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Oilers NOW with Bob Stauffer

Former NHL Executive Brian Lawton (5/26/26)

26 May 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 23.153 Bob Stauffer

Hey, it's Bob Stauffer. I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to Oilers Now ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Welcome back, everybody. It's 5.07 in oil country. Bob Stauffer out of the home office in downtown Edmonton in Ice District. Our spotlight conversation this hour coming up is going to be with Brian Lawton.

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23.825 - 46.57 Bob Stauffer

Well, there's now Spotlight brought to you by Cowan Graphics, trusted for over 80 years to bring your brand to life. Proudly Canadian, visit cowan.ca, Cowan, part of the Burke Group. You can keep texting us on the Ashley Fine Floors text line, 780-451-8800. Get the new floors you always wanted at Ashley Fine Floors, 143rd Street, 111th Avenue, open Monday to Saturday.

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47.011 - 65.543 Bob Stauffer

Of course, we're on the River Cree Resort Casino Hotline at all times, 780-451-8800. The River Cree Resort Casino Excitement Bed on it. You can catch exclusive video clips, highlights, and more on the Order Is Now X account and ADD Ched's YouTube channel, proudly presented by Legacy Heating and Cooling.

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65.81 - 92.956 Bob Stauffer

We'll also mention the guests on the show receive gift certificates to Roos Chris Steakhouse, a 500 degree sizzle prime cuts and service that stuns. Make your next date night or celebration unforgettable. At Edmonton's Best Steakhouse, open seven days a week, 5 p.m. to close. It is Roos Chris Steakhouse. Kellen, how are we doing?

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Chapter 2: What insights does Brian Lawton share about the NHL?

93.457 - 121.77 Bob Stauffer

Should I read some texts or? Okay, I don't know what's quite going on there, but again, you can text us on the Ashley Fine Floors text line, 780-451. This text comes in saying, hey, Bob, why is your news station so anti-Alberta and anti-UCP all the time during these updates? Really? Okay, well, I guess you feel that way. I don't know. Yeah.

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123.05 - 150.019 Bob Stauffer

Do you think Naheed Nenshi could be a goaltending prospect? I don't know. Wow. We're getting lots coming in here. IMAX jumped in. What's going on here? Like, okay, there it is. Again, you can text. We're getting like back texts from three or four days ago that have just flooded into our 780-451-8800.

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150.893 - 174.019 Bob Stauffer

Uh, exchange again, and that's the Ashley five floors text line, Bob, how does a pecking order work for a waiver player? For instance, if Sebastian Kosa gets those on waivers, who gets the first crack at them that comes to us from RV in the Grove? Uh, well, it would be at the start of the year based on a retroactively, uh, the standings last year.

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174.88 - 202.938 Bob Stauffer

So the Vancouver Canucks who came in dead last, they would have the first crack at Sebastian Kosa. Theoretically, that is. And then once the season gets going for a couple weeks, then there's a scenario where you based it on the current standings for the season. What? Okay, well, there you go. This text comes in on the Ashley Fine Floors text line.

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202.958 - 227.67 Bob Stauffer

Bob, Mike Babcock is the best coach available outside of Cassidy. There are players that hated Scotty Bowman, but he was the best coach in NHL history. We don't need a coach the players love. We need a coach that wins. And the only goal is to win. Wait it out for Cassidy. But if that doesn't go your way, you have to go for Babcock. His teams have always played better than Laviolette's teams.

228.271 - 256.052 Bob Stauffer

And Babcock has been amazing at integrating younger players into the lineup. Uh, and every team that wins needs players on ELCs to overperform their contracts. Well, I mean, let's got a pretty good track record too, in fairness. And some would say that, uh, Babcock, uh, ended up, uh, doing well, uh, partially, uh, because he was in Detroit. All right.

256.072 - 287.308 Bob Stauffer

And that played a factor in him winning that Stanley cup in 2008. We're still working on getting Brian here. Bob, talk about Bill Cowboy Flett for memories. Well, I went to high school with Bill's son, Dean Flett. So Bill, unfortunately, passed away too early. Scored 40 goals once for the Philadelphia Flyers. Good player and was an older experience time as the Oilers broke into the NHL.

288.069 - 300 Bob Stauffer

Bob, there's some real smoke around COSA. Would you be comfortable with the jury COSA tandem? I think that would a little bit like jury needs to bounce back. I don't think there's any question about that. I think that's a fair question.

301.041 - 325.545 Bob Stauffer

I mean, if you have a jury close to tandem, are you saving basically $2 million on another goaltender that you can apply to a forward and get a better top six forward? And we don't know what's going to happen on the defense. So, Josh, that's a fair question to ask because I don't necessarily know if everybody's got the answer to that. Bob, what about the goalies in Bakersfield?

Chapter 3: How does the waiver process work for NHL players?

689.088 - 716.477 Bob Stauffer

Because that occurred just after Ken Holland had stepped down as the general manager. But Holland brought Jeff Salako in from Detroit. And Edmonton stepped up and took a swing on a guy in the second round, Emil Vinny. And I'm just trying to find. Yeah, he spent the season with. two different teams in the Mestas, like division two in Finland.

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716.598 - 742.777 Bob Stauffer

Like right now he is not tracking like a second round pick. They also then turn around and drafted a guy by the name of Daniel Salonen in the sixth round of 2025. And he is the number one goalie for Luko Rama in the SM league in division one. So he's tracking better. than the Vinnie kid who was the second rounder. And some people just think goalies are voodoo. Like they're super hard to project.

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742.797 - 770.57 Bob Stauffer

Cause we've have, we got people asking us like, you know, what's going on? What are the orders going to do? They drafted a guy named, uh, where the heck is, where did he go there? Uh, Samuel Johnson, the one year. And I drafted Nathaniel day who spent some time. He's a six round pick in 2023, uh, And he was in the coast this year in Fort Wayne and had an eight 93 save percentage in 39 games.

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770.59 - 791.091 Bob Stauffer

That's in the ECHL. And then in what year was that? Yeah. In 2022, they drafted a fifth rounder named Samuel. So they've drafted like a goal in every year. And Johnson's had the best year. Samuel Johnson has had the best year of anybody. He's at nine 39, six and two in the ECHL playoffs. So they got a lot of guys, but I think we can all agree.

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791.151 - 795.235 Bob Stauffer

They don't have anybody as close to Cosa as a higher end prospect. Is that fair?

796.632 - 802.223 Brian Lawton

That's more than fair. They don't have anybody that even looks remotely like him. That's part of the dilemma.

804.588 - 827.583 Bob Stauffer

And then you have input from somebody who's like the highest drafted guy they got right now is tracking the worst and trending the worst. I'm going to be really intrigued to see what the Oilers do here. Because... You know, Detroit has a glut of goaltending prospects. Like Boston has Michael DiPietro. He's been unbelievable in the AHL the last couple of years.

828.023 - 850.325 Bob Stauffer

Devin Levi is in Buffalo's organization. A lot of people might like... Well, a year ago, I don't think anybody would have thought that either DiPietro or Levi Bryan would have been better than Kosa. Kosa was a two-time AHL All-Star going into the season. He was 17-1-1 this year at one point. So I'm just saying... Right. It's a distressed asset.

850.345 - 852.988 Bob Stauffer

You don't have to try to capitalize on a distressed asset.

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