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

DoubleMinor said:
One thing that I think about is McDavid and his comfort level with the big market and media.
Something about him doesn’t fit in my opinion. He is the biggest name in a major sport (granted it’s still the NHL) but he doesn’t seem to seek the media spotlight and attention. I mean, he could have demanded a trade to a big market a few times if he wanted to.
McDavid does not seem to be a diva. He seems very happy in EDM. And I do understand that he must get lots of attention in his market but doesn’t seem to need it like lots of others stars.

One thing that I’ve noticed is that even the NHL doesn’t seem to market him personally. They market the name, the idea of him. But you rarely see him spotlighted.
I’m not trying to be a jerk but I’ve noticed he has a different personality. Not saying it’s a disorder but he’s a different type. Perhaps the intent is to protect that.

I just wonder if he wants anything to do with moving to a new team and new media. I think it’s a question for me as to whether he just wants to stay where he’s comfortable. He’s going to be the highest paid player regardless of where he’s at.
Click to expand...
Nothing comfortable about playing hockey in Edmonton. That is pretty much all that city has. He cannot go anywhere, or do anything. Another reason why LA may be a place he would want to play. He has stated it in interviews. He likes how he can walk around and not be hounded like in Edmonton. Maybe he just likes LA in order to take a break from things, or maybe there is more to it.
 
santiclaws said:
He won Cups with Detroit 20+ years ago when there was no cap and Detroit just outspent everyone. He's done nothing good as a GM since the cap. He was a clusterfuck in Edmonton, unable to get even decent goaltending during his tenure and the Oilers are still digging out from cap issues because of a lot of dumb contracts he signed, with Nurse's idiotic contract being Exhibit "A." Edmonton fans are very excited for the Kings to hire this guy, which is all you need to know.

I was never a huge Blake fan, but I would MUCH rather have Blake back.
Click to expand...
Oilers made the playoffs in every season that Holland was the GM including the Cup Final run. I bet AEG likes that he can keep the Kings in the playoffs.
 

Holland Expected to be Named Kings GM as Early as Tuesday

mayorsmanor.com mayorsmanor.com

One other name to keep an eye on moving forward is Brad Holland, Ken’s son. Upon the latter taking over in Edmonton five years ago, Brad joined the Oilers as a scout and then later moved into the AGM role. Even if Emerson stays with LA (in his current role or a different one), the younger Holland could join his father as part of the Kings hockey operations department.
Click to expand...

lol.
 
jammer06 said:
Ahh Pavel, who got out of St Louis for all of 58 games and in return for volunteering to come to LA is then promptly rewarded with a trade to Minny for Patty O and a pick. Conroy is nothing close to a star, Handzus was a far more prominent UFA signing of the era (I believe that was the summer of him and Nagy...). In any case Rantenan told the Kings the same thing he told Carolina. Franchise level guys that are made available like Panarin, Tavares, Thachuk never even hint at LA. The ones that do like Kovalchuk and Richards are in it for the bidding war. Plus all the ones that flat turn it down like Rantanen, Pacioretty, hell even Guy LaFleur told the kings to p*ss off. I guess we should be happy when a guy like Carter gets traded here and does drink the cool aid but it sure seems like it takes a pretty big jug of cool aid.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah that was part of my point, those two aren’t franchise players but are the best FAs I can think of since being a fan. Forgot about Handzus though. Another injury reclamation project too.

I am happy about sign and trades that work out. Fiala loves it here. I love Fiala. Now if Holland can flip Moore, Spence and this year’s first for Byrum I will love Holland for the time being.
 
Clif said:
Oh yeah that was part of my point, those two aren’t franchise players but are the best FAs I can think of since being a fan. Forgot about Handzus though. Another injury reclamation project too.

I am happy about sign and trades that work out. Fiala loves it here. I love Fiala. Now if Holland can flip Moore, Spence and this year’s first for Byrum I will love Holland for the time being.
Click to expand...
Gotta give Blake his due for Danault and Foegele.
 
So Holland it is then, eh?

Well...considering the upper management is in a win-now mode and that Ken will have 1.5 months until UFA and that much less until draft...I hope for the best, but I'm not very optimistic. I fear stupid, knee-jerk moves will happen.

