Tag Archives: Ken Holland

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors

Edmonton Oilers Organized Chaos: What the Hockey Pundits are Saying about the Oilers GM Search

Yesterday was a bit of a clown show with regards to the news on the Edmonton Oilers GM search. We were told Keith Gretzky was a front runner and then at the end of the night we were told he was out. Other pundits told us that Ken Holland hasn’t even been contacted and then shortly thereafter we were informed that he’s the leading contender for the job…

And then there are these tweets this morning from Ryan Rishaug and Jim Matheson.

https://twitter.com/NHLbyMatty/status/1124294204547579904

I think there’s a feeling within the club that they’ve liked how Gretzky has pulled things together and that it’s better the devil you know than the one you don’t. Nicholson has a working history with Keith Gretzky now that he doesn’t have with Mark Hunter but I do wonder if the Oilers current interim GM would be willing to work under Hunter with an eye towards being poached by another team in the future. Would Hunger agree to that? All very interesting…

More information will come but I wanted to go through and quote all these different hockey pundits from just yesterday to show you how nuts this is and how the Oilers are either loving this because they’re orchestrating it or how bad it really is in the organization right now.

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1) Let’s start at the beginning of the day (May 2nd) with the Dustin Nielson Show (TSN) who had Darren Dreger on to talk about the Oilers GM search.

  • On the leading candidate: I wouldn’t be shocked at all if Mark Hunter emerges as the next GM of the Edmonton Oilers.
  • On Ken Holland being 100% out of the hiring process: It feels close to 100% but I never box in because you never know. Everything that we’ve been told as a group at TSN is that Nicholson and Kenny Holland would’ve had a number of conversations that would’ve lead up to the Detroit Red Wings naming Steve Yzerman as the general manager and pushing Holland further up the executive ladder of the Red Wings org.Detroit wouldn’t have done that without consent from Ken Holland, but Kenny Holland loves to be in the fight. He is an active guy… Part of me wonders if Holland is going to be satisfied professionally if he’s not in that fight.

    But I go back to what I said 30 seconds before about the relationship between Holland and Nicholson. Nicholson would’ve known weeks ago that Ken Holland wasn’t going to truly be a candidate for the Edmonton Oilers because they probably, loosely, because there are some legalities here, would’ve shared some information and I’d be more surprised if Nicholson hasn’t used Ken Holland as a resource in potentially vetting some of the candidates that he’s talked to.

    I’m not saying it’s 100% dead but unless something’s changed in the last 5-7 days, I don’t see Ken Holland being the next GM in Edmonton. 

2) Next up we move on to Lowetide’s show where he had Frank Seravalli on to give his two cents on this whole thing.

  • On how attractive the Oilers GM position is and Ken Holland: It depends on where you were coming from and what you were doing. To me, I’m a glass-half-full guy, if I have a chance to run a team with Connor McDavid at my disposal with the rabid fanbase that supports your team like no other. To me, I don’t mind having to come in maybe tear some things up or burn some things down to try and make that work and put my own stamp on it because if you can make the Edmonton Oilers a winner, you know, there’s no better job in pro sports in my opinion. With the feedback and support you get from town and that community, I mean, it’s phenomenal, it’s second-to-none.If you’re Ken Holland and you’ve won three Stanley Cups and I don’t know how many presidents trophies and you’ve been in this league for 25 years, is that the job you wanna take? Is that how hard you wanna work? 
  • On Keith Gretzky: The best thing that Keith Gretzky has done since he’s been in this role has been to bring everybody back together again. He’s done a great job of mending some fences in that front office, getting everyone on board, being the communicator and team player that I think has made him and kept him in the mix in terms of this position moving forward.

