To that end, it’s a lot easier to sell that future-winning-culture idea with his pal Leon in the fold long term. How much satisfaction was there in getting that deal done pretty much seamlessly last summer?
“Look, Leon has played his whole career here. He knows that we have a good, deep team. He wants to win as badly as Connor does, and I think that he sees the opportunity to do that here. Again, he’s the same way, he loves the city, the city loves him, and so getting him done once Stan got on board was really super important. It was Priority 1. I guess we got sort of sidetracked by a couple things in July, but we got it back on track, and we were really happy and grateful to get it done before we got back to camp.”
You mentioned Stan Bowman. We’re all aware of his circumstances. He won three Stanley Cups as GM of the Chicago Blackhawks, in 2010, 2013, 2015, before resigning on Oct. 27, 2021. He was ineligible to work in the NHL since that time for what the League said was “as a result of their inadequate response upon being informed in 2010 of allegations that Chicago Blackhawks player Kyle Beach had been assaulted by the team’s video coach.” Bowman was reinstated by the NHL on July 1, 2024, and you hired him on July 24, 2024. How much due diligence did you have to do on his situation, and how has he helped in the success of the team this season?
“I’ve known Stan Bowman for many years. When we were both assistant general managers, me with the Maple Leafs from 2006-10, we got to know each other, and I had dealings with him when I was an agent. I had stayed in touch with him prior to me taking this job when he was off from his time in Chicago, so I thought that he would be a great candidate to be our general manager if he was reinstated. And he was. I interviewed some other candidates, but he was the guy that I really wanted. He’s got so much experience. He’s obviously won three Cups. He knows how to put a roster together. And what I like about him, just our personalities are very similar. We’re sort of calm and don’t get too wrought up about stuff. Sometimes you’ve got to take things in stride and just work through them. And that’s the way he operates. And I find it very calming, as I think so does the coaching staff as well.”
It’s been less than two years since you assumed this role. How have you grown into this job in that time?
“It’s been very rewarding. And I think to answer the question about growing into the job, it’s like I sort of pulled a lot of things from some experiences I had back when I worked with the Leafs early on. When I got this job, just the way the organization is set up, your scouting staff, the way it’s sort of the cadence of the team. I knew all about that, so that was familiar. But having the chance to work with a Hall of Fame general manager like Kenny Holland for a year (in 2023-24), I learned a lot from him. My approach is just to try to empower everybody and have everybody know that they’re important and do their job. I’m not heavy handed. I don’t bark at people. I don’t need to bark at people. We have a super competent staff across the board. And for me, the reward is just sort of seeing everybody do their job well every day. And I try to encourage them. I think that’s part of leadership.”
In the time you’ve been here, what have you learned about the relationship between the Oilers and this city?
“I spent a lot of time coming here to watch Connor as an agent and spent time here over, what, I want to say, eight or nine or 10 years. But when you’re here and you’re sort of embedded in it, you see the absolute love and passion from the fan base and the city. And getting to know Daryl (Katz) as the owner of this team, and what he’s been willing to do for the players, and these facilities, which are top notch. Look at Rogers Place. It’s 10 years old, and it looks like it’s brand new. That’s because it was done right the first time. And so, ya, all those things are things that I sort of knew about, but I didn’t really know until I got here. And all of it’s super positive, and it’s been a great experience.”
Finally, you made a number of changes to the team and the organization in the past year, including changing GMs, despite coming just one goal short against the Florida Panthers in Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final. Take us through that thought process. And how satisfying is it to rebound from that heartbreak with trip to the Final?
“If you look at all good teams, they don’t run the same team back. And we made some changes in the offseason, just like Florida, who made a bunch of changes. The bottom line is, we’ve got a super solid core led by Connor and Leon. We got Mattias Ekholm and Darnell Nurse and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, this group of players who bring it every day and are such good leaders. So making the changes like we did, we thought we could integrate whoever we needed to integrate, and our goal was to add layers of depth to the team so that we weren’t getting into situations where we were relying on Connor and Leon all the time. Unfortunately, the way the season went with injuries and stuff, we weren’t able to really see what we had until our first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings. So, you know, we’ve got that depth now, and we’re going to need it, because you get banged up in the playoffs. There’s guys go down with injuries. But we’ve got a deep roster now, which is what you need to have success deep into the playoffs.”
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