Breaking: Ex-Red Wings GM Out in Edmonton
Longtime Red Wing general manager and three-time Stanley Cup champion Ken Holland has elected to step down from his role running the Oilers
Per a report from TSN's Darren Dreger, longtime Red Wings GM and three-time Stanley Cup champion Ken Holland told the Edmonton Oilers that he will not be continuing with the team in any capacity. Dreger added that Holland is free to explore his options with other teams, but that he is expected to take some time off before contemplating his next move.
Holland ran the Red Wings from July 1997 through the return of Steve Yzerman in April 2019. He won three Cups during that run, yet for many Red Wing fans, he is remembered bitterly for the way his tenure in Detroit concluded. For the first half of his run, the Red Wings were the league's gold standard: unparalleled in drafting and development but also distinguishing itself with lavish free agent expenditure before the salary cap arrived for the '05-06 season. The pinnacle of that dynamic was the 2002 Cup champion team, which as of Pavel Datsyuk's election earlier this week can boast a preposterous ten Hockey Hall-of-Famers.
However, the end of Holland's tenure is remembered for the franchise's trademark success in drafting and development turning sour, an inability to replace a staggeringly good generation of players upon their retirements (Datsyuk, Nicklas Lidstrom, and Henrik Zetterberg perhaps foremost among them), and contracts that were too long for players who could too little.
In a funny way, Holland's tenure in Edmonton has taken on a similar ambivalence. There have been some unambiguously disastrous contracts (Jack Campbell, Darnell Nurse), but there have also been some massive successes (Zach Hyman, first and foremost).
Of course the foundation for the current Oilers was laid before Holland's arrival in the form of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. However, McDavid and Draisaitl have never played for as complete or successful of Oilers teams as they did under Holland's stewardship.
The timing here is a bit curious, considering Holland and the Oilers just finished a run to the Stanley Cup Final and remain at the forefront of Cup contention in the immediate future. However, perhaps Holland feels his time at the wheel of the Oil is done, and he'd like some time to rest, for which he can hardly be blamed. It will be interesting to see whether this proves retirement for Holland or he has another act still in him.