3) Elliotte Friedman discussed the Oilers on this week’s 31 Thoughts Podcast and here’s what they had to say,

  • This week I expect the Oilers to get clarity now that the u18s are over on Kelly McCrimmon and Ken Holland. From what I can tell, the Oilers did not have the “official written permission” to interview Kelly McCrimmon. So they were hoping to get that this week.I’ve been on Ken Holland since the beginning as the guy I believe is no. 1 on Bob Nicholson’s list. I think they’ll also find out this week if Ken Holland is a legit contender, legitimately interested. If Ken Holland is interested, I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if they offer him the job and see what he says.
  • One of the things I’ve heard is that Steve Yzerman legitimately wanted Ken Holland there, he wants him there to bounce ideas off of.
  • After I wrote the list of guys who interviewed, I forgot to add someone. Bill Zito interviewed for the Oilers GM job. (Sean Burke, John Ferguson, Mike Futa, Ross Mahoney, Scott Mellanby). I left out Bill Zito. That’s a name somebody told me.
  • What somebody told me is not everybody suggested a quick recovery. Apparently, there were some people there that said, ‘You’re gonna have to take some more pain if you want to do this right.’ Maybe more than one (candidate) said this. ‘The way you get yourself into trouble is you try to trade your way out of these problems. You may have to take a couple years more pain to get better.’
  • You take a look at Ken Holland. He’s done it both ways in Detroit, right? Like, Detroit’s way was. ‘We’re going to keep our playoff streak alive.’ So he made moves to keep their playoff streak alive.
  • But if you take a look at it now, Larkin looks like he’s a player. Athanasiou looks like he’s a player. Mantha is up and down but he’s still there, Bertuzzi looks like he’s a player. They are stocked with picks and prospects. I know there are people killing Holland in the interim but when this team is good again, a lot of his pieces, whether they’re draft picks or prospects, are gonna be part of it. People are going to notice that. So he’s done it both ways. I’m curious to know what he’s going to say.
  • If I really believe that the guy who says two more years is right, I go there. Now I realize I’m not sitting in that chair, but if you bring somebody in and they make a bunch of trades that go badly, they could go well, but if they go badly, that’s always tied to you. That’s one thing where you have to go to McDavid and say, ‘This is what we’re thinking.’
  • But I think it’s really interesting that guys would go in there and say, ‘Okay… It’s gonna take some time.’

4) The Jason Gregor Show had a few guests on that chimed in on this including Gregor himself, former Oiler defensive legend Jason Strudwick, and Ryan Rishaug. Here are some quotes from Gregor’s show yesterday.

  • Gregor: Holland isn’t really in from what I’ve been told.
  • Strudwick: Keith Gretzky, who I’ve said in the past, has an advantage over other people, not that he’s ahead, but he’s got an advantage on people because of the fact that he has a plan in place here and now.
  • Strudwick: This idea of a 3-headed monster where everyone has equal say, why would he (Hunter) do that?… If Mark Hunter is here, I believe he’s the GM.
  • Gregor: Rishaug said that Sean Burke is out of the race. Like I’ve said all along, I’ve thought it was Mark Hunter. Now here’s the thing, a lot of people think it’s Hunter and Keith Gretzky.
  • Gregor: Do you think the Oilers, the reaction to season ticket holders, and at this point, no offense to non-season ticket holders; because right now when you have renewals for season seat holders, that’s your priority today. Once season seat renewals are up, now it changes and it’s open to everybody.I’m curious if they’re leery of that impacting season ticket renewals where it looks like you didn’t make an actual change and you’ve kept somebody from within.
  • Strudwick: Who is the best candidate and do we truly feel that this is the best choice? And if it’s Keith Gretzky and you feel he’s the best one, then it might hurt you in the short term, yes Gregs, there’s no doubt about it. But with the name association, I think it would hurt the team. But if you firmly believe that long-term that he is the right guy, I think you win those fans back by the success that happens under his regime and that’s Keith Gretzky’s regime.
  • Strudwick: Keith Gretzky has a plan in place now. He has the plan. If he’s hired in 5 minutes, his plan starts at 4 pm. Boom! ‘Thanks for hiring me!’ and he starts making adjustments to the group whatever he feels on the ice, off the ice, whatever it is.
  • Gregor: I’ll say this for Keith Gretzky, he wasn’t here for the Hall and Reinhart trades. I spoke pretty candidly about the Caggiula trade, that had numerous people tell me that I trust that that was more of a GM with a little bit of input from the head coach and no one else.
  • Rishaug on Holland resurfacing: The wildcard is Ken Holland and a change of heart from Ken Holland to me. Then you look at Pierre LeBrun’s tweet, his understanding that Holland is currently taking stock of what lies ahead for him. Edmonton remains a possibility. Seattle is of intrigue or he could stay on in Detroit. But it seems like Holland will want to resurface at some point as a GM somewhere.So, a Ken Holland change of heart that felt like a wildcard a number of hours ago based on that tweet from Pierre LeBrun I think becomes a bit more realistic. I would say, I don’t know what the chances are, I don’t know how to handicap it, but I guess what I’d say is that I believe that if Ken Holland wanted to be a general manager, he would be a prime candidate for the Oilers that Bob Nicholson would have extreme interest in him and it’s just a matter of if Holland wanted to be here (Edmonton).

