The Loss of Broberg and Holloway Gripe Thread

[McShogun99]

The bar was so low I'm not sure that's a ringing endorsement.

Never missed the playoffs during his 5 years with a conference finals and cup final appearance. We're one of the most successful teams during that span.

 

[OilersaretheMcBest]

I think this previous offseason just shows how good of a GM Holland actually was.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Never missed the playoffs during his 5 years with a conference finals and cup final appearance. We're one of the most successful teams during that span.

How much of that has to do with the guy wearing #97?

 

[McShogun99]

How much of that has to do with the guy wearing #97?

Chiarelli had 97 and 29 and only made the playoffs once in 4 years.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Chiarelli had 97 and 29 and only made the playoffs once in 4 years.

Yeah he was a terrible GM, I don't think anyone would say otherwise. But without 97 this team is lost in the desert, period.

 

[Duke74]

At the time of the offer sheet, I thought the best decision was to let both players go. Both of them hadn't proven anything and I didn't think that they, especially Holloway, would break out in this manner. I remember that Ryan McLeod was in a very similar situation a few years ago and he took a one-year contract around $800,000 to $900,000. Why couldn't Holloway do the same? Holloway hadn't proven more than McLeod in his time here. Then, we offered McLeod a contract for similar to what Holloway signed for in St. Louis and he did shit all, making me think that Holloway would follow a similar path to McLeod, Yamamoto, Puljujarvi, and many others than we overpaid for a small sample size.

Now, it's looking like we made a horrible decision. Was Holloway mismanaged and hence unhappy here? Is this yet another case of not knowing what we have in a player? Or was it another case of a player flourishing once he leaves this organization? I have no idea what to think anymore.

 

[Drivesaitl]

At the time of the offer sheet, I thought the best decision was to let both players go. Both of them hadn't proven anything and I didn't think that they, especially Holloway, would break out in this manner. I remember that Ryan McLeod was in a very similar situation a few years ago and he took a one-year contract around $800,000 to $900,000. Why couldn't Holloway do the same? Holloway hadn't proven more than McLeod in his time here. Then, we offered McLeod a contract for similar to what Holloway signed for in St. Louis and he did shit all, making me think that Holloway would follow a similar path to McLeod, Yamamoto, Puljujarvi, and many others than we overpaid for a small sample size.

Now, it's looking like we made a horrible decision. Was Holloway mismanaged and hence unhappy here? Is this yet another case of not knowing what we have in a player? Or was it another case of a player flourishing once he leaves this organization? I have no idea what to think anymore.

Surprised at this. Holloway was producing here, and in the AHL, and was establishing. Plus that the goals he did score here tended to be hands goals. Some brilliant ones and even making deft puck plays on net with speed. The kid was finding it. I was banging that drum last season and in playoffs and wanting team to give him bigger roles. McLeod was always value. PK, zone exits/entries, speed. Was a responsible transition player.

Holloway is dissimilar to McLeod. Holloway is a bull, agressive to pucks and flying in at D. He's a cannonball and hard to contain. Has potential as a Power forward. McLeod opposite and finding open ice not through physicality but superior skating and edge work.

I prefer Drai playing with strong or physical players. I loved seeing Holloway with him the short instances he had. Holloway of course has hands unlike Pods who has been hard to watch after org gave up Holloway.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

At the time of the offer sheet, I thought the best decision was to let both players go. Both of them hadn't proven anything and I didn't think that they, especially Holloway, would break out in this manner. I remember that Ryan McLeod was in a very similar situation a few years ago and he took a one-year contract around $800,000 to $900,000. Why couldn't Holloway do the same? Holloway hadn't proven more than McLeod in his time here. Then, we offered McLeod a contract for similar to what Holloway signed for in St. Louis and he did shit all, making me think that Holloway would follow a similar path to McLeod, Yamamoto, Puljujarvi, and many others than we overpaid for a small sample size.

Now, it's looking like we made a horrible decision. Was Holloway mismanaged and hence unhappy here? Is this yet another case of not knowing what we have in a player? Or was it another case of a player flourishing once he leaves this organization? I have no idea what to think anymore.

At the time of Game 7 concluding to opening of free agency there was an exclusive window to negotiate and gauge the health of the known trade request relationship with Broberg and to pro-actively assert the future of two home grown blue chip prospects coming off proving points in deep playoff competition. Contingency plan should alway include keeping options open by calling prospective trade partners. Especially as both were involved in active trade discussions mere months before that. You even have a qualified list of where to start (cough cough St. Louis Blues).

Overspend on July 1 and still do nothing for over a month to sign your drafted and "developed" young NHL ready talent. Then have your bad decision making leveraged against you with strategic offer sheets you can't afford and with precision to extract cheap, young, emerging talent for pennies on the dollar. St. Louis showed a much better evaluation of these young talents than did their own club ... even with Stanley Cup playoff prove points.

No shit they weren't going to match on at minimum Broberg's perfect offer sheet but walking into a history making terrible management situation this group was dumb enough to decline both.

 

[Duke74]

Surprised at this. Holloway was producing here, and in the AHL, and was establishing. Plus that the goals he did score here tended to be hands goals. Some brilliant ones and even making deft puck plays on net with speed. The kid was finding it. I was banging that drum last season and in playoffs and wanting team to give him bigger roles. McLeod was always value. PK, zone exits/entries, speed. Was a responsible transition player.

Holloway is dissimilar to McLeod. Holloway is a bull, agressive to pucks and flying in at D. He's a cannonball and hard to contain. Has potential as a Power forward. McLeod opposite and finding open ice not through physicality but superior skating and edge work.

