The Edmonton Oilers have spent years moving draft picks and prospects for players who could help Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl chase a Stanley Cup. Those decisions have shaped the roster that exists today. They've also changed where Edmonton has to look for its next wave of players.
Owen Michaels signed a two-year, entry-level contract after wrapping up an impressive career at Western Michigan, where he captained the Broncos on their Frozen Four run and finished as a Hobey Baker finalist. By the time his season ended, he became a player teams wanted to add.
That tends to happen with players who stay in school long enough to round out their games.
NHL teams have had longer to watch him play and develop alongside the league's next stars. They've seen them take on leadership responsibilities, handle meaningful games, and adjust over several seasons. There's still projection involved, but far less than there is when organizations are trying to imagine what an 18-year-old draft pick looks like in five years.
The Oilers have find themselves in this market quite frequently.
Aku Räty arrived from Finland earlier this summer. European professionals have become a steady source of interest. College free agents continue to receive attention because the organization needs to keep adding young players somewhere. That process doesn't stop because first-round picks have been traded away.
Stan Bowman inherited a roster built to win now, one with great talent at the top and far less certainty underneath it. Finding depth has become increasingly challenging. Finding young depth has become even more important. The salary cap leaves very little room for mistakes, and every inexpensive player who can handle the grind of an NHL season gives the team a little more flexibility somewhere else.
Those players rarely arrive with much fanfare.
Some spend years in Europe before crossing the Atlantic.
Some work their way through the American Hockey League—like Michael's will for a season or two.
Some finish college at 24 years old and begin the next chapter carrying far less attention than they deserve.
Michaels earned plenty of responsibility at Western Michigan. He played centre, won faceoffs, contributed offensively and wore the "C." Coaches trusted him.
Professional hockey demands that of their players.
The schedule gets longer, the pace gets quicker, and every other guy on the ice was the best player somewhere else at some other point in time. Bakersfield is his starting point, and there's nothing unusual about it. Plenty of NHL players have spent a season or two there, learning how to play against professionals four nights a week rather than twice on weekends. Just look at Matt Savoie, a certified top 6 winger for the Oilers.
But development has never followed one timeline.
Mike Babcock will have time to see where Michaels fits, what translates immediately and what still needs work. They'll also have another young player pushing for opportunities, and organizations are always healthier when internal competition exists.
That's part of what makes these signings worthwhile.
Every contender eventually reaches a point where affordable NHL players become almost as valuable as star players. Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard occupy a significant portion of the salary cap because they've earned those contracts. The rest of the roster has to be filled intelligently, and those solutions don't always come from the first round of the draft.
Michaels may spend most of next season in Bakersfield. He may force his way into the conversation sooner than expected. That part will sort itself out over the next year or two.
The Oilers saw enough to offer him a contract, and it's a decision that fits the direction the organization has been moving.
Edmonton has started treating college and European free agency as opportunities rather than alternatives.
For a team trying to contend every season, that's probably the way it has to be.
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