Quick Strikes: Ken Holland reportedly leaves Steve Yzerman for Edmonton

The Bolts

GeoFitz4 takes us back down memory road with a look at Ruslan Fedotenko’s career with the Tampa Bay Lightning. [Raw Charge]

Coming off a 17 goal 26 point season for the Flyers, the Tampa Bay Lightning acquired Fedotenko from Philadelphia. The Lightning traded the 4th overall pick in the first round of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft for Fedotenko and two second round picks. Joni Pitkanen, on whom the Flyers used the 4th overall pick, only played in 535 NHL games while Fedotenko went on to play in another 711 NHL career games.

This is not technically Tampa Bay Lightning news, but since Steve Yzerman left for his destined organization, what happens to the Detroit Red Wings invariably affects the Bolts. This past weekend, the news around hockey circled around the Edmonton Oilers GM search. After a very long deliberation, the Oilers have (reportedly) hired a guy they never actually interviewed, Ken Holland. I mean, why should they ask him for his vision? His resume speaks for itself! [Sportsnet]

The 63-year-old spent 36 years in Detroit, including 22 as the club’s GM. While manning the position, Holland guided the franchise to three Stanley Cups, four Presidents’ Trophies and 13 seasons with at least 100 regular-season points.

However, the Red Wings have fallen on hard times of late, missing the playoffs the past three seasons. In 2018-19, the club was the highest spending team in the NHL, but could only muster a 74-point campaign, good for 28th in the league.

Salt aside, with the Oilers getting “their man” from Detroit, Yzerman has one less trusted advisor to work with. There are strong rumours that he will take Pat Verbeek from Tampa. Whether anyone else goes up north with him will be determined in time. [Raw Charge]

In Bob McKenzie’s podcast, the TSN Bobcast, the Bob Father provided a minor scoop that Tampa Bay’s assistant general manager and director of player personnel Pat Verbeek appears to be heading to Detroit to serve as AGM to Steve Yzerman. Detroit is in an interesting situation currently because Ken Holland, who was technically promoted to a senior role when Yzerman was hired, is being heavily pursued by the Edmonton Oilers.

The Oilers (and apparently its media as well) aren’t massive fans of social media. For example, check out this headline from David Staples of the Edmonton Journal: “Predictable and disappointing”: Twitter reacts to news Edmonton Oilers have hired Ken Holland. Just hilarious. But that’s okay, because Holland is also not a fan of public opinion. Probably because it’s mostly negative.

The Oilers will be in great hands.

The best hands.

That is, if he’s allowed to have hands.

The Prospects

The Game

The St. Louis Blues have forced Game 7 against the Dallas Stars after a 4-1 win in Game 6. The Columbus Blue Jackets and Colorado Avalanche will hope to do the same today. [St. Louis Game Time]

The Blues took an early 1-0 lead in this one thanks to the captain, Alex Pietrangelo. Vladimir Tarasenko and Brayden Schenn almost combined for the first Blues goal. However, it was Joel Edmundson, Pietrangelo and A LOT of traffic in front. Joel Edmundson gathered the loose puck after the Tarasenko/Schenn chance. Edmundson passed the puck to an open Pietrangelo. Pietrangelo fired a wrister on net that Bishop had no chance of seeing.

Michel Therrien? [redacted]

The LA Kings were really bad this year, so Anze Kopitar made sure to remind everyone that he can dunk on third-tier European hockey players.

And that’s a yikes for Jacob Markstrom.