Does Ken Holland deserve more credit for Oilers' turnaround this season?

TSN Oilers reporter Ryan Rishaug joins SC with Jay Onrait to discuss how the Oilers will have to play a more physical style of hockey if they want to be able to contain the Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final and if Ken Holland deserves more credit for Edmonton’s turnaround this season.

[@joetoh6675]

The Oilers improved every year Ken's been here. You can't, in one breath, complain about him not going "all in" and not spending draft capital now to build a championship team, and then in the next breath complain about him not building for the long-term future.

[@bostonwarrior4824]

Yes. He was the one who built this roster and now it’s made the Stanley Cup final. He’s made some good moves. Yeah Campbell didn’t work out but remember the guy in office before Ken. Peter, who was 100000 times worse. So be grateful!

[@joetoh6675]

He also built the rosters in prior years, that made the playoffs and gave this core essential experience. Campbell was his biggest lost bet, and maybe he should have asked around more about the analytics there. But on balance, here we are in the SC Finals.

[@bostonwarrior4824]

@@joetoh6675 yep over the past few years adding ekholm, Kane, Hyman and even pickard were big moves that helped elevate this team even further. Like it’s just crazy to me. They were so terrible and the beginning of the year and then they changed coaches and it completely changed the team. like it’s amazing. Reminds me of what St. Louis did in 2019.

[@joetoh6675]

@@bostonwarrior4824 And ppl shouldn't ignore his less flashy moves. Gaetan Haas helped them make the playoffs in KH's 1st year. He didn't wreck Klefbom's shoulder, but plugged that hole with Ceci. And he saw something in players like Janmark and Kulak, who are proving their value now.

[@ihitconnect3521]

Coming from an Oilers fan, Ken has had some generational moves with the Hyman signing and the Ekholm trade that took this Oilers team to where it is today. But it is hard not noticing the mistakes he’s made. I get it, GMs mess up, but nurse getting over 9M and Campbell getting 6M when he hadn’t even played over 100 nhl games is absolutely crazy. Those moves are what’ll stop this team from becoming a Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit, etc type team, because you need that money to keep your team strong. But time will tell, i’m just thankful i get to see my Oilers in the finals now.

[@janreldelacruz1674]

Every team has an overpaid guy. Nuge hyman are value deals. Stop the nonsense no team is perfect

[@joshuaschroeder8027]

Take a look at the landscape of the league when nurse got paid. Top defenseman were getting that, and then everything changed with coofid.

[@jabbathehut6827]

@@joshuaschroeder8027 Nurse signed his contract one year into covid, right around when makar got his 9mil contract

[@mrhurst198]

Not to mention drafting Bouchard, and Broberg might even be another good pick and Halloway looks like he could be legit.

[@JBrix86]

@@joshuaschroeder8027 Problem was Holland's 5.6 million for only 2 years of Nurse 5 months after Morrissey had signed a 6.25 million for 8 years. Should've been 6 x 6 starting in 2020. Darnell would have 2 years at 6 million left now.

[@joetoh6675]

If talking strictly about the turnaround this season, credit goes mostly to whoever decided to hire Knoblauch, so, Jeff Jackson. Some also goes to whoever signed Pickard, which would be Holland.

[@MarciaRobinson-id3wh]

But Holland was the one who convinced JJ to leave his President role at one of the premier sports agencies (along with his A-List clients) to take the position created specifically for JJ to run OEG. So Holland still gets credit for hiring the person with the vision to make improvements as well.

[@joetoh6675]

@@MarciaRobinson-id3wh 👍

[@kevinnatomagan5699]

Awesome analogy

[@bartomand3681]

Down 3-0 and now on the brink of the full comeback. 1st time ever since expansion. 1st major sports Championship to go to the full 7 games post covid. What a playoff. As a lifelong Jets Season Ticket holder and fan, I can't believe I am about to say this, but GO OILERS!

