When it comes to the Oilers GM gig, I think we are now in the Endgame, or at least it seems that way. It started with a tweet from TSN’s Ryan Rishaug on Friday.
The process continues for Nicholson, the list is down to 3 or 4 at this point. Hunter and McCrimmon likely still in the mix, as is Sean Burke. Burke is an interesting option, known to be extremely well prepared and very thorough. Dark horse candidate we don’t hear a lot about.
— Ryan Rishaug (@TSNRyanRishaug) April 27, 2019
Kelly McCrimmon and Mark Hunter are names that we expected to see among the finalists. Sean Burke was a little bit of a surprise.
SEAN BURKE
I had a chance to be around Burke at the Spengler Cup in Davos. I was calling the tournament and Burke was Co-GM alongside Ron Francis. From a media perspective, he was great to work with and from a hockey perspective, you could tell his knowledge of the game was well above average.
Former Oilers TV reporter and the extremely good looking, Tom Gazolla said on the Nielson Show round table today that Burke was in Bakersfield to watch the Condors during the AHL playoffs.
When you hear about Burke’s experience with Hockey Canada, it’s easy to just assume he has a great connection with Nicholson but that’s not really the case. The majority of Burke’s Hockey Canada’s resume was built after Nicholson left for the Oilers.
The one area where Burke may have an advantage over the McCrimmon and Hunter would be the different type of experience he has accumulated over the past 11 years.
He started as the Director of Player Development in Phoenix before also taking on the role of goaltending coach. He continued as goaltending coach while also becoming the Assistant General Manager of the Coyotes. Since leaving the Coyotes in 2016 Burke has been a western scout for the Habs while also juggling multiple responsibilities with Hockey Canada.
Burke has put together Canadian squads for the Spengler Cup, World Championships and the Olympic games.
If he doesn’t end up with this job in Edmonton, and I’d still guess he won’t, he will most certainly be in the mix for other managerial openings in the future.
HOW MANY IN THE MIX?
Rishaug had mentioned that Nicholson’s list was down to three or four candidates.
Monday morning on the smash hit Nielson Show, TSN Insider Bob McKenzie told me that McCrimmon, Hunter, Burke and another name or two are still in the mix while others have been told they are out of the running.
I still believe Keith Gretzky is one of the candidates who has been told they are out of the running. Could Pat Verbeek still be in the mix and what about Ken Holland?
HOLLAND STILL IN IT?
Just last week, Ken Holland was moved into a new role within the Red Wings and at the time I think most of us thought that would take him out of the running for a job with the Oilers.
Then on Monday morning, the former voice of the Riders Rod Pederson tweeted this:
The next GM of the Edmonton Oilers will be Ken Holland.
— Rod Pedersen (@rodpedersen) April 29, 2019
Why should we care what the former voice of the Riders has to say about the next GM of the Oilers? I think it’s important to point out that nobody in Saskatchewan is more connected to the sports scene than Pederson and for that reason, I’ll put a little bit of stock into what Rod has to say.
I was told that Ken Holland wanted to stay in Detroit or possibly go to Seattle and that Edmonton wasn’t really on his radar due to the amount of work it will take to get the Oilers back on track.
Rishaug followed up on the Pederson report late Monday afternoon:
Ken Holland is not an option for the Oilers at this point and no permission has been sought from Det. to speak with him. No change from @DarrenDreger report last week, Holland is not on the short list of candidates for the job as of now.
— Ryan Rishaug (@TSNRyanRishaug) April 29, 2019
BELIEVE WHAT YOU WANT
A source within the Oilers organization has mentioned to me that certain members of the front office have been directed to keep the GM search very close to the chest.
It’s also been suggested to me that front office staff may even be misleading some insiders to keep people out of the loop on what’s actually happening as they search for the next GM. I’m not an insider so it doesn’t matter to me who’s telling who what but I would just advise everyone to take everything with a grain of salt right now.
But Burke has no management experience
Chiarelli had plenty of management experience and look how that turned out. Every good manager needs to start somewhere.
That doesn’t negate the fact that Burke is completely unproven as a manager – and now we may see him jump to GM of one of the top 31/32 teams on the planet.
How many years has he worked under Yzerman? How many teams has he put together for the Spengler cup? Would that experience not count for something?
Counts for something certainly, but he hasn’t been a GM anywhere. Ever.
Agree. And Chia’s experience included trading a young star for pennies on the dollar. A good preview of things to come. At least Burke doesn’t have one of those on his resume.
So it’s better to hire someone with no experience because Chiarelli has experience and was terrible? Lol we deserve this team
I think Burke has lots of experience, even if it’s not as a GM. Yzerman had less experience when TB hired him. I’d rather a smart up and comer than an old dog with many blunder’s on his resume. Is Burke my 1st choice…No. but I think they could do a lot worse.
It worked with yzerman, but didn’t work the 10 other times you have forgotten about.
Ya, as an assistant
Most current GM’s were assistant’s at one point. How do you think they get some experience.
He’d be my first choice for our new goalie coach.