I guess we can hope he learned something from his Oilers spell. Sure, they did get to the Finals, but we know it was a two man show there. Who will play the "McDrai" couple in LA?

His drafting doesn't seem stellar...he had a fair number of 1st round picks at his disposal and since the Broberg and Holloway drafts they all seem very underwhelming...and he lost both good picks to the offer sheets.



As I said...I'm not very optimistic. Oh well, let's keep our fingers crossed...
 
What ever Holland's deal ends up being, I hope they surround him with people who could take over the job when he retires.
 
No disrecpet to Holland because the man is a hall of famer but I cannot shake this feeling since the 3rd period of Game 3 that I’m watching a ship take on water and sink in slow motion.

I will reserve full judgement until Luc signs Holland’s successor but as it stands the hiring of Holland as even a temporary placeholder combined with the hyper focus on winning it all next season (why else would Holland sign on?) means we’re going to see some foolish moves happening soon. Everything is on an accelerated timeline.
 
Last edited:
McSorleyFan said:
What ever Holland's deal ends up being, I hope they surround him with people who could take over the job when he retires.
Click to expand...
Statue4Deano said:
No disrecpet to Holland because the man is a hall of famer but I cannot shake this feeling since the 3rd period of Game 3 that I’m watching a ship take on water and sink in slow motion.

I will reserve full judgement until Luc signs his successor but as it stands the hiring of Holland as even a temporary placeholder combined with the hyper focus on winning it all next season (why else would Holland sign on?) means we’re going to see some foolish moves happening soon. Everything is on an accelerated timeline.
Click to expand...
I keep hearing about his sons influence as AGM in Edmonton and that he was behind some of the "better" decisions there. Not sure if that's good or bad news. There is the possibility here of some longer term thinking even if it's still along the nepo lines we're all familiar with. I still don't think as a name that Holland is going to overcome the bias against the west coast for most UFA's.
 
jammer06 said:
I keep hearing about his sons influence as AGM in Edmonton and that he was behind some of the "better" decisions there. Not sure if that's good or bad news. There is the possibility here of some longer term thinking even if it's still along the nepo lines we're all familiar with. I still don't think as a name that Holland is going to overcome the bias against the west coast for most UFA's.
Click to expand...
Bringing in Brad Holland is just particularly funny because so many Kings fans loved to complain about the appearance of an insular old boys club that favored personal relationships over merit within the executive ranks and the need for “outside perspective” as if there’s something inherently insightful about not being on the Kings payroll.

Giving the keys to a retiree so he can shepherd his son further along in his career is just perfect.

Be careful what you ask for, folks.
 
Bollocks said:
So Holland it is then, eh?

Well...considering the upper management is in a win-now mode and that Ken will have 1.5 months until UFA and that much less until draft...I hope for the best, but I'm not very optimistic. I fear stupid, knee-jerk moves will happen.

I guess we can hope he learned something from his Oilers spell. Sure, they did get to the Finals, but we know it was a two man show there. Who will play the "McDrai" couple in LA?

His drafting doesn't seem stellar...he had a fair number of 1st round picks at his disposal and since the Broberg and Holloway drafts they all seem very underwhelming...and he lost both good picks to the offer sheets.



As I said...I'm not very optimistic. Oh well, let's keep our fingers crossed...
Click to expand...
Just to clarify, he was no longer the GM when those players were lost.
 
A few notes of optimism.

-It’s not Bergevin
-Sounds like Holland will be interim. That doesn’t point to sweeping changes, even if in win-now mode.
-Speaking of win now, Holland is outside enough to be more likely to fire Hiller. This to me is as important as anything else.
-Holland’s main criticism in EDM was his drafting, not addressing the goalie, and poor defense. None of those three things are issues right now in LA. Goalie tandem next year is set and pipeline is strong, D is near the top of the league, and the Yanetti machine is well-functioning.
-He did make some good moves. Elkholm was brilliant. Hyman signing was huge. Foegele trade was effective while they had him. We just need him to make a couple good moves right now and sign RFAs to reasonable contracts. That’s a better ask than having to seriously retool.
-Holland saw a lot of the Kings in the playoffs. He should be aware enough of how and why they lost. He will do a deep dive on this year’s round. I don’t expect the Kings to abandon their defensive structure, but he will also emphasize the need for offense.
 
jammer06 said:
I keep hearing about his sons influence as AGM in Edmonton and that he was behind some of the "better" decisions there. Not sure if that's good or bad news. There is the possibility here of some longer term thinking even if it's still along the nepo lines we're all familiar with. I still don't think as a name that Holland is going to overcome the bias against the west coast for most UFA's.
Click to expand...