    So with the news that he may be interested, it definitely shakes things up quite a bit and he would move into the pole position in my opinion, IF he’s interested.

  • Rishaug on Sean Burke: I think he was close. I think Burke was a darkhorse that really impressed and it wouldn’t surprise me if moving forward he’s not in the mix if he wants to be, for some other positions that become available. I think he raised some eyebrows and impressed and there’s an appetite to potentially have him part of things and maybe he’s a, not necessarily the guy in this moment, but maybe the guy in the making.
  • Rishaug on Keith Gretzky: I think they’d worry a tremendous amount about the optics of it, but I think that if they feel he’s the best man for the job, they’ve got to hire him. I don’t think that you don’t hire Keith Gretzky because you’re worried about optics. If you go through this whole rigamarole and this whole process if you’re Bob Nicholson, you bring in all these people and you talk to them and you decide that Keith Gretzky’s presentation and his vision is what the organization needs, you gotta hire him. That’s the hardest decision Nicholson would have to make to hire Keith Gretzky in that role.
  • Rishaug on Holland Pt.2: By going back to someone who’s had success in the past, there is some risk in that.A couple of the things that would draw you to Ken Holland were Detroit’s absolute iron-clad reputation as an organization that handled development extremely well. They didn’t rush people. They had lots of home-grown talent. Their attitude towards development was solid and they were known for that and I think that’s very attractive if you’re the Edmonton Oilers based on what their problems have been.

    I think there’s also a willingness to be open and work with different people and not be somebody who’s just going to go in there and close your office door and do everything yourself. I think he would be an inclusive type of guy. I think that’s a draw for them.

    The other thing he’s shown he can do is develop good people underneath him. He’s developed some exceptional people underneath him and maybe that’s part of this as well. You want a guy that can do it now for sure but there’ve been a number of guys, the Jim Nills of the world, Steve Yzermans, and people like this. Maybe it’s a tandem type thing. Maybe it’s Ken Holland overseeing everything but then it IS a more increased role for Keith Gretzky developing into that role eventually. I don’t know.

    I think maybe Nicholson after McCrimmon falls off the board, maybe it’s about circling back and making sure and double-checking. Maybe increasing an offer before going down the path of the next candidate.

    Nicholson has to be careful here. This is dragging out and people need answers too.

  • Rishaug on Keith Gretzky pt. 2: I think Keith Gretzky is a good candidate for this job and I know that’s an unpopular opinion to hold in this city because people tend to get irate over it and I’m sure the Oilers take notice of that. But Keith Gretzky has been around this game a long time and he’s got lots of experience and he’s done things on his own. Nevermind the name, people need to get that out of their head that if he gets the job it has anything to do with his name, it doesn’t. It has everything to do with his accomplishments.

5) Next is a clip from yesterday’s TSN Overdrive that involves mostly Bob McKenzie and Gord Miller discussing Ken Holland with Jamie McLennan chiming in briefly. The feeling here that I got listening to this is similar to what you’ve already read, IF Holland wants the GM’s job in Edmonton, he can have it but there’s no indication (yet) that he wants it.

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors

Edmonton Oilers Rumors: Gretzky Leading the Pack for Oilers GM Job? Kypreos says it’s Holland Though.

I’ll start this off by saying that this morning’s post regarding Mark Spector saying the Oilers had interviewed Kelly McCrimmon, well I guess that has been privately denied. I was in touch with another source and was told that they’d dug into that quote and was informed by their own source that improper wordage was used. That wasn’t what Spector intended to say.

Believe what you will, but I’m not really buying that. Spec prefaced that quote very clearly as one he could share with us. If he misworded or what he said wasn’t the intended, a) he would’ve gone public and corrected it or b) he would’ve said what he meant to. It was a prepared statement.

