HOLLAND’S PLANS FOR OFF-SEASON? DON’T EVEN ASK
Oilers GM knows he has some big decisions to make, but right now it's all about playoffs
Will Ken Holland attempt to sign Evander Kane to a new multiyear contract with the Edmonton Oilers next year?
Don't ask.
Does the general manager have major decisions with his goaltending regardless of how Mike Smith and Mikko Koskinen perform in the playoffs?
Don't ask.
And hasn't Holland seen enough to replace the interim tag and offer head coach Jay Woodcroft a multi-year contract? Don't ask.
Holland was detailed in discussing all three issues. But when it came to providing answers, Holland said he's adopting a playoff policy.
Don't ask.
Holland is well aware of the big-picture bottom line that will be here when the season is over.
“The reality is that I'll have to make some difficult cap decisions. Certainly, my job is to have an eye to the off-season, but I also believe it's important to watch our team play in the playoffs.
“I do know that we have difficult, difficult decisions to make but many teams also do. That's the nature of the salary cap. Hopefully, we're going to play for a long time and some decisions are going to be even more difficult.
“I'm not worrying about those difficult decisions today. I want to win today. I don't want to stir everybody up about those decisions. I like our team. I like the way we've played. It's the playoffs. Lets go out there and embrace the playoffs.
“It's like I told Jay Woodcroft. When I signed Jay, I wanted him to know that the mandate is to win, that he didn't have to play someone because I signed him or play some young player because of where we drafted him. The mandate is to win. I told Jay that when the season is done, we'll sit down and talk about the future.
“The focus for everybody in our organization has to be the opportunity we have immediately in front of us. Like I said, this is an opportunity of a lifetime.”
As the Oilers return home for their final two regular-season games Thursday against San Jose and Friday against Vancouver, the subject of Kane is on the front burner with Oilers fans and that's not where Holland wants it.
“Certainly, we did a lot of research,” said Holland of making the move to sign hockey's serial offender for the bargain rental rate of just over US$1 million at mid-season.
“I knew Kane's agent, Dan Milstein, going way back to Pavel Datsyuk in Detroit. Dan set up a dinner with Evander when we played in Vancouver and Dave Tippett and I went to a restaurant back room and spent three hours with him.
“For me, that was an important dinner. We asked lots of questions. I left there thinking I wanted to push ahead.
“To me, it wasn't a tough decision because we did our research. We talked to lots of people. Meeting him one on one, face to face for three hours and asking all the questions we wanted to ask, made me comfortable.
“What he's given us is over a half of a season that projects to a 40-goal year. We have Connor Mcdavid and Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-hopkins. We signed Zach Hyman. We have Jesse Puljujarvi and Kailer Yamamoto. So, we added another top-line forward.
“Beyond that, he plays with an edge. He goes to the hard areas. You need some people that play with some sandpaper. He's given us another dimension.”
Woodcroft had a 23-9-3 start to his NHL head-coaching career going into Tuesday's final road game of the year in Pittsburgh, but he's 0-0 in the playoffs.
“I've known Jay since 2005-06, when he worked for the Detroit Red Wings. Mike Babcock hired him as our video coach. So, I had a relationship going back 15 years.
“I watched his Bakersfield teams over the last 2½ years. They looked organized. They were five-man units. They attacked in five-man units and they defended in five-man units. Last year in a pandemic year, Bakersfield won the Pacific Division championship. The year I got here, I think Bakersfield had won 18 (games) in a row.
“When I made the decision that I thought we needed to make a head coaching change,
Jay was close enough to know our team but he was far enough away that he was also somebody from the outside.
“I thought we needed the change and I thought that Jay was going to be the solution. And it's been fabulous under Jay's watch. The team has really, really responded to him, and played very, very well. He's been a big story for us this year.”
What about the goaltending? “I think that when both goalies are together and healthy, they feed off of one another and they each can get hot and go on a run. I've always believed in our goaltending when the team in front of them gives them a chance. They are both incredibly hard workers, are both very popular in the locker-room and their teammates are cheering for them. Chemistry is a big part of our sport.
“The team has paid more attention to detail and when we play the right way, our guys give us good goaltending.”
But Smith is now 40 and Koskinen ...
Sorry. Forgot. Don't ask.