Oilers’ Holland Deserves Much More Blame Than Tippett

The Edmonton Oilers are in a free fall in the standings, and to say things are getting tense amongst fans would be putting it extremely lightly. Thanks to a great start to the 2021-22 campaign, the Oilers held down first place in the Pacific Division for quite some time and were considered by many to be a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.

Since that time, they have been in the midst of an awful skid in which they have lost 11 of their past 13 games. As a result, the leeway they gained from their great start is completely gone now, as they are now a point behind the L.A. Kings for the final wild-card position in the Western Conference.

To no surprise, many fans want to see change, and what easier change to make than replacing the head coach in Dave Tippett. There are plenty of interesting available candidates if the Oilers do indeed go that route. However, it is important to keep in mind that regardless of the coach, this roster has some serious flaws, which is why if anyone in Edmonton deserves to be taking heat right now, it should be general manager Ken Holland.

Offseason Cap Space Wasted

Heading into this offseason, many believed the Oilers would finally be able to fix the holes on their roster thanks to having plenty of cap space for the first time in Holland’s tenure. He did make a few solid moves, none better than the addition of Zach Hyman who was been the secondary scorer this team has craved for many seasons. However, he made some very bad bets as well, ones that are without a doubt holding this team back right now.

The biggest blunder was trading for Duncan Keith. The veteran defenceman requested a trade from the Blackhawks in order to be closer to his son, and the Oilers were supposedly the top team on his list. That should have meant that Holland held a ton of power in the trade negotiations, but it certainly didn’t appear that way given that he gave up both a draft pick and Caleb Jones, all while taking on Keith’s entire $5.5 million contract that doesn’t expire until the end of the 2022-23 season.

It appears that Holland was banking on Keith returning to his old form on the Oilers’ second pair, but that hasn’t been the case. The 38-year-old is a shell of his former self, and would best be suited as a third-pairing defenceman at this stage. The Oilers would have been much better off spending that $5.5 million elsewhere.

Another mistake he made was failing to find a third-line centerman. That was a glaring need heading into this offseason and one that he tried to address by signing Derek Ryan. Unfortunately, Ryan, who is also an aging player at 35, has really struggled with just two goals in 30 games. As a result, the Oilers are still getting little to no scoring from their bottom-six forwards, and are still relying on Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl far too often.

While the two mistakes above have been costly, however, the biggest blunder made by Holland this summer was not addressing his goaltending. Heading into the 2021-22 campaign with a 39-year-old Mike Smith and a leaky Mikko Koskinen seemed like a big gamble, and it has not paid off whatsoever. Smith has predictably had a hard time staying healthy, while Koskinen has continued his trend of allowing goals early in games which deflates his team.

Time Ticking on McDavid and Draisaitl

For a number of years, many have claimed the Oilers are wasting McDavid and Draisaitl’s prime. It is a tired argument and for some time seemed unfair given that this team seemed to be improving under Holland and Tippett. However, things have fallen off completely for them in 2021-22, and you have to wonder how their two superstar forwards are feeling about it.

Though the four years remaining on McDavid’s contract seems like a long time, the fact of the matter is they haven’t been able to accomplish much at all through his first full six seasons in the league. It doesn’t seem likely he will request a trade, but if things don’t get better in a hurry there won’t be much if any incentive for him to sign a new deal in Edmonton. The same goes for Draisaitl, who has three more seasons remaining on his deal.

The good news here is that there is still time to get things back on track for the Oilers before they risk losing two of the game’s greatest players. The bad news is that time is ticking. This means that Holland needs to figure things out and fix his mistakes in a hurry. If not, he himself could be placed on the hot seat heading into the 2022 offseason.