Did ex-Oilers GM Ken Holland catch Jim Rutherford's senioritis?
I'm starting to wonder if Ken Holland is losing his edge. Jim Rutherford is now the president of the Vancouver Canucks but prior to that he was the GM of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and while he is credited with largely building the team that won three Stanley Cups, it seems that a form of senioritis kicked in after that.
After becoming Kings GM earlier in the offseason, Holland is not off to a good start as he made three very questionable signings, leading one to believe if Holland may be suffering from the lack of edge that has shown up in three free agent signings for the Kings.
First off, he signed Cody Ceci as a free agent.......for $18 million over four years! That's an AAV of $4.5 million a season! Ceci got traded from the Oilers in 2024 for a reason - and he didn't really redeem himself very well in either San Jose or Dallas last season. If you want to sign Ceci, fine, but let's just be honest, why would you sign a struggling blueliner for four seasons at that high a cap hit? What would've been wrong with a 2 * $2Mill? What a ridiculous signing for Holland. Then, to be on the other side of Ceci, Holland goes and signs the overcooked Brian Dumoulin to be his partner. Dumoulin is 33 years old now, and since leaving Pittsburgh hasn't exactly set the league on fire. I highly doubt there was this much demand for Dumoulin that you needed to sign him for $12 million over three seasons. What would've been wrong with a one year deal for $1.5 million?
If these two contracts fail for the Kings - which at this point looks like they most certainly will - you'll have a heck of a time moving both of them as both are now bottom pairing blueliners signed for way too much and way too long. Dumoulin will be 36 when his contract ends, while Ceci will be 35. The biggest joke of all, though? Holland now has the dubious honor of paying his bottom pairing defencemen $8.5 million per season - compare this to the Oilers who will be paying Jake Walman and Ty Emberson only $4.7 million, almost half of what Holland is paying his guys. That is a HORRIBLE use of cap space and Holland will regret that when Brandt Clarke is due his big boy contract and he's stuck paying these two so he won't have the cap space he needs to give it to him - or at least will have to move some warm bodies out to make room. It should be pretty obvious that the big money should be spent at the top of the roster, not the bottom. A further head scratcher is most of the Kings core players are either approaching 30 or on the wrong side of 30 already - which means they needed to get younger this offseason, not older. They have effectively gotten older and slower with these two players in the fold now.
Speaking of getting older, let's talk about the icing on the cake - signing Corey Perry for $4,000,000 including bonuses? What exactly was Holland thinking here? I like Corey Perry as a player, but I would never be suckered into signing him for that high a cap hit. He should've been signed for half that at most. How much juice do you think he has left at the age of 41? At least Holland had the good sense to only sign him for one year. The irony of this is Perry wanted another cup before he retires, but LA is not a Cup contending team, only a playoff contending team. The Oilers are living rent free in these players' heads after beating them in the first round for four years straight. Perry has a much better chance at winning the Cup here, not with the Kings. If he truly wanted to win he should've stayed here, not left for there. If he makes a little less $$, that should be a reasonable price to pay for a guy who wants to win. I guess we knew where Perry's loyalties lay when he made his decision. Not to mention if he gets injured - which he might at the age of 41, you've effectively signed him for nothing.
The staggering thought is assuming Perry hits on all his bonuses, the Kings are effectively wasting $12.5 million in cap space for next season plus almost that much for the next two after that. Imagine the type of player you could sign for that $$.......
This and that
Jesse Puljujarvi's NHL career is over
Remember the Finnish Not-Flash? His NHL career is over as he signed on for a team in the Swiss league next season, to the surprise of no one. Puljujarvi was well traveled last season as he split time between Pittsburgh's farm team and Florida's farm team as well as the Penguins and Panthers - worth noting he didn't play a single game for the Panthers in the playoffs, only five regular season games, so the Oilers didn't play against him in the Finals. Too bad - they could've torched him for a goal or two, amirite?