I’m also of the belief that we’re hearing what both McCrimmon’s party and the Oilers’ want us to hear.

So where do we go from here?

*EDIT* I wrote an entire piece here on the premise that Keith Gretzky was the front-runner for the job, but Nick Kypreos has just said this during the Sharks/Avs intermission:

So you can continue to read on if you like as there’s some information in this post that still pertains but it looks like things have changed on the GM front in Edmonton… Or at least that’s what we’re being told. 

Is Ken Holland the big fish? What happens if he passes? Are we back to Gretzky and Hunter? This is going to be fun!!!

Well, the common belief is that Mark Hunter has jumped to the front of the queue but when I asked around about that I was told that that might be the public perception NOT the internal one.

What I’m understanding there is that the order of preference has changed now that McCrimmon is out and now it looks like this:

  1. Ken Holland
  2. Keith Gretzky
  3. Mark Hunter

I’d read about a possible 3-headed management team consisting of Sean Burke and Keith Gretzky serving as assistant general managers with Mark Hunter as GM but that was quickly refuted. Instead, it was passed along that if the Oilers can’t convince Ken Holland to join the team (aka “make him an offer he can’t refuse”) that they’d prefer to install Gretzky as GM.

For those thinking of a Holland/Gretzky tandem, I’m not sure I see that happening. I don’t feel that Holland would leave a very cushy position in DET as their POHO to go to Edmonton to be the Oilers’ POHO. But if you’ve been listening to Kurt Leavins and Elliotte Friedman, they’ve been pumping Holland’s tires for quite some time now…

There are some things to be worried about with Holland as GM though and my friend SPR who’s a Red Wings supporter out of London, Ont. has spoken to this in the past,

https://twitter.com/TheOilKnight/status/1118505355636396032

https://twitter.com/TheOilKnight/status/1122957248194420736

Why is this team so fearful of big change? I guess there isn’t a fear of big change, that is just what it seems like.

Of course that’s what it seems like!

You have a gentleman who is considered as talented as Kelly McCrimmon in Mark Hunter and he’s going to want full control. So the idea is to go with someone else? Even after you’ve interviewed him twice already? That’s not going to play well with Hunter or other GMs in the future when it’s time to go down that road again…

No disrespect to Gretzky and his 19 years in the NHL over Hunter’s three, but this seems a bit fishy. I’ve never heard Kretzky’s name bandied about as a possible GM candidate for other clubs… Ever. But I have heard Mark Hunter’s, Mike Futa’s, Bill Zito’s, etc.

Why is that?

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Then you’ve got Jim Matheson wondering if Gretzky would leave the Oilers much in the way that Hunter left Toronto when Kyle Dubas was chosen over him as GM of the Leafs.

I suppose that’s a possibility, has anybody been calling and asking for permission to talk to him? His contract expires at the end of June… But maybe, just maybe, that might be what’s best for the Oilers.

What if the best thing for the organization is if all of the guys that have been with the club through the decade(+2) of darkness got jobs with other teams? Why does the playing roster have to be rebuilt but not the executive one?

Bob Stauffer said to keep an eye out for what current IIHF president Rene Fasel is doing? If he goes to run the KHL, there’s a strong chance Bob Nicholson would get the push to be the new president of the IIHF.

Then we have Ray Ferraro saying that this GM search for the Oilers is going poorly. I call bullshit on that too. Remember last summer when Carolina was trying to hire a GM and candidates were turning them down? THAT is a bad GM search and I don’t recall those execs who turned them down doing it because they were getting promoted. Holland and McCrimmon both accepted promotions.

The funny part about that Ferraro spot on a Toronto radio show is that he went ahead and pumped Ron Hextall’s tires after and for those of you who didn’t know, Hextall and Ferraro were teammates in junior with Brandon (WHL), Kelly McCrimmon’s team now…

Has the New GM Been Working For the Oilers All This Time?

Have the Oilers had the new GM since January? It’d make sense given Nicholson had Kretzky on the podium with him at the year-end avail, right? But then what the hell was the point in interviewing all of these candidates? Were they looking for support pieces for Keith? Some rumors have Sean Burke, whose son plays for the University of Alberta and spends a lot of time in the west, joining the club in some capacity that isn’t the general manager’s.

