What did Oda say?
manga spoilers below:
! Apparently that he'd be writing the adventures of the crew for the anime(after kuma sent them here there and everywhere), and that these would be canon. But it was reported aroundabout april fools day. I don't remember if it was ever confirmed, but given that mato said there are fillers incoming, it all seems to fit, especially since any other fillers right now would seem rather horribly out of place.
This would be very good as well since the anime is getting rather close to the manga again and I'm sure none of us want another enies lobby.