Confirmed with Link Kings name Holland their 10th GM in History

[jammer06]

I'll flat say it, someone of Rantas caliber becomes available when you've got designs on going deep you do it. Even as a rental. We will see how well he can play against Edmonton shortly, but I expect he will have a series.

 

[Rusty]

Lots of people dismissing Holland before he even gets a chance.

Of course they are, gives them a foundation to chant "Fire Holland!" when the team goes into a four or five game skid in December. Look what they did to Blake after 4 straight playoff appearances and a 105 point season.
There must be a word for it, probably German and 30 letters long, for that feeling of anticipation for the first adverse effect to befall someone in a position one covets but would never occupy, then point to it, ex post facto, and declare, "I told you so". A pre-mature schadenfreude runs rampant on these boards.

 

[Johnnysuede71]

The Litmus test will be resigning Gavrikov. How Holland plans on proceeding will be dictated by how he handles that situation. This guy needs to stay and not just for the quality of his play...he is a 'room' guy and he may actually WANT to be here. Pony up Ken.

 

[DoubleMinor]

The Litmus test will be resigning Gavrikov. How Holland plans on proceeding will be dictated by how he handles that situation. This guy needs to stay and not just for the quality of his play...he is a 'room' guy and he may actually WANT to be here. Pony up Ken.

While I don’t disagree that Gavrikov was real good this past season and we don’t currently have a replacement for him, I get a little worried about the litmus test part of this.
As a FA Gavy will get offers. Would you give him an 7-year deal with a cap hit of 8-9 million?
I wouldn’t, although some could make a compelling argument in favor of that deal.
I would give Gavy a 5-year offer with a cap hit of around 6.5. But is that enough to get him to stay?
Whatever Holland does with Gavrikov isn’t a stand-alone decision. It’s going to be the collection of moves that he makes.
But I do not disagree at all with the premise that Gavy has been an important player for the Kings.

 

[Bollocks]

Wow, there sure is a lot of love for Blake. The guy who started us into a rebuild, ended it too soon, and now we're stuck in the mushy middle with no impact prospects on the horizon. We're Islanders West minus the #1 overall pick.

Hopefully Holland can be as good as the GM who left us capped out with dollar tree goalies, missing a right hand scoring forward for 2 years, and never weaponized cap space when it was decided to tank.

We're replacing one middle of the pack GM with another. It's the generally uninspired move that is a hallmark of the past decade in Kings history.

How is being sceptic regarding Holland a sign of "love for Blake"? His cap era track record simply isn't great and he failed to bring the Cup to a team with 2 of the best players in the world. What can Ken do with Kopi and DD? We'll see, but celebrating his hire is IMO premature.

This.

Coming from a guy who hates this team every day since 1982, some of you are acting that without a prospect pool, we are doomed and forget who our past GM's were. Yes we are at the lower end now, but even in our cup years we had a lame prospect pool. Shoot, we have always had a bad prospect pool.

Plus our good prospects just started playing with the team and we will add more prospects in the draft.

Every gm makes mistakes like Campbell. He was coming off a 31-9 year. Of course you are going to hope he continues that sucess with you. At the time Edm fans were thrilled. Nobody was expecting for him to implode. That is not on Holland.

His success outweighs his failures. You cannot really say that about our GM history outside of Deano pre 2015. Holland did not destroy a team like George Maguire did for us. He did not make the ridiculous decisions like McMaster did. He did not sign Kovalchuk to a 3 year deal or give Petersen and extenstion. Holland has a pretty damn good resume over the time the league has changed. That is pretty damn remarkable.

This team is young and still the best part of this team. Doughty and Kopi anymore are just parts now who are basically done and we will have cap space to play with and the cap is going up.

This team just needs tinkering and they can be awesome/competitive for a long time.

Calm down. Please.

I think most of us who aren't thrilled with Holland aren't panicking or grinding our pitchforks. We're simply observing the hire as underwhelming, "safe" choice that will most likely continue the mediocrity of this team...

It's the same old "old boys" kind of hire. Rob was "gifted" a rookie GM job and all things considered IMO he learned very well over time and was criticized too much given his inexperience - it was foolish to expect a lot as fans, despite the core being in their prime. But from the perspective of Luc it was quite foolish to hire Rob considering the goal was also "win ASAP".

So at this point most of us expected another "old boys" hire, sure, but I'm disappointed it isn't Futa. He would IMO signal a retool approach, while Holland quite clearly signals a win-now approach.

And regarding win-now approach - I'm afraid Holland was "bailed" out very, very often with McDrai in his Edmonton tenure...and before that - have you seen the last Detroit team that reached the Finals (1 year after they won the Cup)? Prime Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Hossa, Franzen, Kronwall, Samuelsson, Cleary with still great Lidstrom, Rafalski, Holmstrom, Draper...that's the team he managed to assemble in a LONG period of time with a lot of them drafted and mentored in the pre-cap era full of established winners (players like Yzerman, Fedorov, Shanahan, Hull, Chelios...).

And after their last Finals appearance it all went downhill for them (slowly, but surely).


So considering Holland simply won't have generational talents like McDrai at his disposal, with the only other Finals/Cup winning reference being super-stacked Detroit Red Wings - why ARE you optimistic? What do you think he can do?

