'Just an awesome guy': Oilers GM defends 8-year deal for veteran winger

Yahoo

5 days ago

This in from Edmonton Oilers GM Stan Bowman, his explanation to co-hosts John Shannon and Daren Millard of the 100% Hockey podcast about why Bowman gave an eight-year contract to tough veteran winger Trent Frederic. Frederic recently signed the deal as an unrestricted free agent, with the contract paying him $3.85 million per year.
Frederic had been acquired in a March 2025 deal with Boston, along with Max Jones and prospect Petr Hauser. Edmonton gave up second and fourth round picks, as well as the the rights to unsigned draft choice Shane Lachance (going to New Jersey to retain 50% of Frederic's salary for the remainder of the 2024-25 season).
Said Bowman of the 6-foot- 3-inch, 220-pound, 27-year-old Frederic: 'He's just an awesome guy, first of all. Like outside of the hockey, he's a guy that you believe in, you want him as part of your team. So I really like the character of Freddie, but that alone is not the reason to sign a guy to a long-term deal.
'But I think a couple of things about him. Number one, he's a very unique player with the skillset that he has. He's a big guy, he's a physical player, he's not afraid. He's got that intimidation factor where he'll go to the other team's bench and challenge anybody, like stop messing around with our group. That's something that I find, you either have that or you don't. It's really hard to bluff your way through that. And he's just naturally that way… No one has to tell him you need to go tell the other team to settle it down here. That's just who he is. So I think, and he's also got the versatility of playing center and wing.'
Bowman continued: 'And he's scored, you know, he scored what, 18 goals twice in a row at a fairly young, younger age. So I think he's got the game in him. And I think when you add all that up, it comes down to he's a very unique player. It's not like if we passed on Frederic, we'll just go get so-and-so, who's maybe a little different, but the same type of player. Not a lot of guys like that out there. They just aren't anymore.'
Bowman added that Edmonton signed Frederic knowing that it was bringing in a few smaller forwards in Ike Howard and Matt Savoie. 'So I knew we were gonna have a couple smaller guys that I wanted someone with some physicality and some size. And so when you add that all up, I think, you know, he's someone that is gonna be an important player and we're gonna be happy to have him with our group for years to come.'
My take
1. First off, Millard and Shannon do an excellent job interviewing Bowman. It's as forthcoming and open as I've heard Bowman in an interview.
2. When I first heard that Frederic was going to sign here for eight years, I didn't like the idea much, but I've come around to it for a few reasons. To get Frederic at that annual salary of $3.85 million, the Oilers needed to go long-term. It would have been better if they could have kept this same deal to about six years, but the low cap hit is needed just now with Edmonton cap-strapped for the next few seasons.
3. When we look at somewhat comparable players we see Utah signed Jack McBain for five years at $4.25 million per, Boston signed Tanner Jeannot, five years, $3.4 million per, and New Jersey signed checker Connor Brown four years, $3.00 million per. Frederic is in the same range as McBrain as a player, at least when Frederic is healthy. Jeannot isn't the point scorer that Frederic and McBain are, while Brown isn't the physical player that any of the others are.
4. One of the hardest things to find in the NHL is a tough, physical intimidating player who can hold his own in the Top 9. The Oilers have let two such players, Dylan Holloway and Evander Kane, out of their grasp in the last two summers. That's a huge loss to the team. Bowman is right that he needed to add that kind of player to his roster. If Edmonton is going to win a Cup, it's going to need plenty of toughness. Frederic was playing hurt and was a mediocre two-way player in the 2025 playoffs, but if he can regain his health, he's the real deal when it comes to NHL power forwards.
5. Over the last three regular season, if we rank forwards on hits and points per 60 minutes of even strength play, Frederic ranks 22nd overall. McBain ranks 17th, Jeannot 154th and Brown 425th.