Kris Knoblauch Oilers departure resets outlook for Ken Holland succession plan.
Kris Knoblauch leaving his advisory role with the Edmonton Oilers to become the president of hockey operations for the Ottawa Senators was about as surprising as waking up in northern Alberta in the dead of winter to a dark and frigid day.
Kris Knoblauch’ departure from the organization was a long time coming. It had been rumoured even before the NHL Draft in June when his former boss for the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs, Michael Andlauer, had a purchase agreement in place to buy the Senators. Shortly thereafter, Staios’ name was removed from the Oilers website. The clock started on his hiring date by the Sens the moment Andlauer’s sale of the team was approved last week.
The news of Kris Knoblauch leaving wasn’t worth so much as raising an eyebrow, but it does lead to more questions about the future of Oilers management — namely who will succeed Ken Holland as general manager.
Not only is Holland in the final season of his five-year contract, but someone, longtime agent Jeff Jackson, was hired above him this summer as CEO of hockey ops. Though stranger things have happened, and no one is looking to put the 67-year-old Hockey Hall of Famer out to pasture, the odds of Holland returning to the Oilers next season in his current capacity appear low.
Staios, up until June, was widely expected to be top of the pack to succeed Holland. The combination of a trusted person buying an NHL team, another cook in the kitchen in Jackson with the Oilers, and the eventual offering by that trusted person — Andlauer — of a plum position quashed any potential succession plan for Edmonton.
The Oilers are losing someone who’s seen around the game as bright and thoughtful. Staios was an NHL defenceman, but, more importantly, cut his teeth in his post-playing career in player development for an NHL club — the Leafs — and worked as a junior GM before his one year with Edmonton. Holland was still fine-tuning Staios’ role with the Oilers — it was mostly in player development last season — but it was clear that the now former special adviser was in line for more responsibility had he stayed on.
Little has changed for Jackson with Friday’s news, though. One of his top priorities — maybe the top one — remains finding Holland’s replacement regardless of if that person is needed nine months from now or, less likely, two or three years down the road.
Now that Staios is out of the picture, the two in-house options to replace Holland are a pair of assistant GMs, Keith Gretzky and Holland’s son, Brad.
Gretzky, of course, was the interim GM from the time Peter Chiarelli was fired in January 2019 until May when Holland came aboard. He made two notable trades during his brief tenure on the job — jettisoning Cam Talbot to Philadelphia to make room for Andrej Sekera to come off LTIR and sending Ryan Spooner to Vancouver for fan favourite Sam Gagner. Gretzky’s main task since Holland’s arrival has been running the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors. His strongest asset is considered talent evaluation.
Brad Holland was hired as a pro scout shortly after his dad got the GM gig. He was promoted to AGM and director of pro scouting last June at which point he’s slowly been able to influence the direction of the team. With Jackson’s backing, Brad hired Michael Parkatti as senior director of analytics and data last week.
The hiring of someone in Parkatti’s position was something Jackson wanted to do even before he was hired on Aug. 3. The early indications are Jackson’s desire to take a more analytical approach to team building has given the younger Holland a leg up in the running to be the next GM.
There’s a lot of time for that to change. Jackson can certainly look outside the organization in his search for the next GM and there’s no reason to believe he’ll limit its scope. There’s a fair bit of time in the earliest scenario where a decision needs to be made, too.
But a decision will have to be made at some point, probably on the sooner side. And now we know once and for all that Staios won’t be up for consideration.
Though that’s hardly shocking, all his departure from the organization emphasizes to everyone is that the Oilers need to have an eye on the future as Ken Holland’s contract winds down.