I prefer Drai playing with strong or physical players. I loved seeing Holloway with him the short instances he had. Holloway of course has hands unlike Pods who has been hard to watch after org gave up Holloway.

Holloway showed flashes, especially in the playoffs. But again, that was a small sample size. I'm not defending management, because obviously they didn't do their due diligence with this player and were oblivious enough to the market conditions to get caught with their pants around their ankles, but what were they supposed to offer a player that had never put up sustained production here? Time and time again we overpaid for small sample sizes and it wasted useful cap. Mcleod. Yamamoto. Puljujarvi. Kassian. Do we repeat that same mistake with Holloway and tie up unnecessary cap in a cup window? The one time that we decide not to overpay a player it bites us in the ass. That's what's so frustrating.

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

Never missed the playoffs during his 5 years with a conference finals and cup final appearance. We're one of the most successful teams during that span.

Yes, but everyone between Sather and Holland were various levels of epic failures.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Holloway showed flashes, especially in the playoffs. But again, that was a small sample size. I'm not defending management, because obviously they didn't do their due diligence with this player and were oblivious enough to the market conditions to get caught with their pants around their ankles, but what were they supposed to offer a player that had never put up sustained production here? Time and time again we overpaid for small sample sizes and it wasted useful cap. Mcleod. Yamamoto. Puljujarvi. Kassian. Do we repeat that same mistake with Holloway and tie up unnecessary cap in a cup window? The one time that we decide not to overpay a player it bites us in the ass. That's what's so frustrating.

Do you forget how young Holloway was, how little a segment he'd played here in the NHL, and how much Holloway was showing his hand in Bakersfield. He's had a reasonable ascension, taking account of minutes played, than even Ryan Smyth did. Smyth didn't find his game until around 50-60NHL games played wherein he was getting huge minutes on a bad club. College kids can take longer too but the worth is often worth it as they tend to be better honed.

A last point is that the GP for Holloway at NHL level here is also distorting. Many of those games Holloway had very limited minutes and mostly sitting on the bench and mostly with Woodcrap as head coach.

 

[NashtoNowitzki]

Never missed the playoffs during his 5 years with a conference finals and cup final appearance. We're one of the most successful teams during that span.

Draisaitl and McDavid. .00001% of teams in the history of the NHL have 2 players like that in their prime at the same time. Did the 80's Oilers brag about one finals appearance with Gretzky & Messier? 90's Avalanche with Sakic & Forsberg? Pens with Crosby & Malkin? These are the comparables. Not this "oh gee we stopped missing the playoffs" mentality. It's just not that big of an accomplishment man.

Holland was born on second base and people like you keep trying to give him credit for hitting a double. He added 2 needle-moving players in 5 years, and blew up the toilet with most everything else.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Draisaitl and McDavid. .00001% of teams in the history of the NHL have 2 players like that in their prime at the same time. Did the 80's Oilers brag about one finals appearance with Gretzky & Messier? 90's Avalanche with Sakic & Forsberg? Pens with Crosby & Malkin? These are the comparables. Not this "oh gee we stopped missing the playoffs" mentality. It's just not that big of an accomplishment man.

Holland was born on second base and people like you keep trying to give him credit for hitting a double. He added 2 needle-moving players in 5 years, and blew up the toilet with most everything else.

Ekholm, Kane, Hyman, Foegele, Holloway and Broberg...that's pretty good

took a team that finished 25th in the league in 2018-19 to a perennial playoff team that won the 2nd most playoff rounds the past 3 seasons...the results speak for themselves
and if it were all 97 and 29, then the results would be the same this year

he made his share of blunders, but he was light years better than anything before or since

 

[McShogun99]

Draisaitl and McDavid. .00001% of teams in the history of the NHL have 2 players like that in their prime at the same time. Did the 80's Oilers brag about one finals appearance with Gretzky & Messier? 90's Avalanche with Sakic & Forsberg? Pens with Crosby & Malkin? These are the comparables. Not this "oh gee we stopped missing the playoffs" mentality. It's just not that big of an accomplishment man.

Holland was born on second base and people like you keep trying to give him credit for hitting a double. He added 2 needle-moving players in 5 years, and blew up the toilet with most everything else.

I guess he gets zero credit for building the most successful team in the modern era or did 25 years of success in Detroit just fall in his lap? Crosby and Malkin only made the finals 4 times in what will probably be a 20 year career. Ovechkin only once in the same time frame. Having some of the best players in the game guarantees nothing unless you build a solid team around them and that didn’t happen with us until Holland was hired.

 

[Soundwave]

Kevin Lowe also build a team that went to game 7 of a Cup Final without benefit of a McDavid or Draisaitl. That doesn't make him a genius. He also drafted Hemsky, Stoll, Petry, Dubnyk, Eberle all outside of the top 10.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Ekholm, Kane, Hyman, Foegele, Holloway and Broberg...that's pretty good

took a team that finished 25th in the league in 2018-19 to a perennial playoff team that won the 2nd most playoff rounds the past 3 seasons...the results speak for themselves
and if it were all 97 and 29, then the results would be the same this year

he made his share of blunders, but he was light years better than anything before or since

I mean yeah it's not like he didn't do good things but the Nurse/Campbell contracts have probably sewered our hopes of ever winning a Cup. In addition to abysmal drafting and asset management...

It's what, year 10 of McDavid and still no Cup. And quite frankly I don't think they're going to win it this year.

The way I look at Holland is this: When he started the team needed depth, defense and goaltending. Fast forward past his tenure and the team still needs those exact things.