Dave Tippett was just a casualty of Ken Holland's mismanagement

On Thursday morning, the Edmonton Oilers made the decision to fire head coach Dave Tippett after a 4-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks the night prior.

It marks yet another head coach being dismissed by a team who has went through them in numbers over the years. An example that perfectly displays this is the fact that Ryan Nugent Hopkins, who is in his 11th season with the club, will now have his ninth head coach in Jay Woodcroft.

Now, let me be clear. I believe this was a move that needed to be made. This Oilers team is one that cannot afford to miss the playoffs with the likes of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on their roster. Over the past two months they have been spiraling out of control and needed to make a significant move that would create a spark. But none of that changes the fact that it feels eerily similar to another move made not so long ago in the Oilers past.

Back in November of 2018, the Oilers announced they were relieving head coach Todd McLellan of his duties after an ugly start to the season. Though McLellan was no longer getting the best out of his group, it was very obvious to everyone that general manager Peter Chiarelli failed him by not assembling a strong roster. In fact, he arguably made the team worse than they were before he was brought on with a number of head-scratching moves. It came as little surprise when just over two months later, Chiarelli was the next to go.

Fast forward to where we are now, and the Oilers are in a very similar situation. Yes, Tippett was failing to get the best out of this team as he had in his previous two seasons, but it is very apparent to anyone watching this team that he is not the main man to blame. That man is general manager Ken Holland, who himself made several questionable decisions during his time with the Oilers, which has led to their major struggles as of late.

When Holland inherited the Oilers, he was taking on a team in a rough cap situation due to how Chiarelli handled things. While he can’t be critiqued for that, what he can be blamed for is moves he has made which has kept the cap situation — as well as the team — in complete disarray. One of those moves that deserves plenty of criticism is the four-year contract extension he chose to give to Zack Kassian in January of 2020. Since that extension, which pays him $3.2 million annually, kicked in, the 31-year-old has managed just seven goals and 19 points in 62 games, and on many nights is completely unnoticeable on the ice.

There was also the trade deadline debacle later that same year, when Holland chose to deal two second round picks along with Sam Gagner to the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for Andreas Athanasiou. Athanasiou, now with the L.A. Kings, went on to play just nine regular season games along with four playoff contests for the Oilers, scoring only one goal and two points. It was clear he didn’t mesh with the team, and as a result he was not qualified as a restricted free agent and the Oilers were down two more fairly-decent picks.

Those moves were mistakes, but every general manager makes them. By most accounts, Holland was still doing an okay job, and had a chance to really make his mark on the team during the 2021 offseason, one in which he finally had cap space to make some moves. While there was some good, such as the contracts given to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman (though the latter could very easily turn out terribly down the road) there was far more bad which has resulted in the team currently being on the outside of the playoff picture.

Two of those very puzzling and flat-out bad decisions came on the same day. The first was the re-signing of Mike Smith, who at the age of 39 was given a two-year deal with a cap hit of $2.2 million. The other was trading for Duncan Keith and his entire $5.5 million price tag, which too has another year left on it after this season. What made the Keith move even more frustrating was seeing that the Blackhawks were able to acquire goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury for almost nothing less than a week later in a trade that was a clear cap dump. Choosing not to re-sign Smith and instead trading for Fleury over Keith was something that would have put the Oilers in a much better position to succeed this season.

A week after the Smith extension, the Oilers chose to extend another player in Tyson Barrie. The 30-year-old was coming off a season in which he led all NHL blueliners in points, but received zero Norris Trophy votes. Voters believed he thrived specifically from being on a power play with McDavid and Draisaitl, while also critiquing his defensive play. This season, his defensive play has remained poor, and his offence has taken a serious hit with just 17 points through 38 games. Again, his three-year deal which carries a cap hit of $4.5 million could have been better spent, whether it had been to lock up a better shutdown defenceman on the right side or a goaltender to replace Mikko Koskinen.

Despite Holland’s blunders this summer, the Oilers started off the 2021-22 season red hot, going 16-5 through their first 21 games. This was in large part due to unsustainable success on the power play however, and once that cooled down, they have struggled in a major way.

On paper, their top six forwards are quite strong, and should be good enough to get this team back into the playoff picture. Perhaps the coaching change motivates them to get back to their best, something Holland’s job is depending on. Unfortunately, that will not change the fact that come playoff time, this team, and in particular their goaltending, is not nearly good enough to consider them as a threat.

Today, Tippett is the fall guy, but make no mistake; this mess falls completely on the shoulders of Holland.

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