Tag Archives: Mark Hunter

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.

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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 Rumor: Prominent Sportsnet Journalist says the Oilers HAVE interviewed Kelly McCrimmon

We’ve been under the impression from pundits like Elliotte Friedman that the Oilers have been waiting around to interview Vegas Golden Knights assistant general manager Kelly McCrimmon. That they haven’t yet received permission to speak to the highly sought after executive.

“As I write this, Vegas has not yet granted official permission for Edmonton to meet with McCrimmon, although an answer is expected at some point this week.” (source)

That is from the April 30th edition of 31 Thoughts. 

The next quote is via Oilers Now! It belongs to PHWA President Mark Spector. It pertains to what sort of person Kelly McCrimmon is and Spector prefaced this quote by saying, “I talked to a contract that knows McCrimmon real well and the quote I will share with you was,”

“When that interview in Edmonton ended, the guys in Edmonton probably felt like they were the ones being interviewed.” 

Just click play and you’ll hear what Spector said. Also, this came out on the same day as Friedman’s blog.

Now, I know from time to time that Spec lets things slip that shouldn’t get out from time to time, but I don’t see this as one of them. This was very much on purpose.

I also remember a couple of things blowing up on Friedman this past season that he’d reported…

So who has the right information?

My impression of the way this process was supposed to go was it was going to be airtight. No Leaks. So what’s happening here? The Sportsnet guys are putting out conflicting reports whereas the pundits over at TSN are still speculating on who the third or fourth candidate is still. Then you have Friedman and Rishaug going head to head on the Ken Holland reports…

I do think the Oilers are leaking things but don’t ask me which things are true and which are not. At this point, the news is so juicy that I reckon the reporters are grabbing onto anything and running with it.

Hockey politics is fun, isn’t it?

My belief is that Edmonton has talked to McCrimmon, be that informally or as Spector said, formally, and he is the no. 1 candidate at this point in time. Whether he wants the job, I think that’s the more pertinent question because if he doesn’t want it, Mark Hunter has interviewed twice and I would go as far as to say that it’s his job if McCrimmon passes on it.

Interesting note coming from Bob Stauffer from today’s Oilers Now! though. He said that Sean Burke could still be in the running for the GM’s position but it was his opinion that he could come into the org in more of a support role potentially. The reason for that according to Stauffer is because he’s not seen in the same light as McCrimmon and Mark Hunter.

So how would you feel about a Kelly McCrimmon/Sean Burke combo or a Mark Hunter/Sean Burke tandem?

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Edmonton Oilers Rumors: Oilers Set to Name New GM Shortly

Now that the Battle of Winterfell has been completed, it’s time for the Edmonton Oilers to name their new GM and I strongly suspect that will take place this week. Thanks to Bob Stauffer for throwing that Game of Thrones spoiler up on Twitter… I didn’t really want to watch that episode as it was.

The timing of this hiring is important for a few reasons:

  • The Oilers will send out their season ticket renewals this week and not only will it be of the utmost importance as to who’s named general manager but also, who won’t be returning to the organization.
  • I feel as if there are just as many concerns regarding who the new boss will be as there are for which members of the old boys club might be coming back.
  • I’d heard rumblings that Scott Howson would be leaving and also Craig MacTavish but then weeks later that MacT would be retained due to his work with the AHL club… So take that for what it is.
  • It sounds like the organization is really monitoring social media and other online outlets. They want a real true idea as to who the fans would like brought in and other areas they’d like to see change at.
  • We were told that this would be an airtight process. That nothing would be getting out, but every week we hear from hockey pundits about who’s in the running for the Oilers GM position. That’s not an accident. It’s strategic and smart, in my opinion. Get as much intel as possible, right?
  • It sounds like the pro scouting department will be getting overhauled as that is a major concern amongst the fans and if OEG wants to have the best chance at getting as many season ticket renewals as possible, bringing in some new pro scouts would go a long way.
  • That being said, I wouldn’t expect said turnover right away with some very important meetings set to take place this week.

This whole ordeal is as much about getting the right guy as it is about regaining confidence in the brand. There’s a belief that if Bob Nicholson doesn’t get this choice correct, that it’ll be the end for him and possibly the club’s roster structure as we know it today.

I don’t believe that the club’s major players would want out, but I’m also not sure if they’ve got the same amount of patience as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who’s been with the club for near a decade and has only made the post-season once.

What is going on with Keith Gretzky now? My feeling is that he’s out of the picture because nobody has thrown his name out there for a few weeks. Could that be because he’s out of the running? Could it be because he’s actually the guy getting hired as GM? I don’t think it would be the latter if the Oilers are concerned about season ticket renewals.

