Edmonton Oilers general manager fielded questions for over 30 minutes on Wednesday as the media asked him about everything from injuries, contracts, coaching, and more. Much of the time focused on the controversial decision to sign Alex Formenton, and Bowman was ready.

When asked for his thoughts on the reaction around Edmonton to the signing, Bowman admitted, "Yeah, I would say we knew going into it that this was something that wasn't going to be universally accepted or embraced."

He added that it was the reason the Oilers spent as much time as they did going through the details of what an offer to Formenton might look like and how it would be received. Bowman stood by the belief that the organization did its due diligence and wanted to get to a point where they felt the right decision could be made.

It doesn't mean everyone was ever going to love it.

"I guess what I would say is, I understand that people are going to view it differently, and that's okay. That's one of the things that I'm a big believer in: that we don't all have to agree on everything here, and people are entitled to their opinions and have strong feelings on it."

He added, "But we did put a lot of time and consideration into that. We also knew that it is something that is a polarizing topic, and that's why we did spend as much time looking into it to get us to the point where we do feel comfortable. Alex is member of our team. He's going to be, and we believe that he's going to be an asset to our team, on the ice, but also as a teammate."

Bowman emphasized that the person they signed just a couple of weeks ago is not the person who was involved in that incident in 2018. "You know, I've had a lot of conversations with Alex, and you know, he's grown a lot in the intervening years, from where he was then to where he is now, and he's shown that growth." Not only that, but immediately after the allegations surfaced, Hockey Canada quickly separated Formenton from the other players in terms of his involvement.  They recommended his reinstatement far sooner than any of the others, which played a role as the Oilers did more digging. 

This Oilers organization has seen plenty of players and executives come through with checkered pasts. That was mentioned on Wednesday, to which Bowman, who was among those offered a fresh start, said he understands "that some people maybe do have fatigue from that."

The Oilers will have their process, Formenton will have his, and the fans will have theirs. "That's understandable," said the GM. "I think each person is going to have to navigate that the way that feels right to them. It's not for me to say whether they should or shouldn't feel a certain way."

Bowman is grateful for the second chance. He's seen firsthand how feelings can change. "I think, as an organization, I've really felt the support of being here myself. You know, trying to make a positive impact on the group that you're with, and you know, it is a privilege to be here working in this city for these for the fans here. I've I've been blown away by the support that the fans show to the team here."

He saw it from a distance before he joined the Oilers, and he realized that passion can come with frustration. "But there's certainly nothing like it here, being part of it. So you want to do right by the community, and you want to make people proud of you." I think that's really maybe the message I would say is we're trying to do the right thing and give us a chance to make them proud and be judged on what we do moving forward here."

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