I’m going to go….
Caps - Kuemper
Sabres - Gibson
Hawks - Campbell
Leafs - Blackwood and Martin Jones, w some Pickard on the side
Oilers - Holtby and Greiss as Holland goes all-in (in his own head) selling Holtby as that “Cup winning goaltender” they now have..
Its been widely reported, the Oilers were interested in Husso and think it’s fair to say, so were the Devils, as they reacted immediately after the Detroit/Husso trade and signing.
So Holland once again, loses out on his preferred signing because he procrastinated, felt he wouldn’t have competition, or flat out was to arrogant about it.
It’s always been his major flaw when it comes to addressing a weakness, holding onto an asset to long until there’s no takers, etc, etc. Just look back on the whole Osgood show (the first time around).
As a Leafs fan, in their case I don’t think it’s a “sleeping at the wheel” type thing but overlooking certain angles, not getting to creative… but mostly, subscribing to the old “Jimmy Devellano Goaltending Theory” (Holland also subscribes to)….. that you can win with average goalies, and money is better spent on skaters. Proven to work in many cases by 3 Cups in Detroit (Hasek was the other) and obviously Kuemper this year. Sakic also seems to be onboard with Jimmy D Goalie logic, after last summer, and again just yesterday… moving on from Kuemper rather than paying him.
So it’s nothing new for teams to choose this path. The problems start when they can’t see past the path and the Oilers and Leafs, to a lessor extent, seem to be doing just that.
So I’m not actually joking about Blackwood in the Leafs case. He’s actually a good fit for the Leafs. He’s “extra goaltender psychotic” … so he’ll block the media out and want to prove he’s what everyone thought a couple years ago.
Some goaltenders are extra psycho like Mrazek… where he so wants to be accepted and loved by the fans and the media, who’ve always embraced his aggressiveness, he lets expectations eat away at him, when things go wrong. Making him a horrible fit in TO.
Then there’s the Blackwood type, who have a built-in chip on their shoulder, play for their teammates and themselves, who are able to block out the background noise of the media. Those goalies work in Toronto.
The Leafs seem to be interested in making something happen in net now, after failing at the “Jimmy D” approach. There problem is finding the right fit now.
It’s Holland that needs to be fired, as he’s shown he will never change.. He’s a good guy but as an example, Detroit had the deepest, most in-depth scouts for years (still do throughout Ontario) and some of them used to tell us, they’d deliver detailed reports on players, thinking after awhile, Holland never read any of them when it came to high profile picks and acquisitions. Only relying on 2-3 opinions of certain development guys, who 2 of the 3 are working for the Oilers now btw.
Examples? Cholowski, Svechnikov, Brenden Smith and a few others are the evidence of high profile picks. While Shanahan, Chelios, Sandstrom, Hasek, Schneider, Lang and Quincey were trades… and then Joseph, Krupp and Ray Whitney as UFAs.
Every last person (scouts) was excited that Chychrun fell to the Wings except a certain advisor was in love with Cholowski and convinced Holland to trade down. Now, they did get Hronek with the extra 2nd they got in the trade but still, passing on JC was out-thinking yourself, and the Hronek pick was scout led, not the voice in Holland’s ear.
He did this same thing with Mantha, Svechnikov, McCollum, and Brenden Smith. Passing on prospects his scouts wanted, listening instead to his right hand. On only a couple of occasions did they agree over about a 15 year stretch. Dylan Larkin, Zadina and Mantha.
It’s crazy as this only really happened with their higher profile picks. The scouts got what they wanted, especially Andersson, in rounds 2-7. Explaining why Detroit missed on so many 1st rounders but hit on so many later round picks.
In trades, he was almost forced (at times) to make certain moves by Jimmy D, Bowman and even Mr Ilitch. He didn’t want to trade Keith Primeau for example, and to this day, nobody would’ve known the outcome of the Shamahan trade IF Holland was the full GM at that time. He loved Primeau and Coffey, but Bowman, Jimmy D and the owner basically negotiated the trade that brought the player who put them over the top.
He didn’t want Chelios, Tomas Sandstrom or Matthew Schneider. He had to be nudged to make those deals too.
On the flip side, he was determined to trade for Robert Lang and to re-acquire Kyle Quincey. Lang was good for the Wings but not great. Quincey was just moronic, costing them the pick that ended up being Vasilesky. Quincey was one of his guys though. That’s why we always joke about “Holland’s Guys” and we will see him continue to go back to that well in Edmonton. That’s why nobody should be surprised if Hronek is an Oiler in the coming weeks, Danny Dekeyser is given a one year deal, or Luke Glendening or Svechnikov find their way to Edmonton.
Then there’s the signings scouts fought against but Holland was adamant about. The Ray Whitney, Uwe Krupp types.
A high profile agent once joked with me at a hockey tournament, that Holland was his “Payday” every summer. This was the summer of 2001 if you want to connect dots.
He does the same thing with goaltenders. To the extent, he doesn’t even like drafting them. He is firmly committed to finding cheap, older goalies who are consistent.
It’s like he has Hasek/Joseph PTSD.
Hasek fell in his lap (only team Hasek would allow trade to), and Bowman, Jimmy D and Illitch got involved to make him do it. He was fine with keeping Osgood.
He waited so long to move Osgood because he didn’t like the return, he ended up basically giving him to the Isles, as other teams moved on from pursuing a deal. Sound familiar these days? Puljujarvi?
Then there was the Joseph fiasco. Holland panicked after Hasek won the Cup in 02’, didn’t have his boy Osgood anymore, so he went all-in on Curtis Joseph.
The one time he went hard after a UFA goalie it turned into a 2 year fiasco.
Hence the Goalie PTSD. Holland didn’t want to trade Osgood, felt he was forced to, then blames that on him having to sign Joseph and the drama it all caused when Hasek returned, etc.
It’s literally why he doesn’t like rocking the boat in net.
Let’s not even bring up the Uwe Krupp saga, or Holland’s inability to turn even ONE Detroit vet into prospects and picks when everyone knew it was time to tear it down and rebuild.
If you worked in the Scouting, Development, or even in the player agent community in the 90s and 2000s, especially in Ontario where there’s still independent Scouting contractor types, who are still in the game, everyone knew and joked about Holland.
It’s on the Oilers for not knowing this. I’m not sure there’s any voices in that front office to push him like some in Detroit did, but they need to move on before it goes south. Not only because that voice he took to Edmonton is in the building , but Holland himself is petrified to make mistakes. You have to be aggressive today. He’s just not. He’s to loyal and afraid to make mistakes.
That’s how Holland runs things.
