June 27, 2024 by Ryan Lotsberg

The Edmonton Oilers and General Manager Ken Holland have mutually agreed to part ways. Oilers CEO Jeff Jackson released a statement this morning confirming the news that Elliotte Friedman reported was likely to happen late last night in MST and that Darren Dreger was first to report this morning.

#Oilers CEO of Hockey Operations Jeff Jackson has released a statement regarding President of Hockey Operations & General Manager Ken Holland. https://t.co/xcuFvngOCe

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) June 27, 2024

Holland’s five-year contract that started in the 2019-20 season will simply expire. The 68-year old had a 220-121-32 record in his five seasons as GM of the Oilers. The Oilers finished in second place in whichever division they played in during all five of Holland’s seasons at the helm. The Oilers appeared in two Western Conference Finals in the last three years of Holland’s tenure with the Oilers, and they made it to Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, narrowly falling short of completing a historic comeback from being down 3-0 in the series.

Holland inherited quite the mess from previous Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli. The Oilers finished in 25th place in the 2018-19 season, and they were tight against the salary cap. He had to deal with the anchor of Milan Lucic’s contract, he had a disgruntled former fourth overall pick in Jesse Puljujarvi, and he had a difficult goaltending situation with Mikko Koskinen having just signed a long-term extension. 

The first thing that Holland did was trading Milan Lucic for James Neal. Their contracts expired at the same time, and Holland retained a little bit of money on Lucic’s contract to make the money exactly the same. The difference was that Neal’s contract was much easier to buy out. That’s exactly what Holland did with Neal after two seasons. Neal’s buyout cap hit lasted exactly as long as Holland did with the Oilers.

The Oilers made trade deadline deals in every season under Holland. It was Andreas Athanasiou and Tyler Ennis in 2020; Dmitri Kulikov in 2021; Brett Kulak and Derrick Brassard in 2022; Mattias Ekholm and Nick Bjugstad in 2023, and Adam Henrique, Sam Carrick, and Troy Stecher in 2024. Ekholm was clearly the pick of the litter of Holland’s deadline acquisitions. Kulak has been quite serviceable in his time with the Oilers. Henrique was a solid addition for the 2024 playoff run. The success of the other trade deadline moves was limited. Athanasiou was not qualified the next season due to his high qualifying offer number, so that was a big loss for Holland.

Holland did have other trades that worked out well. The Ethan Bear for Warren Foegele trade was criticized at first, but Foegele turned into a meaningful contributor, especially this season. He scored twenty goals in the regular season, and he got five points in the Stanley Cup Final. Holland also traded Dmitri Samorukov for Klim Kostin. Kostin was a fan favourite for his combination of fighting, hitting, and goal scoring last season. 

Holland had more success in free agency though. At first, it was a laundry list of cheap bets due to the cap situation, and those didn’t pan out. Once some cap space became available, Holland was able to do more. Zach Hyman is Holland’s best free agent signing. Hyman provides incredible value. The guy led the playoffs in goal scoring with sixteen goals this season, and he scored 54 goals in the regular season. Holland also signed Evander Kane during the 2021-22 season after his contract with the San Jose Sharks was terminated. Kane had a massive playoff run for the Oilers in 2022, and he still remains a contributor on the team. Mike Smith was the free agent signing that helped the goaltending situation. Smith played three seasons with the Oilers, and he led the team to the Western Conference Final in his last season. Cody Ceci was signed to replace the departing Adam Larsson in 2021. Ceci is not Larsson, but he has been serviceable.

Holland definitely valued experience and championship pedigree. The Duncan Keith trade was widely viewed as a loss because Holland didn’t get the Blackhawks to retain any of Keith’s salary for the last year of his deal, but Keith was a contributor on the team that made it to the Western Conference Final in 2022. He was a mentor to Evan Bouchard, and his presence in the dressing room was surely impactful. Holland also brought in Corey Perry, who has won everything there is to win in hockey, for this year’s playoff run. Those players offered valuable guidance to an Oilers team that needed to learn how to win in the playoffs.

It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for Holland. He made some missteps as well. I already addressed the Athanasiou trade where he gave up two second round picks for basically nothing. Puljujarvi ended up being moved for a prospect that was never re-signed. It got the Oilers cap space at the 2023 deadline, which made it possible to acquire Ekholm; but giving up Puljujarvi for cap space definitely hurt. He signed Zack Kassian to a large contract that he later had to surrender a first round pick (Reid Schaeffer) to move. Perhaps the largest of his mistakes was signing Jack Campbell to a five-year, $25 million deal when Stuart Skinner was about to emerge as a number one goaltender. Campbell spent all but five games buried in the AHL this past season after struggling in his first season.

The weakest area of the organization under Holland was drafting and development. None of the draft picks selected under Holland earned permanent roles on the Oilers by the end of Holland’s last regular season with the team. Dylan Holloway has seemingly earned a spot with his play in the 2024 playoffs, and Philip Broberg emerged in the Western Conference Final and the Stanley Cup Final. Aside from Holland’s first two first round picks, nobody else has earned a roster spot.

I’ll never forget the fact that the Oilers traded down to select Xavier Bourgault when they had an organizational need in goal and the chance to select Jesper Wallstedt with the 20th pick in 2021. Instead, they picked Xavier Bourgault with the 22nd pick. Bourgault has yet to play an NHL game and had a tough year this past season. Meanwhile, the Dallas Stars took Wyatt Johnston with the next pick, and he led their team in goal scoring this season. It’s things like that that cost Tyler Wright his job last summer and that played a role in Holland’s contract not being extended.

Say what you want about Holland’s body of work, but the Oilers were always strong regular season teams under Holland, and they had a lot of playoff success under Holland despite falling just short of the ultimate prize on Monday night. Holland will not be a part of the Oilers staff in any capacity moving forward. We will wait to see what Holland’s next move will be, whether he retires or takes on another role with another team. If this is the end for Holland, then it was an incredible career. If he’s not done yet, then I wish him all the best in his next role. Either way, good luck to Holland.