This is what Pierre LeBrun had to say about former Edmonton Oiler Scott Mellanby,

“The Habs assistant GM is known as a hard worker who rolls up his sleeves and puts in the hours. He’s also had a front-row seat to the pressure-cooker his boss Marc Bergevin has lived through over the years, experiencing that roller-coaster, which would serve him well if he’s ever running a franchise that’s under that kind of a spotlight.”

And this is what LeBrun had to say about Sean Burke,

“This is a guy that deserves a break at some point. Canada’s Olympic GM from last year was a longtime assistant GM in Arizona. He’s put in his time.”

https://twitter.com/chrispagnani/status/1124068981520912397

As I said before, we hear what the organization wants us to hear and wouldn’t it be right in the Oilers’ wheelhouse to try and pull the wool over everyone’s eyes by saying they’d go through “the process” to find a new GM, then actually do it thus furthering the illusion, but then only to come back and say they knew Keith Gretzky was the one the whole time?

Now that is a really pessimistic way of looking at things and if you know me, I’m not really that kind of person. So I’d like to set things straight on this front.

I’m not against the Oilers hiring Gretzky. My feeling is that they need to bring in new blood, fresh opinions, and ideas. Since Keith has rolled into town, I feel like the quality of the Oilers’ pipeline has improved. Sure, he was part of the Chia regime and there will be ire if he’s hired, but as far as I can gather, he wasn’t part of that privileged group that Chiarelli surrounded himself with before he was fired.

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The impression that I get is that I think there’s a strong internal push for Gretzky to be hired as those who’ve been working alongside him have enjoyed the time. I hear that he listens whereas Chiarelli didn’t.

The Oilers can walk this line if they’re careful and bring in a couple of guys like Sean Burke (Pro scout w/MTL) and say, Al Murray (TB’s Dir. of Am. Scouting). It really is about surrounding the GM with the right people as the support staff must be of the highest quality in order for this to work.

But just as important as the additions are, the subtractions are as well. I don’t think for a second that if Keith Gretzky is hired that there won’t be changes and this begs the question, what is the minimal amount of turnover that would appease the fanbase?

Let us know in the comments below!

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Edmonton Oilers: Katz Looking to Replace Nicholson According to Inside Source

Early this morning, I was contacted by one of my sources and what I was told wasn’t shocking. It was nothing I hadn’t already been aware of thanks to Nick Kypreos and other NHL insiders. But what did stand out for me was the urgency to get the message out.

I was told, “The fans have to know what’s going on. They’ve been in the dark too long and nobody is saying a f*cking thing.” and “Just copy and paste everything I say.”

It wasn’t the type of language I was used to in dialogues that I’d had in the past with this source.

My feeling is that changes really are coming and they’re going to be sweeping. It sounds like Darryl Katz has been embarrassed by those running his team and their actions and that he’s going to be taking some real action.

I’ve found that the one thing people with money hate most is being embarrassed or having their brand humiliated and regarded as one of the worst in its industry. I reckon we’re at that point with Katz.

Now, some might feel that Katz is out there sitting on a bed of money not giving two shits about his team but I’d be willing to bet that he knows more than a lot of fans choose to believe. As if he doesn’t hear what the fanbase is saying from his family and friends.

We’ve heard Elliotte Friedman talk about a “crisis of confidence” and how that is affecting Katz’s bottom line and if you’re an owner of a hockey team, you can handle losing some money each year. It happens. But can you handle losing money AND being lumped into the same sentence as Eugene Melnyk every week?

Let’s get into this thread on Twitter a bit.

DARRYL KATZ

“Katz heard Bob’s comments. He’s not impressed. Sounds like he himself will find a POHO and then that POHO will hire a GM.”

“Katz isn’t impressed. Gave Nick some shit. Sounds like Katz will hire the POHO and remove the hockey side from under Nicholson.”

“Katz isnt a public eye kind of Owner. He doesn’t want to be and never has been obviously.”

Nicholson really screwed the pooch with those Rieder comments but not so much in that he’s embarrassed the player or himself but more in that he’s made the team (aka brand) look terrible all the while preaching character and culture.