Another reason the timing of this decision is key is that, according to Spoiler Stauff, the pro and amateur meetings are being held this week. Hiring the new guy and bringing him right in to meet his new employees makes too much sense. It’d give him a chance to lay down his future plans for the club and to let those who will be staying/going know where they stand.

I truly believe the race is down to three names (in order of club preference):

  1. Kelly McCrimmon
  2. Mark Hunter
  3. Ross Mahoney

Mahoney is the man with the most NHL experience here at 24 years and he’s a good ol’ Saskatchewan boy! So that’s a plus for folks looking for a GM who might be a bit more relatable.

The same could be said about Kelly McCrimmon too though. He’s spent a majority of his hockey career in Brandon, Manitoba. Not quite the same flash as Vegas. His reputation for being a very hard worker, a grinder if you will, precedes him. Typically in junior hockey things going in cycles. You’re good for a few years, then you’re poor. You rebuild for a couple of seasons and then make a run again. Well, Brandon has been on top of the junior seen for a very long time and has never really fallen into that cyclical nature that other teams have. That’s the sign of a manager who can not only plan for the short term but also the long term. Edmonton could use that.

And this also could be said for Mark Hunter, whose London Knights are annual contenders for the OHL championship and a trip to the Memorial Cup. It’s said that he’s a very astute talent evaluator and buys into the mastermind theory. Basically meaning, he puts the smartest and most talented people around him. From what I’ve gathered reading online, he was the eye-test to Kyle Dubas’ analytics during his time in Toronto. Hunter has also been in contact with the Oilers the longest I do believe with regards to this role on the team.

I think there’s a thought going around that there is a fourth candidate competing for the position but it’s different depending on your source.

  • Pat Verbeek (McKenzie)
  • Dave Nonis (Dreger)
  • Mike Futa (Leavins)
  • Sean Burke (Rishaug)
  • Ken Holland (Friedman)
  • Doug Armstrong (LeBrun)

I sure see a lot of Hockey Canada guys there…

I suppose that shouldn’t surprise anybody given the background of the man being tasked to find the new GM. I was just hoping that perhaps the net would be cast a bit further.

If you’d like to know more about these gentlemen and their careers, Kurt Leavins has an informative post up detailing quite a few of them.

Also, if you have a subscription to The Athletic (get one here if you don’t), check out the profiles of the potential GM candidates that Daniel Nugent-Bowman’s been throwing together recently. Outstanding work here.

Anyways, this is sure to be a REALLY exciting week in Edmonton. Buckle up, it’s going down!

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Edmonton Oilers Rumors: The Mystery GM Candidate, Draft Rumblings, and Trades You Won’t Like

We’re going to talk about three things in this post, 1) The Oilers GM search and who the mystery GM might be. 2) Who the Oilers might have to move when the new GM decides to make his first transaction. 3) 2019 NHL draft prospects and my notes on some of the players that stuck out for me in my viewings so far.

First off, you HAVE to check out this post from Max (@TPEhockey). It’s a list of the TOP-50 NHL prospects that have yet to be drafted. We’re talking players that are eligible for the 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 draft! If you want to know who the real up and comers are in the hockey scene, you MUST read this! Click the link below to do so!

TPE Hockey’s Ultimate Top-50 List of Undrafted Prospects

News on the Oilers GM search is ramping up. I’m sure you’ve heard both Elliotte Friedman and Ryan Rishaug both come out and say that the list of potential candidates has been widdled down to 3-4.

The two names that are constantly in that list are Mark Hunter and Kelly McCrimmon. We know that Hunter has been through at least two interviews and it’s most likely that McCrimmon has been through one.

That takes care of two potential GMs that the pundits are pushing. So who might be left? Which hockey men are the pundits suggesting?

Ryan Rishaug: Sean Burke
Bob Stauffer: Ross Mahoney
Kurt Leavins: Mike Futa
Bob McKenzie: Pat Verbeek
Elliotte Friedman: Ken Holland
Darren Dreger: Dave Nonis

I think Jason Gregor has mentioned Columbus AGM Bill Zito but his team is still in the playoffs and I wouldn’t say he’s at the top of the Oilers list.

Quite a few names left, right? So we’re left asking the question, who is informed and who is being misinformed? This was supposed to be an air-tight process. Does that mean all these media types above are guessing? Are they being fed bad intel to muddy things up?

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From what I’ve gathered from my own sources, Ross Mahoney is the man that the Oilers would like to shake out of Washington.

What is VERY interesting is that nobody is talking about Keith Gretzky anymore as a candidate for the job. In the past, you’d hear a pundit throw Gretzky’s name in at the end of the conversation like, “So and so are in the running for the job as well as this guy over here. But don’t forget about Keith Gretzky, he’s still right there too.”

