Stan Bowman has at least put the idea on the table: Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl together from the start, not just as the Oilers’ panic button when the game turns ugly.
That’s the real wrinkle here. For years, Edmonton has treated McDavid and Draisaitl as the “break-glass-in-case-of-emergency” fix.
Need a goal? Put them together.
Offence gone flat? Put them together.
Rest of the lineup not getting it done? You know the drill.
It’s a move that’s hard to argue with because it usually works, even if it’s become a little too familiar for a team that keeps insisting it needs more from everyone else.
Bowman’s comments to Bob Stauffer on Oilers Now made the case that there may be more to gain by keeping them on the same line than by splitting them apart.
“Yeah, we’ve talked about this so much internally. I mean, there’s probably not a right answer.
I do think there’s probably more good arguments for them playing together, actually, because the biggest challenge we’ve had the last few years has been the no depth. I don’t think anyone would argue with the fact that we haven’t had enough depth, but the explanation as to why we don’t have enough depth.
And I think you can say you just need better players. The argument I would say is it’s not so much that as it is for (other) players to play an important role.
That has been very, very challenging. Some of the guys that have left to go elsewhere and succeeded.
So, it wasn’t that they were bad players or we didn’t want them. It’s that there’s not much rope for those players when the minutes are so low.
When you have Connor and Leon both playing, I think they were both in the top five or six in even strength minutes played, and they were on different lines.”
That’s the heart of the debate. If McDavid and Draisaitl are separated but still eating huge even-strength minutes, the rest of the forwards may still be stuck fighting for scraps. Bowman’s point is that some players may not have had enough opportunity in Edmonton to actually grow into meaningful roles.
The flip side is obvious: if you stack McDavid and Draisaitl together, you get one monster line and then a lot of pressure on everyone else to keep the team afloat. And that’s where the roster questions get loud.
The biggest issue is the one everyone sees immediately: what happens at 2C if those two are locked together? Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is the obvious answer, and he’s reliable enough to make the idea work on paper.
He can play with anyone, he helps in a bunch of different ways, and coaches trust him for a reason. But he has never been a major 5-on-5 scoring force, and if he’s centering the second line, the wingers around him better be able to bring some real offense.
That’s why this can’t just be about McDavid and Draisaitl. It’s really about the top nine and whether it can support a setup like this for a full season.
Does Matt Savoie take a step forward once he gets back from injury? Can Trent Frederic bounce back and become somewhat useful?
Is Zach Hyman the automatic third leg of the tripod on the loaded line, or would shifting him elsewhere help solve the depth issue? Those questions matter just as much as the decision on the two superstars.
Nobody needs convincing that McDavid and Draisaitl work together. We’ve seen that movie plenty of times, and it’s usually a great one. The real question is whether the Oilers have enough behind them to make that arrangement hold up over 82 games.
So the choice is there now: start with the big guns together, keep them apart and use the combo as the nuclear option, or try something in between and let the roster tell you what it can handle. Bowman seems open to the first idea. The rest of us get to argue about whether that actually solves anything.
In Other News...
Oilers Linked To A Top Six Winger Worth Watching Closely
Kirill Marchenko has quickly become one of the more interesting names on the winger market, and the Oilers are among the teams keeping close tabs on the Columbus forward. Montreal has been mentioned too, but from Edmontons side the appeal is easy to see. He is a top-six type who can help a contender at a premium position, and any player with that profile is going to draw attention when the trade chatter starts to pick up.
The catch is that Marchenko does not sound like a simple rental situation, which is why this one bears watching rather than assuming. Columbus has plenty of reason to proceed carefully with a young winger like that, especially if other front-office business around the league keeps changing the market. Between Connor Hellebuycks confirmed trade request and the speculation swirling around Winnipeg, the wider NHL landscape is shifting fast, and Edmonton will have to decide how aggressively it wants to stay in the mix if Marchenko ever becomes available. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Face A Core Question As Their Cup Window Tightens
As Edmonton looks for a way to keep its championship window open, the contrast with Montreal is hard to miss. Juraj Slafkovsky recently described the Canadiens mindset as one centered more on winning than on maximizing paydays, and Montreal has backed that up by locking in a growing core with long-term contracts for Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Slafkovsky himself.
For the Oilers, the question is whether they can create that same kind of stability while dealing with a more individualized approach to negotiations. With the window tightening, the challenge is not just finding talent, but keeping enough of it together long enough to turn contender status into something more lasting. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers May Have An Overlooked Prospect Built For A Real Role
Josh Samanski has quietly put together a case that looks different from the usual prospect hype cycle in Edmonton. His AHL work and brief NHL look suggest a player whose value shows up in the details, with a positive influence on his line and enough defensive reliability to stand out in an organization still sorting through names like Ike Howard and Roby Jarventie.
The intrigue is not whether Samanski is going to score at a flashy rate. It is whether his game translates into something more practical for the Oilers, the kind of forward who can handle trusted minutes, help on the penalty kill and hold his own at five-on-five when the margins tighten. For a team always searching for cost-effective depth that can be trusted in real NHL roles, that is a development worth watching closely. [Read more 🡒]