- Stan Bowman doesn’t expect the Oilers to add anyone else before the regular season starts
- Edmonton projects to open the year with more than $4.7 million in cap room
- Read below for what Bowman said about being handcuffed and why Savoie and Howard win from this
The Oilers are done shopping until the puck drops.
General manager Stan Bowman doesn’t foresee Edmonton adding anyone else before the regular season begins, Brian La Rose of Pro Hockey Rumors wrote Sunday after Bowman’s appearance on Oilers Now. The club projects to start the season with over $4.7 million in space, per PuckPedia, and Bowman would rather sit on it than spend it in August.
Bowman led off Friday’s show on 630 CHED, slotted in at 4:05 ahead of Glenn Anderson and the rest of Bob Stauffer’s guest list:
Stauffer asked him how this summer compares to his first two running the team, when Edmonton lived right up against the ceiling and leaned on LTIR to stay legal.
“We had no space at all. You’re very handcuffed as to what you can do, and it’s tough because opportunities pop up every year during the year. If a player comes available in November that makes two and a half million that you like, but they don’t want, they’re just trying to shed salary. We were never even in the market for that. That was impossible.”
Catch Bowman explaining what the room actually buys him:
Banked room is the whole point. A team with cash on hand can take a $2.5 million forward off a seller in November instead of waiting until March and paying a premium for someone else to retain salary.
Sitting out August also opens a door for the kids. Matthew Savoie put up 37 points last season while averaging under 15 minutes a night, and a top-six job is there if he takes it. Isaac Howard got into 29 games with Edmonton in a small role after a 50-point rookie year in 47 AHL games.
Neither one has his next contract sorted out yet either. Edmonton still hasn’t opened extension talks with Savoie, who is eligible this summer.
One wrinkle to watch is bonuses. Savoie ($1 million), Howard ($750,000) and goaltender Frederik Andersen ($1.8 million) all carry them, and anything they hit either eats into this year’s room or gets charged to the 2027-28 books.
Whatever the roster looks like in October, Edmonton’s GM doesn’t expect it to look the same in April. He just isn’t spending a dollar of that $4.7 million until someone worth having shakes loose.