Sure hope so. In the above posted table there are quite a lot of bad (or extremely bad in case of Nurse) of long term, high AAV deals that likely caused them major issues when trying to build a contender.

Add to that the fact that Broberg and Holloway walked for peanuts.

oilersnation.com

Ken Holland was apparently “instructed” by “top levels of the Oilers organization” to sign Holloway and Broberg during the season

When all else fails, blame the guy who isn't around anymore. <!--mo...
oilersnation.com oilersnation.com

I'm really curious as to what people that wanted Blake gone ASAP will think of this. Nurse's contract is significantly worse than PLD's, and Jack Campbell's contract is considerably worse than Cal's (because of the term)...with major differences in that Nurse is basically untradeable for the foreseeable future and he bought out Campbell, which was free in the form of assets but not at all in the form of cap space, which is much more important for the Oilers lately.

Additionally he lost a very important playoff presence as a UFA - to the Kings of all places (Foegele). Replaced him with Arvidsson - for more money, much bigger risk of health issues and less of a physical presence.

When it comes to trades:
The bad:
- traded for Henrique, had to give up a 1st rounder in order to save on cap hit
- traded for Bjugstad and AHL D-man for a 3rd + Kesselring only to let him walk as a UFA
- offloaded Kassian + added a 2nd and a 3rd for a 1st pick swap to trade down
- Gagner plus two 2nd rounders for Athanasiou

The Good:
- Ekholm trade
- Foegele trade

He also traded for several over-the-hill players (Keith, Neal, Brassard), but they weren't very expensive to acquire. Only Brassard was a deadline acquisition.

And there's a question how much were his UFA signings like Hyman were influenced by the presence of McDrai...


So...he seems unable to build a winner, he never had to care too much about the future of the teams he managed, not very good at drafting and with Broberg, Holloway, Nurse and Campbell he easily surpasses Rob in stupidity category (and he has no excuse that he's a rookie GM).

So far...I think the Kings took a step back. I think the only real upside is that he might bring a better HC in.
 
symbology said:
Just to clarify, he was no longer the GM when those players were lost.
Click to expand...

He was apparently pushed by other members of management/execs to sign them during the season which he failed to do and he also failed to provide enough cap space to sign them at a later point. At the point of Oilers losing them to the offer sheets they simply couldn't afford them anymore.

oilersnation.com

Ken Holland was apparently “instructed” by “top levels of the Oilers organization” to sign Holloway and Broberg during the season

When all else fails, blame the guy who isn't around anymore. <!--mo...
oilersnation.com oilersnation.com

"In December and January, Holloway was on the shelf because of a knee injury suffered in November and he only had one goal over 14 games. Broberg was playing in the American Hockey League and the young defender had been granted permission to seek a change of scenery."

To me this seems like he neglects the development of younger players in his philosophy. Have Rob/Dean ever failed to sign a highly touted prospect or waited to the point of losing all leverage? I can't remember such a case...
 
Clif said:
-Holland’s main criticism in EDM was his drafting, not addressing the goalie, and poor defense. None of those three things are issues right now in LA. Goalie tandem next year is set and pipeline is strong, D is near the top of the league, and the Yanetti machine is well-functioning.
Click to expand...
Not sure there’s any reason to be optimistic about a new GM coming in who has zero trust established with his amateur scouts and very little time to properly familiarize himself with the current prospect list.

If the win now clock is already ticking and you have no relevant working relationship with your amateur scouting department you don’t have the luxury of just sitting back and letting them do their thing. In my mind that makes a GM more likely to move picks and prospects to reach the end goal as quickly as possible.

Assuming Holland is just going to go with the flow of the organization means he’s taking on the job as a Luc puppet with very little autonomy as little more than a placeholder. I just can’t see that happening. I believe Holland is coming in to run the team as he sees fit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Now Chirping

Share this page

Back
Top