Edmonton Oilers: Ken Holland Has Made The Team Better
On May 7, 2019, the Edmonton Oilers named Ken Holland the team’s new General Manager and President of Hockey Operations. Since then he has signed 57 contracts and made 12 trades. There are only four forwards and three defensemen the same from the last game of the 2018-2019 season.
Forward
The four players that have stayed is the core players, Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Zach Kassian. All of these, aside from Kassian, are essential to the Edmonton Oilers’ success and it is players around them that help them succeed.
In 2018-19 Connor McDavid’s top choice for wingers outside of the core players was Milan Lucic, Ty Rattie, and Tobias Rieder. If you compare that to today’s roster, there are much more skilled choices now.
Jesse Puljujarvi, Zach Hyman, and Kailer Yamamoto. This group has a lot more high-end proven skill, speed, and ability to score. Back in 2018 there was a lot of “hoping” that depth players would click with McDavid, now there is still playing with skill. Overall I think Holland has greatly improved the forward group on this team.
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Defense
There are three defensemen that are still on the Edmonton Oilers from pre-Holland, Darnell Nurse, Kris Russell, and Oscar Klefbom. Darnell Nurse just signed a new deal and will be here for a long time to come. Kris Russell has since taken a pay cut and is a very serviceable player on the back end for the Oil. Unfortunately, Oscar Klefbom’s future is unknown due to a long-lasting shoulder injury.
The rest of the defense back in 2019 consisted of Adam Larsson, Andrej Sekera, and Matt Benning. The upgrade on defense is not as noticeable as the upgrade on the forward group, but there still is an upgrade.
The addition of Tyson Barrie adds more offense than any of the original players. Duncan Keith and Cody Ceci are better at defending than Sekera and Benning. The injury to Klefbom and Larsson leaving this past season are the only negatives since Holland took over, and there is nothing he could have done to change either of those things.
Goalie
In the 2018-2019 season, the Edmonton Oilers started the season with Cam Talbot as the starting and Mikko Koskinen as the back-up goalies. When the team wasn’t having the success it was looking for, the Oilers traded Cam Talbot to the Philadelphia Flyers for Anthony Stolarz. In his first offseason, Ken Holland added Mike Smith to the team to join Koskinen. This has been the goaltending duo since then. Both goalies have played fairly well, each of them having streaks where they have struggled through.
Overall
Since Ken Holland has taken over he has been able to add depth in both the forward and defensive group. The only area I wish he would make some changes to improve is goaltending. That being said if you look at the lineup of the last game in 2018-2019, then look at the lineup now you can see that Ken Hollands’ hands have molded this team into one that should be able to compete for years to come.