[@joetoh6675]

Holland has fulfilled the mission of this contract. The roster has proven they have the tools to get to the final two, and from there it's like winning four of seven coin flips. Can't ask much more of a GM. Holland’s moves since 2019 span the spectrum from near-disastrous to excellent. There’s always an element of gambling in every move. But on balance, here we are, and it can be traced back to signing effective stopgap players like Gaetan Haas to get the boys into the playoffs in KH's first year. He had to deal with the unexpected loss of Klefbom and the flat cap. Yes, he also got some big time help from others when Woodcroft's time ran out. Nonetheless, if not with flying colors, KH has fulfilled his duties. He's also ingrained some "cultural" aspects he wanted. Let’s get his name engraved on the cup again.

[@archimedes2261]

Hyman is definitely a steal for what his scoring numbers in the playoffs could command.

[@EldenTings]

It is funny how this team is built similar to Holland's Wings teams, definitely not 1 for 1 comparisons, but the outline is there. Even adding bottom 6 vets like Perry and Henrique. Kane needs to give them something, I know he's hurt, but he's been bad for a while now, with a handful of strong moments.

[@navs1246]

no damn chance. This is on the players and coaches

[@bigbrain1720]

Who signs the players and the coaches?

[@blindriddle2742]

Yes, Holland is an absolute genius and Toronto should immediately clear the decks to hire him.

[@DanielBelzil]

Drafting Broberg could turn out to be his best move. Oh yeah and signing Ekholm and Hyman.

[@Peksisarvinen]

Yeah I think it's safe to say Holland has made more good moves than bad moves over the last two-three years. Hyman signing was fantastic, Ekholm trade was brilliant, not for just the fact that they got Ekholm but also for the fact that trading Barrie away paved a clear path for Bouchard, which I wanted to see happen for a long time before it did, and getting Henrique this year is a very underrated move that I personally loved when it was made and still do. Carrick and Stetcher are also gamers. The Campbell contract of course stands out as a bad one, but I think it was a 50-50 chance of panning out at the time of signing, so it's not like he sold the farm for magic beans. He tried to improve the goaltending and it didn't work out. It happens. Corey Perry I hate point blank and don't want to see play for a team I cheer for, and continuing the endless Sam Gagner cycle was pointless and dumb (although what I will say about that is, it could easily have had a positive effect in the locker room). So definitely I will say that Holland has done a fantastic job at improving the team overall, and he deserves the credit for it too.

[@chriswall1667]

Name a GM the Oilers have had in the last 20 years who was better then Holland. You can't!!!

[@thomasm4388]

Zac hyman. Enough said. + elkholm.

[@mostimusic2616]

Who is this Chris noblog?

[@mathewpanchyshyn9623]

No. Jackson is the one who hired all of the new management including Knoblauch to help with the success of Edm. Holland gets credit for Hyman, Kane, and Ekholm. He also gets the bad credit of Nurse, Campbell, Ceci, Brown. A good GM could have done the good while having little amount of faults.

[@j4gerb0mblitz]

Brown is a fantastic player and should definitely not be grouped with Nurse and Ceci. 94% penalty kill in the playoffs and Brown is a huge reason why.

[@joetoh6675]

@@j4gerb0mblitz Don't forget Janmark in there.

[@mathewpanchyshyn9623]

@j4gerb0mblitz a player who's not okay, not great in an overall year, who's paid 4m. Not worth past 1.5m. He's having a much better playoffs than regular season.

[@j4gerb0mblitz]

@@mathewpanchyshyn9623 lmao I didn’t realize he was making 4 mill a year

[@mctoads8230]

@@mathewpanchyshyn9623browns cap hit is only 775k it’s bonus loaded and he didn’t hit any of his numbers

[@SS-iv7wv]

No, he gave away 1st rounders that will hurt the Oil in the future. He did it in Detroit when he traded a 1st for Kyle Quincey, that 1st rounder went to Tampa and turned into Andrei Vasilevsky. Soon afterwards by about 2015 Detroit was a bottom dweller due to no pipeline of talent that had been traded away from around 2008 until Kenny left. Dylan Larkin was his only pick that panned out in the last 15 years. The same will happen to Edmonton. Can't give 1st rounders for Ekholm and Henreek two 34 year olds, its just a ridiculous give away of the future.

