Oilers purposefully announce controversial hire when media is absent

The Oilers are a team that seems to be constantly surrounded by controversy, and their most recent GM hiring is another move that brings great controversy to the team. The team seems to know this, which is why they revealed this decision at a very strategic point.

The Oilers' press conference was planned for earlier today, at a time when many media leaders were attending Mark Spector's media golf tournament.

This isn't the biggest issue on its own, but the Oilers had also announced the Stan Bowman hiring just earlier in the day. The Oilers had strategically made sure that their announcements would go as quietly as possible, making sure there was as little media as possible.

Jeff Jackson spent the press conference trying to justify the signing, but it just doesn't make any sense. Bowman had just been cleared by the NHL for his role in the Blackhawks scandal, but that didn't mean that he was the only candidate available.

Most of the press conference was spent defending the hiring and Bowman's accountability since the coverup. If you have to spend the whole press conference defending the man you're hiring, it probably isn't a worthy hiring to make.

The scheduling of the announcement and the press conference show that the Oilers and Jeff Jackson understand the controversy around the hiring. It's a great question why if they understand the backlash they would go through with the hiring, but it's what the Oilers have decided to stick behind. Hopefully Bowman has fully learned from his inexcusable mistakes, and Bowman can operate as GM with great effectivity.