This isn’t the first time this year that Katz has laid into Nicholson. I’m under the impression he let Nicholson know what for when McLellan was fired and Chiarelli was let go.

The patience has worn thin and the people he’s trusted to manage his investment have failed. You would have to wonder if he’ll go back to the Hockey Canada well for more help though because it hasn’t really worked out.

Katz has been thrust into the public eye now. He doesn’t like it one bit it sounds. Hence why you never see the guy at those season ticket events.

THE NEW GM

“Well Katz quietly wants Holland for POHO potentially and McCrimmon as GM if possible. If not Holland, he will find someone else. I know the fans don’t want Holland but he wouldn’t be the GM. McCrimmon would be the GM and get FULL autonomy.”

This goes right in line with what Nick Kypreos said on Headlines this weekend and what Elliotte Friedman was talking about recently on the 31 Thoughts podcast. Although he pontificated on Holland as GM and Glen Gulutzan as the head coach I believe.

A lot of fans really don’t want Ken Holland as the team’s President of Hockey Operations and I get that his team hasn’t been great in recent years but this is a man who has been at the head of one of the greatest hockey dynasties ever. You wouldn’t want that sort of knowledge being part of the brain trust in Edmonton? He’s not going to be GM. So he won’t be making the deals and signings.

As for Kelly McCrimmon, the Oilers want to focus on skill and speed, right?

 

What better template to copy than that of the Vegas Golden Knights? So go out and get the man that is partly responsible for said template. IF you can convince him NOT to go to Seattle…

ON THE TEAM

“I expect a full sweep coming.” This is talking about the pro scouting I believe.

“The team has not improved. Chia never listened but at the same time the team needs to win. It really sucks ass but things need to turn around here. Pete isolated himself hardcore for half last season and all of this season. The word needs to get out.”

“The focus was on big heavy hockey for a long time. But now it’s back to speed and skill. A lot of people in the org disagreed with Pete over most of his trades. I mean, where do I begin. That’s why he isolated himself as fast as he did.”

“The Ottawa loss did it for me. Boys didn’t even compete that much. They’ve given up. It pisses me off. Keith is doing his best and honestly. He’s a great guy. He uses EVERYONE. Everyone. He uses all of his sources. I really like Keith. I couldn’t stand Peter.”

“The Oilers won’t make the playoffs. Thats the thing. They don’t believe in Koski. You can see it on the ice. He lets in a bad goal every game. The new contract for him is awful”

It’s hard not to believe that the pro scouts are going to be cleaned out. When Jason Gregor asked Nicholson about the openness of changes to the pro scouting department, I believe the reply was, “definitely’.

So does that mean the three guys they have employed as pro scouts are gone? It could. It could also mean that the head scout is removed too. My thought is that if Chiarelli really went into isolation with Duane Sutter and Ken Hitchcock (talk about some pro-heavy hockey men) in the final months of his tenure, one of those gentlemen are gone, why wouldn’t the other two be as well? And there’s a pretty good feeling that Hitch won’t be back behind the bench next year, so that leaves Sutter.

I’m not as worried about Koskinen as some. Sure his glove hand works but at least he saves the first shot of the game/period. Maybe the Oilers look at a new goalie coach? Because didn’t Talbot get beat quite a bit on the glove-hand too? Or at least over his shoulders?

MORE ON NICHOLSON

“Katz is removing the Hiring from Nicholson. He’s going to hire a POHO himself who will then hire a GM. Oilers culture is fast, aggressive hockey. Attack attack attack. Exciting hockey. Nicholson couldn’t even answer the culture question with Gregor.”

“The Oilers at one point were the fastest team in the NHL. Now, they’re among the slowest. It’s going to change. Otherwise the fans will drop like flies.”

“Nicholson is being removed to focus on expanding the brand on the business side with Lowe. Katz will hire a POHO to fix this shit.”

“Katz doesn’t want to feel like a Harrold Ballard so to speak. He doesn’t want that label. And if the fans can’t realize that, then I don’t know. Leafs fans hated that shit back in the day.”

When Gregor asked Nicholson about hiring a POHO and the reply was that the GM would be the priority, I had to question this. Why would a team do that? Unless of course, the POHO candidate was already in the organization… Would Wayne Gretzky step in there? He held that position with Team Canada at the Olympics, no? Would Kevin Lowe take the job on the short term as he’s been in that chair under Nicholson before? Ken Hitchcock? Craig MacTavish?