Unless he pulls several aces out of his sleeves in a short amount of time (which would mean a couple of very good UFA signings AND a very good trade) along with Greentree making an immediate impact it just doesn't look very well when it comes to "win-now" strategy. That's why I'd be much more at peace with another retool to bridge this team towards the end of DD+Kopitar era...


"Fun" thoughts time: Ken gives Gavrikov 8 million for 6 years, Kuzmenko 6 million for 5 years and Kempe 11 for 8 years and trading Greentree, Mikey and a 1st for Morgan Rielly. I consider this scenario much more likely than him pulling 3 great aces out of his sleeves.

I'd LOVE to be wrong though...

 

[Dexter]

 

[XPantericA]

I just saw Jim Hiller walk by as they were setting up the presser.

 

[XPantericA]

Also, Taco Bell manager says he’s staying.

 

[Moog]

Not a real inspiring pick for GM.
That being said, show what you can do, Holland.

The bar is pretty low with what Blake did all those years.

 

[XPantericA]

Hiller staying put. Confirmed.

 

[Statue4Deano]

lol. No change in staff. Holland really signed on to be Luc’s puppet. Incredible.

 

[santiclaws]

To be fair, the Oilers were not a playoff team when Holland came on board, despite having McDrai. They were a much better, and deeper, team when he left. They got to within a goal of the Cup last season in large part because of the players Holland brought in.

 

[Statue4Deano]

Not exactly a confidence inspiring first press conference.

To be clear, Holland can absolutely do the job. He’ll fill holes on the roster with good players and the team will make the playoffs next season. If that’s all you need out of a GM then Luc made the right hire.

 

[jammer06]

@Bollocks id really like you to expound on exactly how Futa would be an inspired hire and not also a retread? I'm legitimately curious. He's interviewed with multiple franchises at this point and not one has given him the keys. I loved him when he was here but it's 2025 now and he's on the radio.

 

[DoubleMinor]

Not exactly a confidence inspiring first press conference.

To be clear, Holland can absolutely do the job. He’ll fill holes on the roster with good players and the team will make the playoffs next season. If that’s all you need out of a GM then Luc made the right hire.

Personally I had no problem with anything I heard at the press conference.
A new GM isn’t going to say much beyond the obvious publicly.
I think I heard Holland state the basic concept and process. He said the team is already a pretty good team. He said the players have to get better. He said he will make moves. He knows from experience that some moves will work and others won’t. He stated that you can’t make a mistake with a $90M signing. He said Hiller will learn as he goes. His goal as GM is to build a Cup contender.
All of what he said is basic.

We won’t be able to judge Holland until we see what he actually does. This press conference has nothing to do with that verdict. Time will tell us.

 

[Earl]

I heard stories that Kings players from that era would get their checks & then all race over to the bank so they could cash them before the funds ran out. That was the era of the McNall financial troubles. So I understand trading away high priced veterans for younger cheaper players. But some times he really made bad choices. And his name does rhyme with disaster.

I just feel like he gets a bit of a bad rap considering the absolute mess the organization as a whole was behind the scenes. Even the Gretzky to Blues trade was a miracle we got 5 players for a player who was very public about getting the f*** out of here. I think with a bit more financial stability he would have been a very good gm but sadly he was the gm in those doom and gloom years.

 

[Moog]

Hiller staying put. Confirmed.

Organization reached a new low.

My guess is part of being hired was AEG stating that they are not willing to pay for yet another coach after going through Blake's coach roulette.

I guess Holland will be a company man just like Luc.

 

[symbology]

The Litmus test will be resigning Gavrikov. How Holland plans on proceeding will be dictated by how he handles that situation. This guy needs to stay and not just for the quality of his play...he is a 'room' guy and he may actually WANT to be here. Pony up Ken.

I think (am hoping) there is more to Gavi coming back then you realize. Maybe KH does not think the Kings need 3 of the same type of D on the LHS. Maybe one of the missing pieces of a LHD with some skill and mobility. If so, that would mean someone has to go. Should be Edmundson, but some other guy signed him to 4 years.

 

[LAKingSteve]

Personally I had no problem with anything I heard at the press conference.
A new GM isn’t going to say much beyond the obvious publicly.
I think I heard Holland state the basic concept and process. He said the team is already a pretty good team. He said the players have to get better. He said he will make moves. He knows from experience that some moves will work and others won’t. He stated that you can’t make a mistake with a $90M signing. He said Hiller will learn as he goes. His goal as GM is to build a Cup contender.
All of what he said is basic.

We won’t be able to judge Holland until we see what he actually does. This press conference has nothing to do with that verdict. Time will tell us.

Yep, the next few month will be pretty critical as to telling what he can/will do and what the immediate future is likely to look like for the Kings.

 

[LAKingSteve]

Organization reached a new low.

My guess is part of being hired was AEG stating that they are not willing to pay for yet another coach after going through Blake's coach roulette.

I guess Holland will be a company man just like Luc.

Not entirely sure why keeping Hiller is a new low. Yes, he was completely outcoached in the playoffs but I'm not sure that's enough to completely throw out how well he did with this team during the regular season. Not sure I'm 100% convinced we should be cutting him loose.