Stan Bowman to Edmonton, Joel Quenneville to Columbus

The Oilers played their last game on June 24, when they lost the final seventh game of the Stanley Cup Finals–I’m told many players are still suffering from that–and four days later, team management was on the floor of the Sphere in Vegas to select seven prospects. The Oilers even made a trade for the 32nd spot in the first round.

The crazy thing is, on the evening of the 24th, Ken Holland was the GM of a team with a 50/50 chance of winning the Cup… and on the 27th, we learned officially that he wouldn’t be back in 2025-26. So, on the 28th, at the team table, the Oilers had no GM. They had Jeff Jackson and deputy GMs, whose position is vacant.

That didn’t stop the Oilers from signing Connor Brown, Viktor Arvidsson, Troy Stecher, Josh Brown, Connor Carrick, Collin Delia, Corey Perry, Adam Henrique, Mattias Janmark, Jeff Skinner and more…

When will the Oilers GM be named? Will there still be work to do in the off-season when he arrives? Evander Kane and Leon Draisaitl – and possibly Connor McDavid – are hot on the Alberta stove…

Seven names have been floated by TheAthletic/NY Times to replace Holland : Jason Botterill, Sean Burke, Mathieu Darche, Keith Gretzky, Brad Holland, Mark Hunter… and Stan Bowman.

Stan Bowman is the man who drafted Kirby Dach in Chicago.

(Credit: Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images)

Stan Bowman? Yes! The NHL announced on Monday that he, Joel Quenneville and Al MacIsaac will be able to work in the NHL again as of July 10. Their respective suspensions will therefore come to an end.

It will be recalled that Bowman quit his job as GM and President of Hockey Operations for the Blackhawks after Kyle Beach revealed to the hockey world that he had been assaulted by a Hawks employee. And that everyone in Chicago had kept their mouths shut…

Fact: The Oilers have never hesitated to sign controversial players: Evander Kane, Ken Holland, Jake Virtanen… and now, Stan Bowman?

Stan Bowman’s name has also been linked to the St. Louis Blues in recent days. The Blues do, however, have a President of Hockey Operations who will be GM for another two years (Doug Armstrong), a Vice-President of Hockey Operations (Peter Chiarelli) and assistant GMs.

And one guy who will be named GM in two years: Alex Steen. #NoPlace?

Of course, Mathieu Darche’s name has been linked to a GM vacancy for the 1,000th time. #EdmontonThisTime

Joel Quenneville’s name was recently linked to the Blue Jackets, the only team still without a head coach. Will the Jackets dare to hire Quenneville a year after doing the same with Mike Babcock… who, however, never coached a single game?