News Article: Brad Holland no longer Assistant GM

[JeffSkinner53]

https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/edmonton-oilers/latest-news/oilers-and-brad-holland-go-in-new-directions

Thoughts? Surprising? Not surprising?

Click to read more...

 

[TheGingaNinja]

Not too surprising I guess considering Daddy is gone now. He's supposed to have been analytically driven, so hopefully they replace him with someone of a similar skill set.

 

[FlameChampion]

Never really thought about it after Holland left but I don’t think this is really surprising. I think Jackson and Holland kept it professional but I don’t think Jackson likes a lot of things Holland did and I am sure Holland was annoyed that Jackson kept over stepping him.

I do wonder if Kenny is going to get another job somewhere and Brad is following him.

 

[Spawn]

I'll never be upset when a blatant nepo hire leaves the organization.

 

[TheGingaNinja]

Never really thought about it after Holland left but I don’t think this is really surprising. I think Jackson and Holland kept it professional but I don’t think Jackson likes a lot of things Holland did and I am sure Holland was annoyed that Jackson kept over stepping him.

I do wonder if Kenny is going to get another job somewhere and Brad is following him.

That wouldn't surprise me. Nor would him ending up in Dallas. He has an uncle scouting there.

 

[Mr Kot]

 

[Soundwave]

I knew this was coming all along.

Jackson doesn't like Ken Holland and certainly wasn't going to use his nepo hire son as a high level management role hire.

People who were saying he had a serious chance of being the next GM were crazy.

Honestly I think Holland dug his own grave with that Connor Brown negotiation, Jeff Jackson knew he took Holland to the cleaners and was never re-hiring him as GM, his amateur scout(s), his son, nothing, nada. Not even a Cup Final changed his mind.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

See ya Brad. You won’t be missed.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Thanks for.... whatever you did.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

is Keith Gretzky the only one left from a previous regime?
Chia hired him

 

[Barrsy]

I always thought this guys days were numbered. It was out there that there was no chance the Holloaway/Broberg offer sheets get signed if GM Holland was still here as Armstrong & Holland are apparently really good friends. Then add that to Holland possibly leaving not really happily.
And then today I hear Thomas Harley signing for LESS AAV than Broberg. How the hell does that happen??

 

[joestevens29]

I always thought this guys days were numbered. It was out there that there was no chance the Holloaway/Broberg offer sheets get signed if GM Holland was still here as Armstrong & Holland are apparently really good friends. Then add that to Holland possibly leaving not really happily.
And then today I hear Thomas Harley signing for LESS AAV than Broberg. How the hell does that happen??

One was an offer sheet, one wasn't?

 

[Barrsy]

One was an offer sheet, one wasn't?

Correct. But they are both 2 year terms. But how Broberg is remotely in the same universe in terms of AAV is shocking.
Thats all I am saying.

 

[VeteranPresence]

How the hell does that happen??

It's called collusion. All GMs engage in it, but it was obvious that Holland's friends would lash out the moment we opted not to bring him back. Neither father or son are any big loss though so happy to see this regime cleaning house.

 

[FiveFourteenSixOne]

I'm not going to lie, I don't really care about the qualifications of the individual, when your dad is the guy that hires and promotes you into your position.

If this was a family business I'd get it and wouldn't have a problem with it. This however, was just gross nepotism.

 

[Jumptheshark]

not shocked by this. The job he was given does not match his resume. Before you mention keith, He has spent 30 years in hockey management with 4 different organizations

 

[joestevens29]

I'm not going to lie, I don't really care about the qualifications of the individual, when your dad is the guy that hires and promotes you into your position.

If this was a family business I'd get it and wouldn't have a problem with it. This however, was just gross nepotism.

I don’t know the whole sporting world is based on who you know. Up until recently people thought Brad was good here. Ya the name is nepotism but that’s sports

 

[Stoneman89]

I'll never be upset when a blatant nepo hire leaves the organization.

I hear Stan might be bringing Scotty on board as an advisor.

In all seriousness though, it's not unusual for someone in a high position in an organization who leaves, at some point, brings along those he hired in the first place. There certainly could be others, so if Ken gets a job somewhere else, he'll likely go after or hire some of "his people".

 

[TheNumber4]

Thought he was pretty smart. But who knows really. Thanks for your time Brad.

 

[McDNicks17]

I don’t know the whole sporting world is based on who you know. Up until recently people thought Brad was good here. Ya the name is nepotism but that’s sports

It always seemed like that was because of obvious PR work from Bob.

Like saying he was the driving force behind signing Hyman despite saying earlier that it was Hyman that contacted the Oilers first and that was proof that players want to play in Edmonton.

Or that he "discovered" Ekholm with analytics like Ekholm was some unknown player lol.

 

[joestevens29]

It always seemed like that was because of obvious PR work from Bob.

Like saying he was the driving force behind signing Hyman despite saying earlier that it was Hyman that contacted the Oilers first and that was proof that players want to play in Edmonton.

Or that he "discovered" Ekholm with analytics like Ekholm was some unknown player lol.

I guess we just don’t know. In that role do we ever know I guess

 

[McDNicks17]

I guess we just don’t know. In that role do we ever know I guess

It's true. It just seems like Bob threw a bunch of BS out there to fight the nepotism talk.

Like it would be terrifying if a GM or pro scout working for an NHL team didn't know who Ekholm was or didn't know how good he was. If that's even slightly true, it speaks more about Holland Sr's competence than Brad's.

 

[guymez]

It always seemed like that was because of obvious PR work from Bob.

Like saying he was the driving force behind signing Hyman despite saying earlier that it was Hyman that contacted the Oilers first and that was proof that players want to play in Edmonton.

Or that he "discovered" Ekholm with analytics like Ekholm was some unknown player lol.

I am not defending Brad here but having the player contact the team isnt proof that Brad Holland didnt play an important role.
The team (and in this case Brad Holland) still has to determine if the player is a good fit and by all accounts analytics was a tool employed to help make that decision.
So Brads dept did in fact play a role in the Hyman signing.

Also...never heard anything about how he 'discovered' Ekholm. I would asume that he played the same role in determing if Ekholms numbers warranted interest from the team

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Apparently he held two roles so Bowman was asked if he was hiring two people to replace him. Bowman said they are going to look at the hiring over the next few weeks but didn’t say if hiring one or two people.

 

[joestevens29]

It always seemed like that was because of obvious PR work from Bob.

Like saying he was the driving force behind signing Hyman despite saying earlier that it was Hyman that contacted the Oilers first and that was proof that players want to play in Edmonton.

Or that he "discovered" Ekholm with analytics like Ekholm was some unknown player lol.

I'm also pretty sure Coffey really liked Hyman and told the team to sign him too.

At the end of the day we just don't know what some of these guys really do. Even when they have a list of roles/duties you still truly don't know if the guy is good.

I remember Stu back in the day talking about the drafts and how the one year Tambo wanted them to identify guys that had good work ethic and leadership. So is it Stu's fault when guys busted because they didn't have the needed talent to be NHLers, or Tambo for directing him to look for these types of guys.