able to start the season with Evander Kane not being on any type of injury. He'll just be like everyone else. And if he's able to play right away, that's great. If he's not, then we're not going to have a problem making room for him when he's healthy.
On the additions of Vasily Podkolzin, Ty Emberson and Paul Fischer:
I can talk about all three of those players just to give everyone a little bit of a background. One of the things we do when we're in these situation this last week is we reach out to all of our staff and any connections they may have had with these players that are being brought up in my conversations with other teams. And in the case of Emberson, I did talk to Kris (Knoblauch). He's very familiar with Ty and he was very complimentary of his game. He loved having him on his team in Hartford. He was a very effective player for him. So I think that's always important when there's a comfort level with your coach and a player that you're bringing in. That's not usually the case. Like, not too often when they've coached them elsewhere. So I think that was helpful in that part of it.
Podkolzin, obviously, he was a high pick, 10th overall, so he's got a pedigree and he had a strong rookie year in the NHL, and then since that point, it hasn't been the same. He's been in the American League most of the time since then, and they've had some changes there when a different regime came in. And I think we've all seen that. We've all seen players that for whatever reason, things change and it doesn't work for them. This is not disparaging anyone. A lot of times it's not the player or the situation. It's not really anybody's fault. But I really Podkolzin and his overall skill set because I think he's certainly got the ability to score. He's got a dimensional shot, but he's a powerful player. He's very strong. He's a north-south-type player, straight-lines guy that has a physical side to his game, which is something I watched and I really liked – his willingness to engage. He's very strong and he's powerful. You can play that possession type game in the offensive zone, and when he doesn't have the puck, he can run guys over and he's not afraid to do that. So I think that combination was pretty impressive and certainly there's a bet that we can get him back on track from where he was at one point, not only his draft year, but his first year pro. That's now for our coaches and all of our group to try to bring the best out of him. But sometimes a fresh start is good for players like that.
And I've known Paul Fischer a long time. He's grown up here in Chicago. I've seen him since he was a kid playing hundreds of games over the years and he went to the U.S. national team and he was trending really well. He got injured his draft year, so he probably didn't get drafted where his talent level was, but I watched him last year as well at Notre Dame, and he emerged as a freshman defenceman and played a pretty big role on that team. He's in the mix for the U.S. World Junior team as well. He's a very likeable player with his skill-set and he's a good-sized kid. He's got really a combination of everything and he's young, he's got areas to improve. But also I know him well as a person and he's a character kid that's going to do everything he can to improve. It's nice we're trying to build up our group here and player development is something that we're spending a lot of time going forward with to make sure that we can find young prospects but also help them accelerate their progression and development so that they can reach the NHL sooner.
On Bowman's initial reaction to receiving two offer sheets from the same team:
Yeah, it was a challenge, no question. Offer sheets in general aren't common, and then having two of them hit at the same time is certainly not common. So I think as far as my reaction, I think I just really rolled my sleeves up and got to work. Once the offer sheets are in, I understand why maybe from the fan or the media perspective, there's a lot of time spent on all those other sort of things, but really I wasn't tied up in that. I was looking forward. We have a decision to make now. We've got a challenge and a puzzle that we have to put together. So it certainly was a challenge to find the best option. But when you look at the full picture, I feel good about being able to navigate that the best way possible in this situation and give ourselves some options moving forward.
On whether he harbours any negativity towards the Blues after the offer sheets:
I think you have to separate business and personal. I've known Doug Armstrong a long time. We had a lot of battles over the years when I was in Chicago and he's still in St. Louis. I don't look at it that way. I understand that this is a possibility for every manager to use, and now it's our job to react to it and do what's best for us. You can't let your personal feelings get in the way of anything like that. We have to have a working relationship with all the managers in the league and I intend to do that moving forward.
On the possibility of targeting any more players between now and the start of the season:
I would say nothing is off the table at this point. I think it doesn't do us any good to close any doors right now. I guess what maybe I should have clarified earlier is that we do have some new players that we have to give them an opportunity. They signed here for a reason. And in Emberson's case, we just traded for him. So we want to give them a chance to show that they can take a step forward and be an asset for us. But also part of my job is to look at the options that we have, whether it's through additional trades or through free-agent players currently in the market. I intend to do that. I don't know if that's going to come to anything. The limitations are still what they are. The salary cap picture is not changing for us, so we've been careful to make sure that we give ourselves some flexibility moving forward. But yeah, a quick answer would be yes. We certainly have the capability to talk to players and see if there's anyone that makes sense to bring in.
