TALKING POINTS: Ken Holland's end of season media availability

EDMONTON, AB - Oilers President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Ken Holland fielded the media one final time during the 2019-20 season Tuesday.

Read Holland's opening statement and see what the Oilers executive had to say to the media below.

Questions and answers have been condensed and edited for clarity.

"Certainly, I wish we were starting tonight with Game 1 of a playoff series against St. Louis, who I think ended up in the fourth seed after the Round Robin. We had much higher expectations going into the bubble. We knew that we were going to play a real playoff-tested team in Chicago that had a lot of veteran players with a lot of success in the playoffs and some really good young players. We felt good about our team heading into the playoff series. Unfortunately, we got bounced out in four games.

"I thought when I looked back at the season, it's two parts to the season. The first 70-71 games we played in the regular season. Then we picked up with our playoff series against Chicago in August.

"We went from 25th overall in points to 12th. If we continued winning at the same winning percentage, we were trending around 95-96 points. The power play went from ninth to first; penalty killing went from 30th in the League to second; goals against we went from 25th to 15th; goals for we went from 20th to tied for 14th. So, we made a lot of progress in goals for, goals against, special teams and points.

"I thought we had some young players who, over the course of the season, really impacted our team. Ethan Bear right off the bat going into our top-four. Kailer Yamamoto coming up middle of the season gave us a real boost in our top-six. Caleb Jones did a nice job when he got in there through the second half of the season. Especially when (Oscar) Klefbom got injured. So, we got a push from some younger players.

"I'm massively disappointed that we weren't able to win the series with Chicago and advance further. I know that we've got some things that we need to try to accomplish over the course of the summer here to get our team to take another step. The first order of business is to try to continue to hold where we're at and improve upon that. That's my mindset heading into this off-season."

What do you do with guys like (Andreas) Athanasiou and (Matt) Benning as Restricted Free Agents, especially with the flat cap?

"It's going to have an impact. When we made the deal for Athanasiou at the Trade Deadline, it was looking like the cap was going to be a minimum of $84 million to a maximum of $88 (million), depending on the percentage that the union wanted to uptick the cap. Certainly, that's going to affect the decisions we make this summer. There's a real possibility that this pandemic is going to affect what we do.

"I had a relationship with Athanasiou in Detroit. We were trying to bring in more offence. Athanasiou's impact wasn't as good as I hoped. I'll assess here over the next six-seven weeks leading into the off-season."

What was missing in the playoffs for the Oilers and was it a one-off or something that as a GM, you'll have to address?

"If I analyzed the series, I thought in Game 1, we weren't ready to play. I thought that was a veteran team in the other locker room. They were up 4-1 10 minutes into the game. They knew the playoff series started when the puck dropped. It looked to me that we were going to try to wade into the series. It felt like we were chasing the series but every game we had a one-goal lead. When we got those leads, we didn't hang onto them for any longer than three, four or five minutes.

"It's the playoffs. You're not going to run amok in the playoffs; you're playing against teams that are good hockey teams. They came out and they were ready to go. We were not ready to go for whatever reason. I actually thought the rest of the series we played, we played fine but 'fine' wasn't good enough. They made more plays than we did and we made more little mistakes that they capitalized on.

"I'm hoping that we got to get back to (Oilers) Training Camp and put ourselves back into the same position next year. Over 82 games, we got to play our way into the top-eight in the Western Conference and we got to be more prepared for next year than we were for this year. I'm hoping it was a learning moment."

How would you assess the goaltending tandem of Mikko Koskinen & Mike Smith and as you go forward, does somebody really need to take the reins in net?

"My assessment over the regular season, the first 70 games, goaltending was a real strength of ours. I thought the coaching staff did a great job early on. Between Tippett and (Goaltending Coach Dustin) Schwartz, they sensed when it was time to let one guy run for a little bit. Early in the season, they let both guys get into it.

"The goaltending didn't play as well for us in the playoffs as they did in the regular season. It's a small window. You're talking four games. Going forward, Mike Smith is an unrestricted free agent. Koski has two more years to go in his contract.

"Probably, our best young goaltender is Stuart Skinner. I think he needs to be in the American League next year. He needs to really establish himself as the No. 1 goaltender in the American Hockey League playing on an every-night basis. He's got a lot of talent, he's a big guy, 6-foot-4 and takes up a lot of space. We need him to build off that. We have to decide whether we're going to re-sign Mike Smith or look at other alternatives. That's what I got to decide here over the next few weeks."

