It just seems like Holland lost the political game.
The owner has a new favorite, Holland's contract is up and the writing is on the wall.
I don't think he's done either a good or a disastrous job. If he had done a terrible job, then changing coaches wouldn't have made a difference. Clearly the talent was there.
That said, he HAS had the best player on Earth and top 5 player on Earth, and this is the first time they have a shot at the cup... as underdogs.
I think the Campbell and the Nurse contracts are reason enough to fire him, honestly.
Yeah, that nurse contract is tough to swallow, but he's used to that ilitch money, what can you do.!!?? That power play was sooooo lethal last year I had them in final last year. I don't know, does he deserve to stay? Bottom line, this is the best the Oilers have done since Glen Sather. The same talent was already there for others. So...?
The Oilers have been knocking on the door for his entire tenure and somehow he's been hesitant to make big swings on rentals while also not stocking the cupboard. The only first he's traded was for Ekholm, a player with term, which was a good trade but late picks don't matter when the team has the best player in the world, and another top 5.
His history as a drafter is also not stellar. Zadina over Hughes when Hughes played in Michigan being a big example.
Holland is going to be the next Burke, right place at the right time. All he did was accept Pronger with open arms and have Rob Neidermayer under contract when he got there.
I agree, in that given his history, I'm a little surprised he didn't try to bring in more help for Connor.
But over all his drafting has been stellar. He was the head of detroit's scouting department that won back-to-back cups. They didn't hold on to many of their picks afterwords but managed to add fischer and Kronwall. Also most pundits had Zadina in the top 3. He fell we jumped, I have no problem with that. And by all accounts we were taking Bouchard over Hughes anyway.
Holland won in 2008 because he had a top-5 defenseman of all time and two of the best two-way forwards to ever play the game. He's in the finals now because he has a player that might actually go down as the 5th best player of all time, a player in the mix for 2nd-best in the league after that, and an all-star defenseman who he didn't even draft.
I'll give him Rafalski in 2008 and Ekholm now. The problem is that I can count all of his good FA signings with the wings from 2006 to 2019 on one hand.
I am from Detroit and a Holland supporter, but he's not a hill I'm willing to die on. His FA moves are mostly questionable at best. I mean bring in the uglier hatcher brother (and that's a pick em really) when the league was finally ready to do something about the clutch and grab dead puck era made no sense. But most of his trades before circa 2012 or 14 were pretty solid. Sadly, many were forced on him by an unexpected need to replace Konstantinov. But bringing in Shanahan was instrumental to the back to back champs.(OK assistant, but he must of had some input) Then chelios, Stuart and hasek. Plus, all those great players you mentioned from 2008, were all drafted under his watch as director of scouting and then as GM.