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POSSIBLE SUMMER MOVES

“I do personally believe that MacT will stay on. He runs Bako and they’re killing it.”

“Hall is open to returning. At a DISCOUNT price. That’s all I’ll say on that. I can’t say more.”

“Lucic is in a handshake agreement to move in the offseason. Then we would bring Hall back. I can’t say much more.”

“It would be Lucic and a piece on D. About 10M leaving off the cap after Lucic is paid his bonus”

I’ve heard that MacTavish will stay on and that he’ll be dismissed. So who knows with that one. Could Keith Gretzky do that job just as well? Probably but I won’t pretend to know what all goes into performing the duties the position entails.

I’ve just felt this year that maybe it’s time for folks like MacTavish and/or Howson to move on and for the Oilers to bring in fresh(er) blood.

Bob Stauffer’s been touting Hall back to Edmonton for a few months now. Combine that with the rumored return of Jordan Eberle and the Oilers trading for Sam Gagner… It’s almost insane to think that Taylor Hall would come back after all the BS he went through but I’ll say this, I wasn’t a huge fan when he was in Edmonton but if he came back at a discount, I’d be willing to forget about his first stint with the team.

Tons of people don’t believe the Oilers can move Lucic. I’m not one of those. I do believe there are GMs who exist that value his skillset and would be willing to make a move for him. Now, if it’s him and a defender whose contracts add up to around $10M that are moved, who’s the dman going with him?

Lucic – $6M

Klefbom – $4.1M
Larsson – $4.1M
Russell – $4M
Nurse – $3.2M

I imagine Andrej Sekera is an option as well but I think the team really values his locker room presence and puck moving and they’d prefer to move Russell. I can’t wait until the trade is announced… I am very curious as to what team would take on two of those five players.

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It’s really hard to speculate on any moves without the team having a general manager in place though. I believe that some headway was made on summer moves but it’ll be up to the new guy to agree to or augment them to his liking.

One name I want to throw out there that isn’t getting that much traction is LA’s Mike Futa. I’m reading a book right now called, “The Art of Scouting” by Shane Malloy and inside there are some stories from scouts about the hijinks involved amongst the scouting fraternity. I’ll share one here,

“There are so many good people in the industry and I’ve become good friends with Keith Gretzky of the Phoenix Coyotes, and we have ongoing pranks with those guys. I remember two years ago at the NHL draft our schedules crossed, so we knew which players they were metting with and we knew they wanted defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, like hugely. We also knew that we wanted to take a forward, but nobody else knew that; they assumed but they didn’t know for sure.

I remember we had the name bars written up for the prospects at the draft. We saw Evander Kane went to Atlanta and I leaned back and took a deep breath. Then I just look to my right and Gretz (Keith Gretzky) looked at me and his eyes were burning through me and he gave me a look that said, “Who are you taking?” and I mouthed back to him, “Ekman-Larsson.” He just about fell off his chair and his whole face turned white and he began go sweat. We started to dig into the bag of name bars we had. We were taking Brayden Schenn all the way-if he was there, he was our guy. But it looked like the Coyotes staff were freaking out. Gretz told me later that they said, “I thought you were friends,” and “What the f*ck?” At that time, I was shuffling through the bag for the Ekman-Larsson name bar so I could pull that out to even add a little more pain.

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So if Mike Futa gets the job a job in Edmonton… Don’t be surprised if Keith Gretzky has a lot to do with it.

Lastly, it’s really interesting who comes in with the kind words when the rumors align with their own thoughts about the direction of the club. “I don’t normally support these kinds of rumors but…”

Give me a break…

What do you think about the quotes above? Let me know in the comments below!

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Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, NHL Entry Draft, Prospects, Rumors, Trades

MAJOR Changes Ahead for the Oilers?

2 Comments

I received a message from one of my sources a couple days ago telling me that the Oilers will be going with a different head coach and GM in 2018/19. Whatever power struggle is going on between McLellan and Chiarelli has come to a head and Nicholson/Gretzky have had enough.

So those of you that have criticized the Oilers in the past for not doing an “exhaustive search” can rest easy because they’ve been talking to potential candidates for over a month now.

