Oilers not extending GM Ken Holland’s contract

The Edmonton Oilers say general manager Ken Holland will not have his contract renewed.

The Oilers announced the move in a release Thursday and called it a mutual decision between Holland and the NHL team.

Holland spent the last five seasons as the Oilers’ GM and built a team that advanced to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final this season before losing to the Florida Panthers.

Before joining Edmonton, the 68-year-old from Vernon, B.C., spent 22 seasons as GM of the Detroit Red Wings.

Detroit won Stanley Cups in 1998, 2002 and 2008 under Holland.

“Over the past five seasons as general manager, Ken has not only built the Edmonton Oilers into one of the NHL’s best teams, but he has also established a deeply rooted foundation of success and a culture of winning that will continue well into the future,” Oilers chief executive officer of hockey operations Jeff Jackson said in a release.

“Thanks in large part to Ken’s outstanding work, Edmonton has become a destination city for players around the National Hockey League.”

Building around superstar captain Connor McDavid and elite forward Leon Draisaitl, the Oilers finished the season looking like the potential champions many expected to see when Holland, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the builder category in 2020, took over from interim GM Keith Gretzky on May 7, 2019.

But Edmonton’s rise to the top came in fits and starts, with Holland coming under fire over much of his tenure for building a top-heavy roster and failing to solve the team’s goaltending woes.

The Oilers lost in the qualifying round of the playoffs in the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season, then were swept by the Winnipeg Jets in the 2020-21 post-season.

Edmonton appeared to turn a corner when it advanced to the 2022 Western Conference final before being swept by Colorado, but regressed the following season by losing in the second round to eventual Stanley Cup champion Vegas.

Faith in Holland’s ability to build a winner in Edmonton was shaken to its core earlier this season when the Oilers stumbled out of the gate with a 3-9-1 record.

However, after Jay Woodcroft was replaced as head coach by Kris Knoblauch, the Oilers transformed into one of the league’s best teams, punctuated by a 16-game winning streak that was one shy of the NHL record.

And by the time the Oilers headed into Game 7 of this year’s Cup final, the team was getting solid goaltending from Stuart Skinner and contributions throughout the lineup, addressing two of the biggest criticisms levied against Holland.

Now the Oilers have a major hockey operations role to fill as they head into the off-season looking for a way to make the final step toward winning their sixth Stanley Cup title, but first since 1990.