The other thing is, the old-timers who have been writing about the Oilers since before the dynasty days have started commenting on different names and have stopped pushing Gretzky. That could be a tell.

https://twitter.com/NHLbyMatty/status/1122110380459925504

Gretzky could still very well be that mystery candidate but I’m not sure I’d put money down on that bet. That said, I do think his services will be retained as his work at the draft has been promising.

Which leads me to this idea that fans think the new GM is going to come right in a clean house. It’s not happening folks, not right away at least. Do you honestly think that a new employee is going to walk into Darryl Katz’s office and ask him to pay his old friends NOT to work for him while at the same time pay a bunch of new guys? Not. A. Chance.

Maybe in the summer of 2020 it could happen though. It took Brendan Shanahan a year to evaluate who was needed/not needed in Toronto after he was hired before he brought the ax down.

So you’ll have to be patient there.

UNCOMFORTABLE TRADES

I think if the Oilers hire Kelly McCrimmon that there’ll be some youth moved out to bring in players who can contribute instantly. I’m talking about the Kailer Yamamotos, Jesse Puljujarvis, Ethan Bears, and William Lagessons.

Edmonton will need to find a way to create some cap room and my belief is that they’ll package promising prospects with a veteran on a big ticket to entice teams into accepting the trades.

One factor playing a major role here will be the players who will be joining the Oilers’ AHL affiliate next season. I’m talking about notable names like Evan Bouchard, Dmitri Samorukov, Kirill Maksimov, Ostap Safin, and Ryan McLeod. There’s only so much room on a roster, be that of the parent team or the minor league team.

So either the Oilers make room on Edmonton’s roster or Bakersfield’s. Samorukov and Bouchard would probably be a top-pairing in the AHL for what it’s worth.

Another reason is it might all depend on who they select at the 2019 NHL Entry Draft mind you…

DRAFT RUMBLINGS

This past week I’ve been paying major attention to the u18 tournament going on in Sweden. I can only watch a handful of games though because TSN requires you to sign up to their product AND live in Canada to view it… Kinda shitty if you ask me. Luckily for me, there’s a YouTube channel that rips some of the games and uploads them to watch. Mostly US and Canada games, which is fine by me because those are the teams that have the players I’m interested in watching the most as it is.

Those players being Trevor Zegras (USA), Alex Turcotte (USA), Matthew Boldy (USA), Peyton Krebs (CAN), and Dylan Cozens (CAN).

These are all prospects I believe the Oilers will have a shot at drafting this June.

I’ll touch on Turcotte and Zegras first.

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The first thing you’ll notice with Alex Turcotte is his explosiveness. He gets his motor running high and in a hurry. He’s very quick and his speed maintains.He reminds me a bit of Matt Duchene with how quick his feet are. He’s also very tenacious on the puck. I think he’s very smart on the offensive side of the puck but he’ll need work on the defensive side. Great hands on this guy too. He can finish when presented with the opportunity. Funny enough, unless he scores 5 goals against Canada at the 3rd place game, he’ll end up with more assists than goals. Lots of scouts have him as the #3 prospect in this draft but will his aggressive (some might call reckless) style affect his ability to stay healthy and therefore cause him to drop in the draft?

Trevor Zegras can turn a defender into a pretzel if need be. He really is Jack Hughes-lite and I say that because his hands and vision are comparable to the potential 1st overall pick for this year’s draft, but his skating isn’t quite there. Hughes’ has everyone beat there. The thing with Zegras though is that he plays a very cute game and tries a lot of high-risk passes. Coaches at higher levels might try to curtail this.

If there’s a team out there that already has some snipers in its lineup but needs a high-end playmaker, a guy that can enter zones under control all the time, they might take Zegras.

My worry is if this guy is the next Rob Schremp/Sonny Milano. That’s a tough pick if you’re taking him in the top ten. On the other hand, is he the next Clayton Keller or Johnny Gaudreau? That’s a great pick in the top-ten.

The most impressive player for me that I’ve seen at this tournament has been an American left-winger by the name of Matthew Boldy. He’s 6’2″ around 185lbs and a stud. I don’t know a lot of left-wingers that drive their line but he’s been doing it all tourney and that’s saying a lot since he played with the USA’s best players at one point or another. Meaning Cole Caufield, Alex Turcotte, and Jack Hughes. I don’t think he got out there with Trevor Zegras much.

Boldy isn’t fast in the McDavid sense of the word. His speed is above average, like Nugent-Hopkins if you will. His hockey IQ is amazing. He knows where to go before the puck gets there on both the offensive and defensive sides of the game. He’s the USNTDP’s 2nd leading scorer this year (but that might’ve changed since I checked. Hughes was racking up the goals recently) behind uber scorer Cole Caufield, but he’s been in the playmaker role for Team USA at the u18s scoring three goals and adding eight assists in six games.