Now you can take that info to the bank or you can laugh it off. No skin off my back. I just share what I’ve been passed along BUT keep in mind anything can happen between now and this summer including the Oilers going on a ridiculous run that would save the jobs of everyone involved.

First off, I’m not part of the fanbase who believe the Oilers should let either the coach or the GM go but I do think it’s inevitable that one of them is axed this summer.

If I had to pick a reason though for each of Chiarelli and McLellan to be let go, they’d be the following:

  • Chiarelli – His inability to make changes to the coaching staff this season has been staggering. I know he’s loyal to his head coaches but the special teams this season has murdered the Oilers in the standings. You can argue all you want about leaving the team shorthanded but the Oilers have beat really good teams this year with this roster.
  • McLellan: We come back to special teams. They’ve been atrocious. His selective stubbornness with roster selections and line combos baffles me to this day. If the reports of his staff not changing anything up at the practices are true, then he’s lost the plot and doesn’t have the creativity to work with this group.

That rant eh? WOW! Well done Lowetide! Make sure you subscribe to our channel folks! There’s lots of good content from prospect vids to oilers compilations to radio hits like the one above.

With that said, who do you think would make a good coach for the Oilers and likewise, who’d be a hire at the GM’s position that you’d support. Here are a few candidates I thought of:

  • Head Coach: Dave Tippet, Darryl Sutter, Joel Quenneville, Ken Hitchcock, Derek Laxdal, Rocky Thompson, Sheldon Keefe, and Todd Nelson.

Tippet did wonders with not very much in Arizona for many years. Sutter turned the Kings into Cup contenders AND winners but is his style of hockey conducive to winning in today’s NHL? I don’t think you can argue with the credentials that multiple Stanley Cup-winning coach Joel Quenneville would bring to the table IF Chicago decides to move in a different direction next season.

OR should the Oilers go shopping in the AHL? Laxdal (Former Edmonton Oil Kings head coach who won 2 WHL championships with the Oilers current director of player personnel, Bob Greene) and Keefe’s teams are at the top of their divisions in the AHL. Rocky Thompson seems like the new Dallas Eakins, and Todd Nelson had a marginally successful experience when he worked in the Oilers’ organization previously.

Would hiring a Laxdal, Thompson, or Nelson be too nepotistic though?

Or maybe Paul Coffey is the guy coming into run the show? That’s what Glenn Healy said recently…

  • GM: Julien Brisbois, Paul Fenton, Dean Lombardi, Bill Guerin, Ken Holland, Keith Gretzky

Brisbois is surely being courted by the Montreal Canadiens and Fenton will be GM-ing with one of the teams who haven’t offered their current GM a new deal for next season. Please forgive me but I can’t seem to find the current GMs that are going into next season without a contract though. I want to say Vancouver and Detroit are two of them.

I’ve tossed Dean Lombardi’s name out there on Twitter but it seems a lot of people would be against that because of the loyalty-contracts he handed out to guys like Mike Richards and Marian Gaborik. He’s a champ though but would the Oilers just be following the same recipe used to hire the current regime if they hired Lombardi and Sutter?

Another name that has been tossed out is Bill Guerin but he’s a former Oiler… So maybe cross his name off of the list despite him running the show for Pittsburgh’s farm team which is currently in 2nd place in its division and Guerin actually being considered for the GM’s position in Buffalo. He’s actually got a very well known reputation for being an extremely hard worker and for having an outstanding eye for talent. But he’s an old Oiler, so no thanks, right?

Then there’s Ken Holland. He hasn’t had much to write home about in recent years but he IS the guy that built those great Detroit Red Wings teams in the late 90s and well into the 2000s. Lots of experience and connections with Holland. He DID train Steve Yzerman afterall…

It’s such a hard decision, right?

I’m not sure if the next coach should be one that coddles the players though. I wouldn’t mind one that placed an emphasis on defense either. I reckon Ken Hitchcock could walk in and turn these boys around in record time though.

As for GM, I like either Ken Holland or Bill Guerin. I believe a Holland/Hitchcock duo would work well together given their history with Hockey Canada. OR perhaps a Guerin/Quenneville duo?

What are your thoughts?

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