from Terry Jones of the Edmonton Sun,

Let me see if I’ve got this right.

The Edmonton Oilers hire the most experienced and successful general manager in the league at $5 million a year. And with the first pick of the Ken Holland era in Edmonton, the eighth selection overall, the Oilers long-suffering and venomous fan base was distressed.

The idiot went and picked a player ranked lower than eighth on many published lists and mock drafts?

Holland was even characterized as having put himself “on the hot seat” with his first ever Oilers draft pick.

It wasn’t just the social media haters and internet trolls. The reaction was decidedly that of disappointment throughout a significant slice of the passionate fan base.

This is in the wake of going with the rankings and ratings in the recent past and picking Nail Yakupov and Jesse Puljujarvi.

Now the Oilers have the recently successful amateur scouting and development pair of Keith Gretzky and Bob Green working under the draft and development champion of the NHL, in Holland. And an inordinate number of Edmonton fans call him out for his first pick?

Credit Holland for the best quote of the draft.

“The people who don’t watch the games seem to have all the answers today,” he said.

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