EDMONTON — The Edmonton Oilers are one of two things.

A charitable, magnanimous and forgiving organization with an open door for any wayward hockey soul seeking a second chance in the sport.

Or, they are Al Davis’ old Oakland Raiders, who were a band of NFL ne’er-do-wells who operated under the banner “Just win, baby.”

Like Oakland, Edmonton is unrepentant of its hiring practices and unfailingly welcoming of players and personnel who had worn out their welcome somewhere else.

But the thing about doling out as many “second chances” as the Oilers have is this: The more times you do it, the easier it is the next time around.

And so Zach Kassian begat Jake Virtanen, who begat Evander Kane, who begat Corey Perry, who begat Stan Bowman, who begat Mike Babcock, who begat Alex Formenton, the latest hire whose presence in Edmonton ate up the first 10 minutes of Bowman’s camp-opening news conference on Wednesday.

“We knew going into it that (the Formenton signing) was something that wasn't going to be universally accepted or embraced,” Bowman said, amid a petition challenging the signing reaching 60,000 signatures and a protest planned for outside the arena on Saturday. “That was why we spent as much time as we did going through the details of it and going through our due diligence to make sure that we believed it was the right decision to........

© Sportsnet