Ken Holland Says Oilers Were In On Other Trades That Fell Through

Ken Holland joined the hosts of TSN 1260 after the NHL Trade Deadline came and went and during that interview was asked about other deals he might have been in on. His answer was a bit surprising.

Clearly, Holland wasn’t about to name names, but he did admit he had other irons in the fire and was “in on” a couple other pieces that moved to other places.

The Oilers did plenty at this year’s deadline. They added defenseman Mike Green on Sunday night. Then on Monday, they added Andreas Athanasiou and Tyler Ennis to help with their injury issues at left wing. But, Holland said, he was planning to do more.

With over 25 trades on Monday ( one of the busier trade deadlines of recent memory), the list of players Holland might have been calling about is wide, but it’s a bit easier to narrow down deals he wasn’t interested in.

First, Holland said he didn’t look for a center. While some argued he could have potentially used one, he admitted after his media scrum that another center wasn’t really on his radar.

Second, he said he wasn’t talking to teams he was directly competing with in his own division. He admitted that it’s pretty rare for GM’s to trade to their division rivals during a trade deadline time period. Understandably, Vegas, Vancouver and Calgary wasn’t about to help Edmonton out.

Finally, he said he wanted another defenseman for depth. Meaning, he either a) was worried his young guys might not be able to handle the load of b) Kris Russel it still a ways away.

Holland did keep enough salary space open to bring Russell back before the end of the regular season, and that has to be telling about where Russell is at. He may not be back before the playoffs, but he may be. Holland couldn’t take a chance. Had he known Russell would be out, that would have given another $4 million in which to work with.

So who was Holland calling about? We may never know. All we do know is that Holland wasn’t done with just these three moves. The others simply didn’t work out without either giving up too much or for salary reasons.

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