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UPDATE

It's official

Can confirm Ken Holland has officially accepted the job as Oilers General Manager. An official announcement to come in the next few days.

— Ryan Rishaug (@TSNRyanRishaug) May 6, 2019

There has not yet been an official statement from the Edmonton Oilers, but all signs point to Ken Holland being named the 11th General Manager in the history of the Edmonton Oilers.

There really isn't anything to do right now except for laugh. Bob Nicholson and company can't seem to help but shoot themselves in the foot.

For weeks, Nicholson has stressed the importance of finding a new general manager through the proper channels, as well as how few times over this franchise's history, the team has actually conducted a proper interview process to find a GM... and once again the Oilers look ready to hire a man because of his past laurels.

Ken Holland did not go through the same interview process that Hunter, Verbeek, Gretzky, and others went through. Holland is someone who Nicholson knows through his Hockey Canada days and once he heard he was potentially available. he abandoned the process plan.

I will go further in depth into Ken Holland in the coming days but in short, the Red Wings as they stand today are a team trying to rebuild but face cap issues due to some poor roster management.

Frans Nielsen is 35 years old and scored 10 goals this past season...he is signed for three more seasons at 5.25 million.

Justin Abdelkader scored 6 goals this past season and is 32 years old...he is signed for four more seasons at 4.25 million.

The Red Wings have 7 million dollars next season tied up in their two goaltenders... neither of whom look to be starting goaltenders.

All of these are courtesy of Ken Holland.

There will be fans who say "wait and see before you act all negative, maybe he can turn things around." Fans have said this about Peter Chiarelli, the signing of Milan Lucic, Craig MacTavish as GM, trading Eberle, I can go on for decades of mishandlings and terrible decisions.

I hope I am wrong and that Holland is able to right the ship but this represents one more decision in a long line of failed decisions where the management of the Edmonton Oilers seem to be going against the grain of what the successful teams in the league are doing.

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SOME OTHER THOUGHTS

The paperwork still has to get done. Provided all of that is managed today, expect the Oilers to introduce Holland as the new GM in the next few days. Holland will have autonomy and Nicholson could take on a bigger role as well. https://t.co/xnh9eyu6Rh

— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) May 5, 2019

First off the idea of Nicholson taking on even more of a role is a terrifying thought but let's focus on the autonomy. The way that this tweet as well as other messages speaking about this makes it sound like autonomy is something unique to Holland coming in, and was not being offered to the likes of Hunter and Gretzky.

If this is true it isn't surprising that so many other candidates seemed to be turning Edmonton down. "Yeah you can come in and be GM...but you can't fire these guys...or that guy....or him.... and definitely not him, he has a golf game booked with Katz tomorrow."

When the Oilers circled back with an offer this week, Ken Holland called friends in the game to get their thoughts. One of them warned him about the poisonous atmosphere around the team. “You’ll get killed on social media,” he warned. “I’m not on social media,” Holland replied.

— Gord Miller (@GMillerTSN) May 5, 2019

This idea of the fan base in Edmonton being poisonous is something that needs to be addressed. The fans are pissed... they have every bloody right to be pissed to. The hockey team that they have spent their money on year after year has made the playoffs once in the last 14 years. The organization has continuously made moves that are immediately blasted by the fans and inevitably the organization then admits they made mistakes. Seriously a group of dedicated fans would run this team better than "the professionals"

THE MSM

I usually try to avoid discussing the MSM vs bloggers discussion...

But man oh man is the group we have in Edmonton making that extremely difficult to do so.

I'm not going to say any names, but here in Oil Country we all know who they are; these media outlets who continue to preach the narrative that the Oilers organization knows what they are doing and that fans need to give them the benefit of the doubt.

For fans of the team who want to really gain an understanding of what is going on with the Oilers please continue to read my blogs and I encourage you all to send them to new readers as well. I always appreciate the back and forth I have with my readers here and while you all may not like what I write, you at least know it is coming from as unbiased and analytical perspective as I can give.

If you want to be spoon fed sugar and told that everything is fine, read the Edmonton Journal.

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