TALKING POINTS: Holland speaks at the holiday break

EDMONTON, AB - Edmonton Oilers President of Hockey Operations & General Manager Ken Holland spoke to 630CHED Oilers Now host Bob Staufferon Wednesday afternoonwith the NHL season officially on pause for the holiday break.
Holland provided an update on the health of team players and staff, travel plans to Calgary following the break, the League's decision not to attend the Olympics, as well as his thoughts on how organizational depth has helped the club during a challenging month of December.
Read the full transcript from Holland's interview below.

On the health of Oilers players and staff heading into the holiday break and the logistics of preparing to travel to Calgary:

"We obviously played in Seattle and you (Bob Stauffer) were on the plane. We came home Saturday night, and then Sunday morning we did testing. The plan was to give (the players) Sunday off and then practice Monday and Tuesday, but then we got the word Sunday night that we had two more positive cases. Obviously we lost Puljujarvi, he couldn't play the game in Seattle, and then the next day Nurse and Lagesson, so we decided to shut down practice and get our players out of the facility. They came in, got tested, and left. Then obviously the NHL made the decision a couple of days ago to stop the season after last night's games and have a four-day break."
"I met yesterday with (Head Coach) Dave Tippett. He came out of protocol yesterday, and then (Head Athletic Therapist) TD Forss, (Head Team Physician) Dr. Naidu and myself met just to see where we're at. The plan is that we're going to practice on Sunday the 26th. I just talked to Tipp this morning. We were going to fly over to Calgary on Sunday night, but with some of our players going back home to spend some time with family in other provinces, we'll get them back here on Sunday and have our tests, have a practice, and then see where we're at Sunday night after we get the (test results). On Monday morning, the plan is to fly over to Calgary for our game on the 27th."

On the potential for changes being made to the League's COVID protocol guidelines and the status of players in COVID protocol for Monday:

"I haven't heard officially. I do know that there's been a lot of communication between the League and the Union (National Hockey League Players' Association) over the last week or 10 days. Obviously, we decided to stop the season a couple of days early, the Olympics, and protocols and everything, so I know there are lots of talks going on. I haven't heard anything officially."
"On the 27th, we're expecting to have (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins) back. We're expecting to have (Devin) Shore back, and we're expecting to have (Ryan) McLeod back. But (Duncan) Keith won't be available, (Darnell) Nurse won't be available, (William) Lagesson won't be available, and (Jesse) Puljujarvi won't be available, so we're going to have some real cap challenges. Obviously with the way they count right now, if you're in COVID protocol, you count against the cap. You get a roster spot, but we're going to run out of cap space here."
"We're not sure where Mike Smith is at yet. He was practicing, we thought he was close, and now we've gone into a five-day or basically a week break now having been in Seattle on Saturday and Sunday being an off-day. It's going to be a complete week off for many of our players, including Mike. So I'm not sure if he will be ready to go on the 27th, but we're hoping he's going to be ready to go shortly thereafter. If Mike's not ready to go, we'll figure something out. But we're going to have some real cap challenges having so many players out because of COVID.

On amending COVID protocol structure so players' salaries don't count against the cap while out of action:

"I'd like to personally see COVID like LTIR (Long Term Injured Reserve) where basically once you've got COVID, you're basically on a COVID LTIR for 10 days. It's just black and white; you get tested positive today, and 10 days from now you come out and you're back on the cap."
"That's probably part of the reason for the pause right now. There are so many teams with so many players out that they couldn't field a team. So I'm not sure if they're talking about it, but certainly if they did, they could pivot on the fly where if you go on the COVID list you're basically just off the cap for 10 days. Then, after 10 days, you're automatically back on the cap. Right now, after 10 days and a negative test, you can come back. It's funny playing with the cap, but we'll see where we are on the 26th. Obviously, guys are going to come back. Even if they're in Edmonton, this Omicron seems to be moving really fast all over the place. We'll see where we're at on the 26th."

