Now that Jeff Jackson has gotten through the opening of free agency, it’s time to move on to the next pressing issue: finding the Edmonton Oilers a general manager.
Jackson, the hockey operations CEO, has been acting as the GM since Hockey Hall of Famer Ken Holland left the organization last week — just days before his five-year contract expired. Jackson has already said he doesn’t want to be the permanent GM, so he’ll be pursuing a replacement unless there’s a sudden change of heart.
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Getting a GM is clearly the priority. Jackson wants that person to be in place before negotiations take place with Leon Draisaitl on a new contract. Draisaitl has entered the final season of his eight-year deal and can sign an extension at any time.
Time is ticking. Jackson not only has to get the ball rolling quickly, but he must find someone quickly, so that person can sit down with Draisaitl and Connor McDavid — whose deal is up a year later.
Organized in alphabetical order, here are seven candidates to replace Holland.
Jason Botterill
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman suggested the Oilers should be after a “Jason Botterill type” on a recent edition of the 32 Thoughts podcast. Well, what about Botterill himself?
Botterill, 48, has been an assistant GM with the Seattle Kraken since January 2021. He was seen as a rising star in management when he was the assistant and later associate GM with the Pittsburgh Penguins from 2009 to 2017. The former NHL forward ultimately parlayed the second of back-to-back Stanley Cup titles to a shot in the big chair with the Buffalo Sabres.
But Botterill’s three seasons as GM didn’t go particularly well, which goes without saying considering the Sabres haven’t made the playoffs since 2011. He oversaw the disastrous Ryan O’Reilly trade to St. Louis. He also signed Jeff Skinner to the eight-year, $9 million AAV extension that was bought out last week, paving the way for the winger to join the Oilers.
Stan Bowman
There were whispers swirling around an Oilers-Bowman connection last month, something St. Louis Blues rinkside reporter Andy Strickland noted on Sunday. Those whispers grew louder after what happened the next day.
Bowman, coach Joel Quenneville and executive Al MacIsaac were reinstated by the NHL on Monday after a nearly three-year exile. They’d been banished for what the league deemed their “inadequate response” to Kyle Beach’s allegations of sexual assault by video coach Brad Aldrich in Chicago in 2010.
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NHL reinstates Quenneville, Bowman, MacIsaac
The three men can start working for an NHL team as early as Wednesday.
Jackson was asked Monday if Bowman would be considered for the vacant GM job. He could have shot down the possibility of the three-time Stanley Cup-winning manager working for the Oilers. Instead, Jackson said he hadn’t thought about it because he’d been so busy dealing with free agency.
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Until there’s cold water poured on Bowman, 51, joining the Oilers or Jackson hires someone else, the smoke will continue to blow.
Sean Burke
Burke was on the GM track a few years ago when he ran Canada’s 2017 world championship entry and headed up the 2018 Olympic team sans NHL players. He interviewed for the Oilers position that went to Holland in 2019 as well as with the Canucks in 2022 before Patrik Allvin was hired.
Burke, 57, has been the director of goaltending for the Vegas Golden Knights for the past two seasons and was instrumental in helping them win the Stanley Cup in 2023. The Golden Knights used five goalies that season and two for significant stretches in the playoffs.
Mathieu Darche
Darche has long been viewed as one of the NHL’s brightest executives and someone designed for bigger things.
After playing the last of his 250 NHL games in 2012, Darche eventually joined the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2019 as their director of hockey operations. He added the assistant GM title to his portfolio in 2022.
Darche, 47, has either been in the mix or has interviewed for vacancies in Vancouver, Pittsburgh, Montreal and Chicago. He and Lightning GM Julien BriseBois are said to be great friends, so it’ll likely take the perfect working situation for him to leave Tampa Bay.
Keith Gretzky
An Oilers assistant GM for the last nine seasons, Gretzky held the main job on an interim basis in 2019 between Peter Chiarelli’s and Holland’s reigns.
He made two notable moves in his four months at the helm. He shipped goaltender Cam Talbot to Philadelphia to open cap space for Andrej Sekera to come off LTIR and made a trade with Vancouver to bring back Sam Gagner for a second tour of duty.
Gretzky, 57, was mostly in charge of running AHL Bakersfield under Holland. That program has supported the Oilers nicely. Seven players who appeared in playoff games for the Oilers in 2024 spent time in Bakersfield during the Holland-Gretzky era.
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Gretzky’s strength is evaluating players. For example, he pushed for the Oilers to sign Mattias Janmark for the first time in 2022.
Brad Holland
As someone with both a scouting background and an analytical approach, Holland fits the mold for the next general manager. He’s been an assistant GM and director of pro scouting for the last two seasons and the Oilers have done a better job of identifying talent than in years past.
There are a couple of things working against Holland, 43, though.
He doesn’t have nearly as much experience compared to other candidates. Though Holland has worked within the sport for years — he was part of the NHL’s hockey operations department and in team services with the Toronto Maple Leafs — his managerial experience is limited. He joined the Oilers as a pro scout in 2019 after his dad was hired and spent three years in that capacity before getting promoted.
The second is the last name. His father just left the organization, so it is hard to see the transition of power staying in the family.
Mark Hunter
If Hunter isn’t the front-runner, he’s at least in the mix. Perhaps no one’s name has been linked to the Oilers as much as Hunter’s — and that’s been the case for weeks. At the very least, he’s been spoken to about the position.
Hunter, 61, is a veteran of 628 NHL games from 1981 to 1992 and has owned and operated the Ontario Hockey League’s London Knights since 2000. The Knights have arguably been the gold standard of Canadian major junior for much of that period, winning the league title five times and the Memorial Cup twice.
Hunter’s only break from running the Knights came when he worked for Toronto from 2014 to 2018, first as director of player personnel and then as assistant GM. The draft was his main duty and he’s largely credited for the Maple Leafs taking Mitch Marner fourth in 2015.
Jackson and Hunter know each other well from Ontario circles. The Oilers also just drafted two Knights, moving into the first round to pick Sam O’Reilly 32nd and nabbing fellow centre William Nicholl 196th.
(Photo of Mark Hunter: Dave Sandford / NHLI via Getty Images)
