TALKING POINTS: Holland speaks after acquiring Henrique & Carrick

Oilers General Manager & President of Hockey Operations Ken Holland held a media availability in Columbus on Wednesday following the acquisition of forwards Adam Henrique and Sam Carrick from the Anaheim Ducks in a three-player trade involving the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Full details of the trade can be found here.

In his availability, Holland discussed his negotiations with Anaheim GM Pat Verbeek, the versatility of the two newly acquired Oilers forwards, his ongoing negotiations before Friday's Trade Deadline and more.

Read the entire transcript & watch the full availability with Holland below:

Holland on the Trade Deadline and if he’d been working on a deal to acquire Henrique and Carrick with Anaheim GM Pat Verbeek for some time:

“Yes. Many of these players that've moved or are going to move, I've been talking to their managers over the last couple of weeks on a regular basis. Certainly, I talked to Pat almost daily over the last ten days.

“What I like about the deal is we're adding two players. Both are versatile. (Carrick) shoots right and could play right wing or centre. Both penalty kill. Adam shoots left and can play left wing or centre. Maybe he tries right wing, so we think we’ve got some versatility and some depth.

“Both guys kill penalties and both guys can play centre, so we feel like we’ve gotten deeper. And the importance of penalty-killing come playoff time, the importance of centres come playoff time and the importance of depth come playoff time were all factors in ultimately the decision to make the deal.”

Holland on if he knows where Henrique and Carrick will slot into Head Coach Kris Knoblauch’s lineup:

“I've talked to Kris on an ongoing basis over the last number of days as we've led up to this, so he's aware that we were trying to put this deal together. So I haven't exactly talked to him about where he thinks they're going to fit.

“They're both flying in tonight, they'll both be at practice tomorrow morning and I'll talk to Kris here tonight. But I'm looking forward, just like you are, to seeing what he's thinking for line combinations. I haven't really had a chance to talk to him about that.”

Holland on the depth from the Oilers having seven centres among their forward group:

“Somebody had said you can never have enough centremen, so you know what? Absolutely. You like the depth down the middle.

"Like I said, it's two more guys that can kill penalties. I believe they were number one and number two in terms of time on ice for penalty-killing with Anaheim. Special teams are critical come playoff time, and I think this time of the year, teams are making the moves that they're making because we're all planning on playing into June. And if you're going to be playing into May and June, you need depth. You're probably going to have some injuries and you need people to step in, so having seven centres obviously gives us real good depth down the middle.”

Holland on having the resources to make another addition on defence before Friday’s Trade Deadline (1:00 p.m. MT):

“Obviously, if you look at the way the deal is done, we've got Henrique at 25 cents on the dollar and we've got Carrick at 50 cents, so we do have some money and some cap space left. So I’m going to continue to work the phones here tonight, tomorrow, and through Friday and see if we can do anything else. I'm not sure if we are or we aren't, but I'm going to keep working the phones.”

Holland on Sam Gagner being assigned to Bakersfield after clearing waivers on Wednesday:

“I just talked to Sam here a short while ago. He cleared. He's going to go home. I told him I'd give him a couple of days with his family and then he's going to join Bakersfield. I told him I'm going to be in Abbotsford on Tuesday to watch Bakersfield play, and he'll certainly be in the lineup that night for sure, if not sooner.”

Holland on how the decision came about to place Gagner on waivers:

“I've been at it for a long time. You can't go into popularity contests, unfortunately. Sam's going to be back. At the very latest, he'll be back when the cap counting ends; depending on how much cap space we've got left and how we accrue space, maybe sooner. I don't know. Depending on what we do or don't do, or if we don't do anything, we've got some space and maybe he'll be back sooner. If we do something, that's going to affect how all these other decisions are made.”

[Holland’s phone rings during a reporter’s question]

“Sorry. Doesn't stop ringing (laughs).”

Holland on if he’s looking for a bigger impact defenceman or more of a depth defencemen:

“I am going to continue to talk to teams about another defenceman; a veteran defenceman. We'll see. It depends what's available, it depends on what the cost is. Obviously, I’ve spent some draft capital over the last two, three, four years and again today, so cost will factor in.

“We like the six that we've got. I would think that if we do something, we're bringing in somebody to be number seven. How aggressive are we with draft capital for someone to come in here and be a number seven? We'll see. I don't know. We'll see what the next 48 hours bring.”

Holland on whether acquiring two players made it easier to give up a first-round pick in the trade:

“Yeah. First off, we're bringing in two players. We're trying to win now. We're trying to get deeper. The time is now. That's why we're doing these things, and obviously, it's an opportunity. Both guys are unrestricted free agents. It's an opportunity to get to know them, watch them, and as we get into the offseason make a decision whether they like Edmonton and how it's working out for them and vice versa if we think they fit us going forward.

“I know the first-round pick was really important to Pat Verbeek. We've kind of gone back and forth a lot here over the last ten days and ultimately, I guess the way the deal came down was to get both players’ salaries cut in half. He gets what he wants and we add two players. We’ve got a little more cap space to spend; a little more flexibility. If we don't spend it, then I know that it's Sam (Gagner) or Broberg, or we want to have somebody from the American League play some games between now and the end of the year, it gives us that flexibility.”