Hockey fans are losing their minds after a well-known NHL reporter floated the name of Wayne Gretzky’s younger brother for a prominent executive job.
The Edmonton Oilers parted ways with GM Ken Holland after losing Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final to the Florida Panthers. The team has yet to announce a replacement, but Oilers reporter Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal suggested Keith Gretzky, Wayne Gretzky’s younger brother.
Keith has been in the Oilers’ front office since 2016, briefly serving as the interim GM following Peter Chiarelli’s firing in 2019. But let’s just say that hockey fans weren’t exactly supportive of Matheson’s suggestion for Edmonton to make Keith (currently an assistant general manager) their GM again:
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Wayne Gretzky was an executive with the Oilers from October 2016 to May 2021. During his tenure, the team enjoyed a minor resurgence, reaching the playoffs three times (2017, 2020, and 2021) after missing them every year from 2007 to 2016.
Jeff Jackson, the CEO of Oilers hockey operations, currently holds the interim GM position. Throughout the 2023-24 season, there had been rumors that Jackson was essentially acting as the GM over Holland.
Per Caleb Kerney of The Hockey News, Jackson said he’s talked to multiple candidates and is looking for someone different from Holland, noting that nobody can match him “experience-wise.”
Oilers Are On The Up Again
The Oilers franchise has been mostly mired in mediocrity since they last won the Stanley Cup in 1990, two years after trading Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings.
But they’ve been to the Western Conference Finals in two of the last three years now, and they were just one game short of ending a 34-year Stanley Cup drought. As long as Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are steering the ship, Edmonton will remain a Cup contender following their gut-wrenching loss to Florida.
