What should the Oilers prioritize this offseason?

After a stunning first-round exit, the Edmonton Oilers have a lot on their plate heading into the offseason, with some tough choices to make.

On top of finding a new coach, as the team fired Kris Knoblauch before his three-year contract extension was set to kick in, Oilers general manager Stan Bowman needs to be focused on what players he should keep in the system next season, and who he should add to make to the team a legitimate Stanley Cup contender once again.

On Tuesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Jeff Marek of The Sheet joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton to discuss what Bowman should be focused on this summer.

Jeff Marek:  I think one of the first things you do is figure out whether Isaac Howard’s gonna be a full-time Oiler next year. So, if he can play, that answers the question. Two, who’s gonna play with Connor McDavid? I would expect to hear the name Jordan Kyrou a ton this offseason as someone that can skate with Connor McDavid. It’s not exactly a secret that Kyrou’s been out there for a couple of years.

You try to re-sign [Connor] Murphy, that’s probably gonna be $3.5 million, probably. If that doesn’t happen…I wonder if Michael Kesselring could be someone that could slide in there. The San Jose Sharks are looking for a defenseman, and they have a surplus of young forwards. If you’re the Oilers, is there something there with the San Jose Sharks to take Darnell Nurse for one of their excess forwards, even if it’s someone like Colin Graf? These are the kinds of things that if you’re Stan Bowman, I think you’re probably looking at right now.

The big one is the goaltender. Tristan Jarry is, at best, a backup because he’s a backup netminder. You’re still looking for a number one. I mentioned earlier about Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. I wonder if there could be something there if the Buffalo Sabres decide to move off of him. I do wonder about maybe even a bigger package, and health always being the wild card, and you cross your fingers around someone like Jiri Kulich. But could there be, like, an even bigger deal with Edmonton for someone like Kulich and, and definitely Devon Levi or Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen…Bowman’s gotta get creative here

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…