EDMONTON — Andrew Mangiapane isn’t just the biggest apple that Stan Bowman plucked off the free agent tree this July 1. He’s part of a changing face of an Oilers team that has learned that status quo is pretty good — but not quite good enough.
“There's a tendency for everyone to always look back to the previous season and try to just replicate the things that went well. I would challenge people to try to just turn the page on the last season and look forward to next year,” the Oilers general manager said during a Zoom call with reporters Wednesday morning. “It's going to be a different group, particularly up front, but not a wholesale new group. All the key players are back.
“It's really (about) finding the right mixture. But that's what makes it exciting.”
Cue the newest Oiler, Andrew Mangiapane, who brings an element the Oilers have simply not had enough of in recent years.
Edmonton has been hard to play against simply because of the pedigree of player at the top of its roster, and that’s important. But a top-six player who gets under the opponents' skin has been a rare sighting in Northern Alberta — like, Esa Tikkanen rare.
Until now, it seems.
“I feel like that's where I thrive,” Mangiapane said during his Zoom call. “Be on that line. Aggravate guys. Get under their skin. Be a pest. Be annoying to play against.
“I think that's what kind of makes me successful, and I'm happy to be back in Alberta and hopefully be given the opportunity to play in all situations.”
That Mangiapane is one year outside Alberta didn’t work out — traded to Washington a year ago by the team that drafted him, the Calgary Flames — is an understatement. He had his lowest points total (28) since his rookie season, and didn’t kill penalties at all for the Capitals after logging the fourth-most PK minutes among Flames forwards over the previous four seasons.
He comes to Edmonton at 29 and two games short of 500 played, where a penalty-killing role and a top-six spot next to a world-class centreman awaits. That would be the reason he reportedly left some money on the table when he signed a two-year deal with an AAV of $3.6 million to be an Oiler.
He slots in as Leon Draisaitl’s left winger — though Mangiapane preferred the right side in Calgary. Or perhaps in Bowman’s spirit of change, he may get looks with Connor McDavid, with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins centering the third line.
Does his game lend itself to a superstar centre? Remember, when Mangiapane scored 35 goals as a Flame, it was with centre Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman.
“They want the puck as much as they can,” he said of Draisaitl and McDavid. “But for me, you’ve just got to go in there and play your game. When the pass is there, make the pass. When the shot is there, shoot the puck. You can't over complicate it.
“Take some of the load yourself and that'll help them, right?”
On a roster that lost Evander Kane in its middle six and Corey Perry off its fourth line, Mangiapane’s sandpaper in the top six and Trent Frederic’s presence somewhere in the top nine is adequate replacement of lost grit. And at $3.6 million, Mangiapane brings better than 50 per cent of what Brock Boeser brings to the Vancouver Canucks at twice the price.
He scores at 80 per cent of Boeser’s rate, but kills penalties and makes your team that little bit harder to play against. He’s not an alite scorer, but if he could find 20-plus goals in Edmonton’s top six — not a big stretch — you might have a 50-point player for $3.6 million.
“The other thing we like about him is his ability to extend the play. To play a give-and-go game,” Bowman said, skills that Perry possessed but that Kane simply did not have. “He's an active player. He's also competitive player. He's not the most fun to play against.”
Also, the Oilers signed fourth-line centre Curtis Lazar, 30, to a one-year deal worth $775,000 on Wednesday. He'll provide a challenge at fourth-line centre for Noah Philp, a veteran presence that Philp will have to out-duel for the job.
It should be noted that, a year ago, Bowman spent a season recovering from a July 1 that reaped Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson, two signings that had less than desirable results. He added Vasily Podkolzin, Kasperi Kapanen, John Klingberg, Jake Walman and Frederic to his roster between his start date in August and the March trade deadline — evidence that the Oilers’ roster should not be viewed as complete.
Bowman moves on from the goalie market — for now — with no success.
“We had some conversations, but nothing really made any sense,” he said. “So, we are where we are now (because it) makes the most sense for us. We continue to have conversations, we're doing our job and talking to teams and agents, but nothing there really made any sense for us to move forward on.”
On signing Evan Bouchard to a four-year deal, not a maximum term eight-year contract, Bowman was matter of fact: “The agent (Dave Gagner) indicated that never really made sense to them. A number for an eight-year deal would be so high, it wouldn’t make sense for anybody. It was never in the cards.”
