Kukla's Korner Hockey
General Managers Under Pressure
by Paul on 07/03/22 at 11:57 AM ET
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The Daily Faceoff Roundtable weighs in.
MATT LARKIN: For me it’s Ken Holland. The Oilers showed real progress and potential this season, and they can’t afford to take a step backward. Will they re-sign Evander Kane? Will they find a younger goaltender to rely on as a long-term starter? Is there a chance Holland is able to place a “retired” Mike Smith on LTIR and buy out Zack Kassian, creating more breathing room to add a goaltender and re-sign Kane? Will he trade one of Kailer Yamamoto or Jesse Puljujarvi? Can he find a way to upgrade a D-corps on which every guy aside from Darnell Nurse seemingly plays one pair higher than he should? Have you noticed how many question marks I’ve used in this paragraph? For a team that made the conference final, the Oilers’ future is quite cloudy. The range of outcomes is incredibly wide for 2022-23. But the potential to field a true contender next year is high, too. It all comes down to how Holland plays it.
MIKE MCKENNA: Externally I think Kyle Dubas has a huge amount of pressure, even though I’m not sure how much tweaking he can do to a roster that’s pretty locked in. Toronto hasn’t made it out of the first round in six years and Auston Matthews is inching closer to being an unrestricted free agent. And the goaltending situation is a mess right now for the Maple Leafs. But I think Brad Treliving is under the most pressure to keep the Flames at the top of the Pacific Division.
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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.
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How can they re-sign Evander Kane? They have 7.1M in cap and need at least 6 players to get to 21 on the active roster (let alone really needing 8 players and a 23 man roster).
Their defense collectively makes 24.2M and they aren’t worth it.
Posted by d ca on 07/03/22 at 04:30 PM ET