On his role in Team Canada's management team and the disappointment of NHL players being prevented from competing in the Olympics:

"You know who I'm disappointed for? I'm disappointed for the fans, and I'm disappointed for the players who've never had the opportunity. I think of Connor McDavid and some of the players that we were looking at to play on the team that we thought would be on the team and had never been at an Olympics before. I've had the pleasure of being at two Olympics in Sochi in 2014 and Vancouver in 2010. It's best-on-best for the fans, and I know the fans love best-on-best. Then, the players that have never experienced it or had the opportunity to experience it, certainly it's always special to represent your country and go to the Olympics. It's an incredibly unique experience, so I'm disappointed, but really disappointed for those fans and players who've never had the opportunity to experience that."

On the Oilers win over Seattle this past Saturday being the club's biggest win of the season so far:

"Yeah, very possibly. Obviously, we were a lot of men down due to COVID, and then we went into the morning practice and got word that Jesse had tested positive. So we made the decision to cancel practice, went back (to the hotel), and had to go out and play the game that night. I think the way we won, (giving up only) 17 shots on goal… what was it, the least amount of shots that an Oiler team has given up in the last five years? We'd come off a six-game losing streak and had won one game to kind of break that streak, and now we're going into the break on a two-game winning streak feeling better about ourselves. I think it was a massive win. I look at the standings today and in our division there are two teams with 40 points, Anaheim and Vegas, that we've got three games in hand on. Us and Calgary have 36 points, four points back, so we've got ourselves after 29 games here off a six-game losing streak.
"We haven't had Smith since after the first two games of the season. We had some good secondary scoring early, and then kind of went dry there for a little while. We had some people step up the last couple of games with secondary scoring to get us some goals. So given everything that's gone on, the players that we've lost due to COVID and injuries, personally to be where we're at here at the Christmas break, I feel pretty good. I think Saturday night might've been our best win of the season when you factor in everything that our team has gone through over the past couple of weeks."

On organizational depth stepping in to fill some important roles over a difficult stretch:

"That's massive. I came here two years ago, and you (Bob Stauffer) said to me on the first day after all the interviews that there was more in the system than a lot of people thought; getting Puljujarvi back, Yamamoto, McLeod, and now you see what (Stuart) Skinner has done. (Markus) Niemelainen had a nice year last year, but he got hurt and did play in Bakersfield. He's been off to a good start this year. Part of being a good team in the cap, obviously it's cap management and free-agent signings, but you've got to draft and develop. You have to have homegrown because they're cheap for a while and you hope they grow into being expensive. That's what you hope when you draft these players."
"I'm looking at going into the 26th and 27th, and for left-shot defencemen, obviously Keith is out on protocol. Darnell Nurse is out on protocol. Lagesson is going to be out on protocol. I don't think Niemelainen is going to be available, he's got a bit of a broken hand, and Kris Russell is on LTIR until I think January 3rd. We've got Slater Koekkoek, and we were going over this yesterday, but certainly we're going to have to call up (Dmitri) Samorukov and (Philip) Broberg. We're talking about them right now, so the depth of the organization has allowed us to be 18-11 and have a hand in the race because we've lost a lot of key people. Other teams have lost a lot of key people, and I think that's the key - you've got to have other players step in and fill the void for you while you continue to play games."
"Skinner's been a great story for us in net. He and Mikko (Koskinen) have given us great goaltending, and when one's kind of fallen off the other's stepped in and done a good job. We've got a good tandem out of those two guys, and certainly, we're excited to get Smith back because of his leadership and ability to handle the puck. He's got some swagger. He was a big part of our team last year in the 56-game all-Canada division, so we want to make sure when Smitty comes back that he can hit the ground running. That's why I'm not sure if he'll be available right off the bat, but certainly we want him to have a few good practices. He was really close last week, and we need him to hit the ground running. You've got to have good goaltending, and we had it last year. So far this year, our goaltenders have pitched in big time to help us be 18-11."