I have management experience. Where do I send my resume?
So what I read is Holland is lazy
And the bucket of confidence overflows with Nicholson being the man doing the hiring.
Ever had a dentist start drilling when you are not entirely sure that you’re frozen?
That’s how I feel about BN hiring someone to fix this mess.
Doesn’t matter who is hired if they aren’t given a free hand.
Holland and Nicholson are friends. Sure they’ve talked.
If history shows us anything the Oilers will hire the wrong guy.
Burke would be a good Assistant GM option but they can’t take the rookie route on this hire unless they maybe go with Guerin. Building teams for team Canada is a whole different animal than building an NHL team. I almost wouldn’t even count team Canada work as GM experience. No cap and its basically just inviting players off a list of the best available guys.
I think we will hear an announcement about either McCrimmon or Hunter in the coming days.
All this talk of McCrimmon, Hunter and the rest is just a massive head fake!
The new GM has already been hired and has been hiding in plain sight. Until today, that is. He’s pictured at the top of this page!
I bet Homer would do a better job as a GM than Chiarelli ever did.
Homer doesn’t have an managerial experience,Marg would be a better choice!
any
Remember when Homer designed a car? Homer’s car resembles Chia’s hockey team!
Is anyone on this list a experienced General manager ?? Ken Holland has the most experience of all and I wouldn’t hire him for the love of the money. Been saying for weeks now he’s done nothing in the last ten years but watch world class talent get old, not replace or get value out of them, and fall in the standings to a point where you have to ask how they are getting out of it… maybe it’s just me.
Even Kelly McCrimmon.. What exactly was his role in Vegas. Did he pick the team ? Did he mess up on Tatar twice ? Did he trade away Suzuki, a bunch of picks and their best defensive prospect for a 30 some year old who makes more than anyone mentioned only to die in the first round ? Was it him who let the 1A line ( who all make less then the line that went out in the first round ) walk. Sounds like he’s a good talker. Talk the pants right off ya.
My personal pick for the new Oilers GM is the Night King. He has a proven track record in recruitment, understands northern markets and has no connections to the OBC that I’m aware of. He’s a straight-up decision maker that I don’t think would really care what the OBC thinks. Unfortunately, this past Sunday night someone from the women’s U20 program killed him with a dragon-glass dagger. Do you believe that? It just sucks being an Oilers fan.
I like the idea of a forward thinking New GM that knows young players and has been around the league. Someone who’s built teams / franchises at the junior level. Someone who knows young talent. Someone’s who’s worked to build teams at the NHL level. I think Mark Hunter has the best resume of all.
He can resurrect the dead so he could get lucic going
I managed to avoid GoT spoilers until now. Never thought it would be an Oilers site.. a twist RR himself would write
A travesty! If anyone could have resurrected a dead team, it would have been the Night King
Once a King, always a King. Once a Knight is enough.
It was valerian steel. Not dragon glass. Just sayin😁
Thanks for the spoiler, Jack…
It wasn’t dragon glass, it was Valerian Steel. Also wow it’s only Tuesday spoil it for everyone why don’t ya
Ass hat.
Why worry? Bob will get it wrong and we’ll suffer again for years.
Katz should get the list in order from Nicholson and then go from the bottom up…
So much complaining in the comments. Every candidate will have some pros and cons. “Team Canada this” and “no experience that” and “that trade he did one time was bad in hindsight”. Nobody bats a thousand.
If you are not complaining about the Oilers moves both on and off the ice you just have not been paying attention.
The team in the Katz era is a epic fail.
Go with the guy the Oilers decided against.
Do we get our second round pick back now that PC is canned?
I’ll be shocked if it actually is Ken Holland. The Oilers need to get with the times and hire a young up and comer, not an old has-been. It’s gonna be Hunter, Mcrimmon, or Burke.
Gazolla is a 7 at best. #chickenlegs
For Connors sake, get it right!!!!
The Oilers new GM is buchberger
If it is Hunter he is going to clean house just like he did in Toronto, then he will bring in people that he knows.
The Oilers new GM is buchberger
Rumor has it that MacT will step in as the new GM. Kevin Lowe as POHO and Scott Howsen as assistant GM. The reasoning is, why pay to hav someone come in whn they have the guys right here to do the job. In other news, Burger Bob will ride quietly into the sunset and Katz will come out of hiding and address the fans…….
Nobody will know if the new GM was the right hire until 12-18 months later. Even then, Chiarelli looked like the right guy 2 years after he was hired and had a playoff run.
Nobody has a clue what is said behind closed doors and what type of plan the candidates presented. For all we know, Burke’s plan may be 10 times better and more detailed than anyone else’s.
I just wish the Oilers would hire a POHO and let that person hire the GM. That would make me feel much more confident, even if that POHO hired the same person that Nicholson would. The Oilers mess is so big, they need 2 people to clean it up.
Apologies to any who experienced a loss of GOT innocence as a result of my earlier post. That wasn’t the intent. Intent was to have fun with the Oilers GM search. I still would like to see a year-end presser with the Night King as GM.