The edmonton oilers will formally announce ken holland as their seventh general manager in franchise history later this week. They started in 1979/1980 with larry gordon (one year), then glen sather (20 years), kevin lowe (eight years), steve tambellini (five years), craig mactavish (two years) and peter chiarelli (three and a half seasons).Examples of cognitive approach to learning keith gretzky has held the interim GM tag since january 23rd.

From 1998-2005 they drafted and developed pavel datsyuk, henrik zetterberg, niklas kronwall, tomas kopecky, jiri hudler, tomas fleischmann, valtteri filppula, jonathon ericsson, kyle quincey, jimmy howard, johan franzen, darren helm and justin abdelkader.Examples of cognitive approach to learning all of them played 500+ games and only kronwall (29th in 2000) was a first round pick.

Expecting to maintain that level of excellence in scouting and developing is unrealistic.Examples of cognitive approach to learning I don’t believe it means holland and his staff in detroit lost their touch over the past decade. They still made some solid picks, but when you lose hall of fame talent it is very difficult to replace it.Examples of cognitive approach to learning they were able to replace steve yzerman and federov with datsyuk and zetterberg, but when the latter two and lidstrom retired the drop in talent was apparent.Examples of cognitive approach to learning

They are different people, with different personalities. I can only speak about my interactions with both men. I’ve spoken to holland numerous times over the past 18 years and he was always open and inviting.Examples of cognitive approach to learning chiarelli not as much, other than a lengthy conversation we had once at a golf clubhouse. I’m not saying one approach is better, just outlining I noticed a major difference in how they interacted with me when they GM teams outside of edmonton, and then in the time chiarelli was here.Examples of cognitive approach to learning

When chiarelli came to edmonton he had no organizational depth, but he had a lot of top-end skill. Sadly, for oilers fans, he gutted the skill with some horrific trades that saw him trade away a first, a second, taylor hall and jordan eberle for griffin reinhart, adam larsson and ryan strome.Examples of cognitive approach to learning he added to that with more downgrading of skill when he moved strome and drake caggiula for ryan spooner and brandon manning. However, during his tenure, the oilers have created a pipeline of solid prospects in evan bouchard, caleb jones, ethan bear, tyler benson, cooper marody, kailer yamamoto, dmitri samorukov, kirill maksimov, filip berglund and ryan mcleod.Examples of cognitive approach to learning they also signed joel persson. (william lagesson was drafted prior to chiarelli’s arrival).

On june 20th, six days before the 2015 draft, chiarelli fired stu macgregor and three other amateur scouts.Examples of cognitive approach to learning they’d done their scouting reports, but he wanted to move forward in a different direction. It was the right move, excluding the reinhart trade, and the oilers drafting in the 2nd round and on has improved recently.Examples of cognitive approach to learning at least to the point where they have prospects who look like they could help the NHL team in a season or two.

Luckily for him, he gets to shape his team around connor mcdavid and leon draisaitl.Examples of cognitive approach to learning he has some other high-end pieces in ryan nugent-hopkins, darnell nurse and oscar klefbom. The cupboard isn’t completely bare, but he needs to fill in the gaps on the roster, and use his 22 years of gming experience to find ways to shed one or two of the big contracts.Examples of cognitive approach to learning

Of course holland’s GM resume has a few contracts that didn’t work out. Overpaying in free agency rarely works. Frans nielson hasn’t been as productive as they’d like.Examples of cognitive approach to learning he signed veterans danny dekeyser, justin abdelkader and darren helm to over-priced contracts. I believe the toughest challenge for any GM is to avoid the emotional-home-grown re-signings.Examples of cognitive approach to learning I’m not naive enough to see why teams sign veterans, and players epitomize what an organization wants. Good people, who play hard, but rewarding them for past success can be dangerous.Examples of cognitive approach to learning

Bob nicholson reported that pat verbeek will join steve yzerman in detroit as assistant GM. So will holland bring anyone from detroit with him?Examples of cognitive approach to learning ryan martin (assistant GM), kris draper (assistant to the GM) and shawn horcoff (director of player development) are currently in detroit. (does the fact draper has a dwight schrute-like title make anyone else chuckle or only me?) 2.Examples of cognitive approach to learning what approach will holland have from an analytics point-of-view?

The organizations approach to developing players. It improved under chiarelli, but still not enough.Examples of cognitive approach to learning their rushing of jesse puljujarvi, when he clearly wasn’t NHL ready was wrong. Same with kailer yamamoto. Holland has always been patient with players, and he wisely had filip zadina, 6th pick in 2018, in the AHL this season, not floundering in the NHL.Examples of cognitive approach to learning I expect he will maintain his patient approach with prospects. 3. What about the coaching staff?

I expect a new head coach, but do they have to change the entire staff?Examples of cognitive approach to learning wouldn’t it be prudent to keep one or two of them around? Do they really need another new defence coach? That would be the third new defence coach in three seasons.Examples of cognitive approach to learning not ideal. I’ve been told by many players they liked the assistant coaches and they expressed this to nicholson in their exit interviews.

It isn’t as much about learning a new system, because let’s be honest there aren’t that many systems in the NHL.Examples of cognitive approach to learning the players have been exposed to them already. It is more about communication and understanding a player’s personality, emotions and what they do best.Examples of cognitive approach to learning put them in the best position to succeed. Connecting with them is arguably more important than the system you want them to play.

I completely understand why dave tippett, or any other coach, would want to hire at least one assistant coach.Examples of cognitive approach to learning I get that, and I fully expect him to bring in at least one coach, maybe two. But I see benefits in keeping one of two of the existing staff.Examples of cognitive approach to learning glen gulutzan, trent yawney and manny viveiros have only been around one year. They haven’t been around five plus seasons, and I don’t see them in the same situation as the management team.Examples of cognitive approach to learning