Can you evaluate the defencemen?

"We were middle of the pack (in goals against). We need to be better. We need to make more strides. To consider yourself a team that can go on a long playoff run, you've got to be able to defend. You can't just outscore your opponents. You'd like to be a top-10 team in terms of goals against.

"I don't think that's totally a reflection of the defencemen; it's a reflection of the commitment of the entire team to keeping the puck out of the net. After Game 1, our coach Dave Tippett called out a couple of our defencemen and needed them to play better. Our team responded in Game 2. We've got some good young defencemen in the system. I don't think they're ready to step up and play top-four minutes, but Ethan Bear did it. They're pros. They're veterans.

"You're always looking to upgrade but the reality of trying to upgrade and get better defencemen than the defencemen that we've got is not easy. I think we've got really good, legitimate, solid pros. This organization has drafted a lot of defencemen, so we have defencemen coming."

Are the four playoff games a small sample size to base your off-season decisions on?

"It's a small sample size but it's playoffs. I'm not going to put the entire evaluation of our team over the 70-game regular season and forget about the playoffs, and vice-versa. Certainly, I probably learned some things about our team and our players in the four games against Chicago that will factor into whatever decisions we make in the off-season."

What is your message to Oilers fans?

"My message to the fans would be: I remember when I took over the job in May... I felt that we wanted to get to March the 1st and be in control of our own fate. It'd hard to make massive steps. Can we continue to take baby steps and steps forward?

"When we got to March the 1st, we controlled our own fate, we were in the thick of the playoff race. We played hard, competed on an every-night basis. I thought that we made progress in the 19-20 season. We need to make a little more progress here heading into the 20-21 season."

Do Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl need to dig in and show the team how to be concerted defensively? Does the team require their defensive leadership more than it needs their offensive leadership right now?

"The answer would be 'yes' but I saw that happening. They are getting better. But I also think in this playoff series, we were playing against some players who had won three Stanley Cups. They had to learn that, too. We're learning it. You're focusing on two guys but our entire team, we're learning that defence is as important as offence in terms of going for long playoff runs. That's the experiences that I'm talking about. I'm believing and hoping that the Chicago series, this disappointment, is going to be an experience for down the road. We're making progress. They are learning, they are getting better. Dave Tippett asked them to work harder away from the puck. I watched it, they did play harder away from the puck."

Do you feel you have to improve the chemistry of the team outside the locker room?

"The more you win, the better the chemistry is. I feel good about the chemistry. Dave Tippett and I talked to every player as quickly as we could Saturday morning. I think veteran people are important in your lineup. They're sort of like coaches. We've got lots of younger players and those veteran players can be sort of like coaches. I want to make sure we've got some veterans in there to blend with our kids. Yes, I thought we had good chemistry. I thought we played hard all year. I thought they liked one another. I thought that Dave Tippett and his coaching staff did a great job since Day 1 of Training Camp in getting the team to buy-in. Yes, I do think we had good chemistry."

Can you evaluate your coaching staff from what you saw in the playoffs?

"When I analyze Dave Tippett, I thought we made great progress this year. We got way more progress we want to make but I think he was a big piece of the progress. Getting to work with him every day, he communicates, he builds relationships. He's got a really good relationship with the top players and communicates with them.

"I thought he had all the players feel that they had a little piece of the pie. He keeps everybody feeling like they've got stock in the company. I think that's really important as a head coach. When you lose out, obviously it's some of the decisions that I made and some of the decisions Tipp made that didn't work out. We're going to be open for second-guessing and criticism. That means that your fan base has passion and they care. That's fuel and motivation for us to try to do better for them next year."

Any status updates on Adam Larsson and Tyler Ennis, who couldn't finish the series. Were other players battling injuries as well?

"Ennis got a fractured leg. He did have some ligament damage down around his ankle but will be fine down the road. He should be 100 percent and ready to rock 'n' roll for the 20-21 season. He's an unrestricted free agent. I thought he came up here and played good. I'll talk to him and his agent here as we get further down and make sure everything goes good with the healing process.

"In Larsson's case, he was on the ice for the morning of Game 3 and then halfway through the warmup, he did something with his back. On the off-day, he felt better but it just wasn't quite ready to go for Game 4. We were banged up a little bit but other than those two guys, we were fine for that week (of playoffs)."