I’ve seen comparisons to David Pastrnak with Boldy.

Right after him on the scoring charts is Team Canada’s captain Peyton Krebs.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sold on Krebs and I’ve only viewed him one time and it was a blowout game against Belarus. So I’m not sure how much one can put into his report in a game like that, but I still made observations about him.

Krebs is also a very intelligent hockey player. He’s not as big as Boldy though as he stands around 5’10”-ish, but I’d say he’s got the quickness on him. Not only in the skating department but the hands and thinking departments as well. I found that the Canadian captain would make very quick passes which would catch his opponents off-guard.

In terms of finishing, I would say that Krebs is a playmaker first and a shooter second. He scored a really nice goal vs. Belarus (below 3:07 mark) where he had he shot it any harder glove side high, the puck might’ve gone through the netting. His six goals in six games tell me there’s a fella here who can score when playing with equally talented linemates (Newhook/Cozens). He only scored 19 goals all year in Kootenay (WHL) and it’s widely considered that his team was quite poor.

https://youtu.be/eIvMU1zxZZQ?t=187

I’ve read about Krebs’ aggressiveness on the puck but in this game, I didn’t really see that as much. He got in the corners and along the boards to battle for pucks but he wasn’t going all gung-ho in the same way an Alex Turcotte might. I’m thinking he’s a bit more cerebral with regards to his decision making on the ice.

During that match, the commentators compared Krebs to Ryan O’Reilly.

Dylan Cozens has been ranked as high as #3 by some for the upcoming draft. His combination of size, speed, and skill is so hard to come by. After watching him in this game, I’d like to add one more attribute to his game, power. He does remind me of Jeff Carter a bit.

Versus the Belarussians, Cozens had the quietest five-point game I think I’ve ever seen. He seemed to be playing a complementary role as his linemates, Peyton Krebs and Alex Newhook, were the ones stirring the drink for that line. About half-way through the 2nd period I was pretty disappointed in his game. It picked up after that though and he was an absolute force in front of the net.

I reckon he’ll get picked in the top-5 of the draft. It’s really hard to pass on this set of attributes and him being a right-handed shooter doesn’t hurt.

At this point my draft list for the Oilers is looking as such:

  1. Jack Hughes
  2. Kaapo Kaako
  3. Bowen Byram
  4. Dylan Cozens
  5. Kirby Dach
  6. Matthew Boldy
  7. Cole Caufield
  8. Alex Turcotte
  9. Peyton Krebs
  10. Vasili Podkolzin
  11. Philip Broberg
  12. Alex Newhook
  13. Trevor Zegras
  14. Raphael Lavoie
  15. Thomas Harley

I don’t imagine #1-#5 will be around when Edmonton picks, so you could probably start that list at #6.

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OTHER U18 NOTES:
  • Cole Caufield is a scoring machine. I’m not a fan of the rest of his game much, but you cannot ignore the fact that he’s built to shoot and score. One has to wonder if he’ll jump into the top-7.
  • Alex Newhook is the real deal. I was skeptical of him before given he was playing in the BCHL but he is this year’s Matthew Barzal
  • Vasilli Podkolzin’s lack of point production on international ice is interesting. He certainly lit it up on the surfaces in Alberta. He’ll drop because of this but whatever team gets him is getting a really good hockey player. I love his attention to the game when he’s away from the puck.
  • Dmen Tobias Bjornfot and Victor Soderstrom should be swapped in draft rankings. Bjornfot, Sweden’s captain, was very steady and outstanding at moving the puck. He was physical, calculated and rarely made a mistake defending for the Swedes. Soderstrom, on the other hand, was disappointing to me in all those regards.
  • Lots of talk about Phil Tomasino moving up the rankings, I don’t see it. Good player, not great. I like Moose Jaw winger Brayden Tracey better. Tracey was much more engaged in the play I found. Then again, it was only one game.
  • Sweden’s duo of Alexander Holtz and Lucas Raymond are going to be ridiculous going into next season as they mature physically and mentally. They’re underagers at this tourney and were simply dominant on nearly every shift. The world juniors are going to be must-see tv in 2020.
  • Yaroslav Askarov, said to be the best goaltender to come out of Russia since Andrei Vasilevsky, is the real deal. Not draft eligible until 2020 though… I think the Russians might’ve taken over from Finland as Europe’s netminding factory…
  • Whichever team that drafts Spencer Knight is getting a beauty. He might be the best puckhandling goalie since Martin Brodeur. If that’s too far back for you, Mike Smith? When Bob McKenzie says this guy could end up being the best goalie to come out of “The Program” ever, he’s not lying.
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