6 Choices for Oilers on the future of Ken Holland
By Phil Gretzky
6) Holland comes back for another five years
Holland was at the helm when Detroit won three Stanley Cups, so he’s felt the high of winning the Cup as an executive. There are very few clubs where he has a better chance to do that than here in Edmonton, with the two best players on the planet signed and sealed.
If Holland is the energetic, go-go-go type that always needs to be active and in the thick of things, he might want to stick with the status quo despite being 68 years old. He clearly hasn’t lost his touch and even though his Oilers teams have experienced some success they still haven’t won the ultimate prize, and for some hockey people that’s the kind of thing that can really gnaw at you. Based on his experience in his last days in Detroit, I have to believe at least part of that is still present with his current self as GM with the Oilers. Maybe not, but I have a gut feeling it might still be.
Holland has never once struck me as a guy who’s sick of his job or overwhelmed by it. He always seems to relish the challenge of improving his team in any way possible, in improving the cap situation, in making the appropriate moves at the trade deadline and in the offseason.
Want your voice heard? Join the Oil On Whyte team!
In the short term, he’ll have to undo his mistake on Campbell, whether that gets fixed with a trade or not. He would no doubt like to shake up the bottom six a little. Ryan Mcleod has really come on the last two games, but other than him by and large the bottom six hasn’t been able to consistently deliver offence the same way they did last season.
Then on D, there’s the question of what to do with Philip Broberg and the soap opera he and his agent have created.
I don’t know if a GM is ever really satisfied with his team, and Holland just strikes me as that guy who would have a lot of regret walking away from the job at the wrong time.
If he can deliver a cup, or two, or three between now and when his next contract is up, perhaps Holland may be ready to call it quits at that point, or maybe he won’t quit until Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl retire, and leave the job of a rebuild to someone else.
Next. Top 3 Oilers from comeback win over Wild. dark
If Holland can deliver three Cups to two different NHL franchises, he would most definitely go down as one of the most legendary GMs of all time. That’s got to hold some compelling sway for him. At any rate, we’ll see what happens after the season is up, as we’ll probably never really know until then.