MacTavish outlines Oilers' off-season goals

Edmonton Oilers GM Craig MacTavish was interviewed by Sportsnet's Gene Principe in the first intermission of Tuesday's game with the Colorado Avalanche.

On goaltending:

"I feel good about the goaltending right now. The thing that I feel best about outside of the performance in a short period of time for both of these guys is the fact that they're both signed for next year. So it gives us some stability in the position.

"Our team wasn't strong enough at the start of the year to help Devan and Devan's game wasn't strong enough. He's a great pro, but I'm happy with our goaltending going into next year."

On defence:

"Well, there's been a lot of good things that have happened if you're an optimist in the past month or so with some of the defencemen and not the least is Oscar Klefbom. He's really playing now how I felt at the start of the year he'd be able to play, but maybe discounted the importance and the difficulty of the transition into the North American game. But you're seeing a guy who's going to be a real significant piece for us the way that he's played.

"Also Marty Marincin too has come on and played really well. Add that to Justin Schultz, who seems like a veteran but it's really only his full complete year in the NHL. Darnell Nurse on the horizon, so there are a lot of good things happening with our your defence.

"We'll see if we can get a real top-end defenceman - they're tough to find, as we know - otherwise, we'll go with some of the youth that we have here."

On forwards and what other mixes he sees as a need: 

"I think my mandate really when I came in as manager was try to turn the team over to the group of players that I really feel, and the organization feels, has to lead us out of this malaise that we've been in the last number of years. And what I've seen out of that line of Taylor Hall, Nugent-Hopkins, and Jordan Eberle tells me that we're going to have a pretty dynamic first line.

"And now we've got to find the pieces to make a very solid second line. I think that'll be a primary focus of mine going into the off-season."

On the draft and potentially targeting Leon Draisaitl or Aaron Ekblad:

"Well, I think both areas are areas of need for our hockey club and we'd be fortunate to get any one of those players that you mentioned. I don't currently have a real preference one way or the other. We'll see how the draft lottery unfolds, where we're picking, what's available and then we'll be better served to make that decision."