[@joetoh6675]

He had to outbid others, and probably would not have acquired Ekholm, at a small discount, without giving up a R1 pick and Schaefer. As for this year's pick, the return on it (Henrique&Carrick) is looking acceptable so far. The priority is to get a cup now. What is sinking the immediate future is the disappointing development of Bourgault and Lavoie.

[@SS-iv7wv]

@@joetoh6675 I guess I agree with you to a degree, yeah go for a cup but I think the cost will be like Detroit in 10 years. They won a cup in 08' and it's been down hill ever since. I mean think about it, without a constant flow of talent your team gets old and then you have to rebuild. Look at Detroit, almost ten years of a rebuild and they're not close to a cup. I'm telling you, Holland will ruin the future Oil teams.

[@joetoh6675]

​@@SS-iv7wv They need at least one SC in the McDrai era ASAP. Two would be sweet, three out of this world. Not even asking for any consecutive SCs, though it would be nice. If it were totally random, at this point a franchise should be happy to win a championship once every 30 years.

[@stevenbauer4799]

No just like with wings the superstars were already there. And like with wings thinks he can get by with average goaltending. And no he doesn't have the perfect human on back end to hide flaws so NO Holland deserves no credit. Just getting credit for backending success like in detroit where devellanno, hakan andersson, and scotty did the real work building those cup teams. And his cap management skills are atrocious. Nurse, campbell, ceci plus the deal for what was once duncan keith. Good thing kenny will be gone before the two stars leave. A bad cap situation and bad system lacking future talent will put oil back in their lottery days. Knoublach a mcd favorite from erie days straightened this mess out, not holland. And who knows how oil will do against cats, a high skilled team with a buy in approach that shuts teams down in finals for a second straight season.

[@Keith-shit75]

We all have our opinion

[@SS-iv7wv]

I grew up in Detroit, yeah, Stevie Y was the catalyst for championships and Mike Illitch, the owner, gave Kenny Hollandaise (as we called him in Detroit) a blank check. Yeah, we signed Robitaille, Paul Coffey, Brett Hull, Shanny, I mean of course he was going to win. Once the cap started that was then end of Kenny's ingenuity. He traded away so many 1st rounders that the team got old after the 08 cup team and since then it's been down the drain. He did draft Larkin, but that's a bad draft average. His 1st round flops were Thomas Mcollum, Anthony Mantha, Riley Sheahan, Andrei Svechnikow, Filip Zadina some kid named Dennis Choslowski, Michael Rasmussen, these were all firsts! This doesn't include 2009, 11, 12 and 13 1st rounders were traded. He will do the same in Edmonton mark my words. Look out, it's comin bro.

[@stevenbauer4799]

@@SS-iv7wv holland couldn't and still can't operate in a cap world thanks to those blank checks he was given. And once lidstrom left he never put an adequate defense out there leaving the system void of d prospects when yzerman took over.

[@rburnett6266]

Yes, he does. Holland isnt perfect, but who really is?

[@lordgoogoo69]

Campbell and nurses contracts tho. Can’t get over it

[@LARGO125]

Nurse' contract was Chiarelli, not Holland

[@xxllbb55]

IT'S TIME ............... I would like to spend more time with my family SO I WILL BE LEAVING ! after I fuckeed up this origination !!!!!!!!!

[@darcymandryk1785]

NO

[@rinotz7]

No.

[@Gid-J]

Kane is slow and lazy, What are you talking about "fast". It's like he's skating in butter.

[@kfjdsoihf8452]

yeah, that is sometimes true 🤣 but he will be adding that physicality. Its gonna be a war!

[@AryNaik]

No, he's a terrible GM outside of the trade deadline the past 2 years. This is the players and the coaches.

[@cindyrussell1581]

Holland deserves no credit, it's the team. What he needs to to be fired.😅

[@forfuxakes6814]

The Oilers will adjust their game as needed,full faith in Knoblauch,if a more physical game is needed then that’s what he will address.But to say what is needed at this point is just speculation..The Oilers are destined to be the Cup Champions…Oilers in 5…IN SKINS WE TRUST🫡

[@red3here]

🤣