Article content continued

Interim GM Keith Gretzky certainly seems like he’ll have a large role going forward but many others are wondering where they stand: Scott Howson (VP of player development), Duane Sutter (VP of player personnel), Bill Scott (director of salary cap management) and the amateur and pro scouts.

Q: At your just-completed pro meetings did you talk about what kind of players you need, like better bottom-six guys, wingers who can score?

A: “We went over all the Edmonton Oilers players, talked about last year’s Oiler team, talked about Bakersfield and which players might have a chance with us … are they just American League players? Then Scott Howson made a presentation on all the Oiler prospects (junior, college), giving us a time-line on the (Evan) Bouchards and (Dmitri) Samorukovs.”

Q: Do you feel you’ve got a good book on the other NHL teams?

A: “We went over the other 30 teams, all the unrestricted free agents we might look at. We talked about what we liked or didn’t like. It’s like fantasy hockey where you throw around ideas, so when I’m on the phone talking to another general manager I can bring up a name. There is a rumour mill, there’s information I’ve gathered as general manager in Detroit, that Keith Gretzky gathered when he was doing this job. Yes, we’re looking at teams that missed the playoffs, are they more interested in making changes (trades) to their teams?

“Keith Gretzky talked to us this week about what possible trades were out there in the three months he was working the phones as general manager of the Oilers. We talked about what we had to do between now and mid-July to build the team.