Well, if you want to be technical of who’s the best GMs, we would want either Joe Sakic, or Kelly McCrimmon. However, Holland is doing a good job, and we will be a good team this year.

"Holland is doing a good job" lol, how's your D core and goaltending looking?

Id agree Sakic would probably be right there as the best, but i would rather have Yzerman than McCrimmon anyday

Yzerman built the foundation of the back to back winning Tampa Bay lightning, and is now tasked with the impossibly large task of having to clean up Holland's mess in Detroit. While Holland traded for Keith and signed Ceci, Yzerman traded for Nedeljkovic and signed Pius Suter. While Sakic and McCrimmon are both excellent GMs, I think Yzerman is the best/

Pretty decent, thanks for asking. You can only do so much with what cap you have.

I disagree, and also, yes Yzerman got Suter, and Nedeljkovic, but I don’t think Nedeljkovic will be as good, and the same with Suter. Suter was sandwiched in between Kane, and DeBrincat for majority of the season, and Nedeljkovic got hot during the end with Carolinas good defence in front of him. Detroit’s defence is definitely not good, and he won’t be near as good. McCrimmon, and Sakic are the best in my opinion. Just look what they did with their teams haha. Also, Keith, and Ceci are both underrated, and good defence men that will thrive with the oilers. So saying Holland is a bad GM is funny.

The Oilers had all the cap in the world to build an excellent team this offseason. I have watched a team with a defense core consisting of Barrie and Ceci in the past and let me tell you that it is not anywhere near good. Throw in a 38 who has not been good in recent years and plunk Koskinen and Smith in net and you've got yourself a team with zero defense. Outside of McDavid and Draisaitl, Edmonton is a nothing team. The only GM worse than Holland is Benning, but Benning actually had a decent offseason getting solid guys like Garland and potentially OEL assuming he turns his game around. Oilers are worse than they were last year. Plus, Detroit is still rebuilding. Obtaining pieces like Suter and Ned will be fantastic in the long run. Edmonton is a team trying to compete for a cup whos answer was to sign Ceci, trade for Keith, and move Bear.

Bear sucked for us haha. Keith is a good veteran, and Ceci was fantastic in Pittsburg, and he’s getting a better partner in Keith. Yes, I know you watched a team with Barrie, and Ceci on the right side, but yet, you tried to make Barrie a defensive defence man. Yes, I still remember. We are actually using him right and he is playing very well. Koskinen and Smith are actually decent, also, saying the team only consists of McDavid and Draisaitl is funny. Have you not seen what we did this off-season? Have you not seen what our young guys have done? Like at least do some research! And no, we didn’t have a lot of cap after all the resigns. There is a reason why we only got Hyman, Ryan out of free agency, and did some trades.

Holland has done nothing of substance. There was a slew of goalie movement this offseason and instead of upgrading in net he signed a 39 year old mike smith to a TWO YEAR deal....the d core is not any better then last year and theres still a huge lack of depth all around. Going to be another year and Mcdavid and Draisaitl needed to have multi points nights just to have a chance at winning and then when playoffs roll around (they will make it cuz the pacific is garbage) they can expect a nice swift exit, if they are lucky with the first round matchup maybe they get to the second round.

Come back to me in a months time.

First of all, we couldn’t afford any goalies because we have Koskinen haha. Also lack of depth all around is funny, because last time I checked, we checked that box off with the offence. But still yes, say McDavid and Draisaitl need to have multi point nights to win, and we have no depth. By the way, good luck making the playoffs.

Don’t need to. I know I’m right. Anyways, it’s just opinions.

Anyone who has worked in a field that promotes continuous quality improvement understands that success is dependent on finding the best solutions for the environment in which they are working. When Yzerman arrived in Tampa he had the benefit of very little pressure and the freedom to use his cap space and aging assets to rebuild. Scouting certainly helped, and Yzerman deserves credit for managing the staff he had. Detroit has cap space, and there may not be a lot of pressure to win the Stanley Cup in the next couple of seasons. Those are probably the only similarities with the Tampa team Yzerman started with, so he will have to alter his tactics accordingly. Edmonton is an entirely different scenario, and I doubt Yzerman would have done much better than Holland has so far. If you take the time to listen carefully to what Holland has to say, you may notice that he does speak about targeting players who want to be in Edmonton. The pool from which he can draw talent is far smaller than Yzerman has had to deal with so far.

Sakic hasn't won more than two rounds in 8 years of trying. Holland might not be the cool choice but he does have a better record: 3 Stanley Cups in 22 years as a GM. Edmonton was a .482 (25th place) team with severe cap restraints when he took the reins two years ago, since then they've posted a steller .610 (11th best) record.

If you’re going to bring up the 3 cups in 22 years for Holland it’s only fair to note the roster he inherited. I like Holland as a GM but he does have his faults.

As do they all. But holding up Sakic as the gold standard when he hasn't won more than 2 rounds seems a little rich to me.

I never said Sakic was the gold standard but rather Holland most likely doesn’t sniff 3 cups without being handed that roster. Most of the FA signings he did post salary cap era didn’t turn out in our best interest. I also think he gets a little bit of the short end of the deal with extending the streak as Jimmy D already came out and said he approached the owners about rebuilding in 2014. That coupled with Wright having some suspect drafting really put salt in the wound for a ton of fans. I’m glad that the Oilers are able to get guys like Holloway and hopefully Wright learned from his 2017 mistake.

Oh, I know, I was just giving context to my original comment, which you had replied to.


Quite likely, but they say the hardest thing to do is repeat. His first Cup came in year 1, the second in year 5 and the 3rd in year 11. So it's not like he was playing with house money that whole time, there was a fair bit of roster turnover from when he took over the team.


Yeah, I think some of those signings weren't all Holland's idea, the owner got increasingly involved in later years. Even still, Detroit was the best team in the NHL during the time Holland was GM: www.nhl.com


He seems to love size, athleticism and "motor", which I think are traits which make for a higher floor for prospects. Broberg (6'3, 203) and Holloway (6'1, 203) are both elite skaters so they'll have NHL careers for sure... I was hoping for Zegras in 2019, but when Jarvis was taken at #13 in 2020 Holloway was my first choice. But the miss in 2021 was just astounding to me... so Wright's picks in Edmonton are a mixed bag for me, although I like a lot of his later picks. We won't know for several years I guess.