TALKING POINTS: Holland on NHL Hub City bubble, Oilers roster and more

EDMONTON, AB - Oilers President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Ken Holland took questions from the media on Wednesday as the National Hockey League's Return To Play Plan gets closer to Phase 4.

Among the topics Holland was asked about include how he imagines hub city life to look like, which Oilers prospects will enter the bubble with the team and how the Oilers, overall, have managed the Return To Play Plan.

Read all of Holland's words from the availability below.

What does an NHL General Manager do while in the hub?

"I've never been in a hub before so this is a new experience for me. My plan is, obviously I'm going to be at all the Oilers games, and I thought I would pick another game each day to go scout. And then I do want to go back to my hotel room and pick a game from the Eastern Conference in Toronto and watch it there. So basically, watching lots of hockey."

How has your group handled Phase 3 of NHL Return To Play Plan, in terms of keeping safe? Specifically, the leadership group?

"We talked about it the first day of Phase 3 on Monday morning about the importance of them being diligent. Washing their hands, decisions that they make, where they go out and social distancing. Because if you do end up getting COVID, it looks like you're going to be isolated in the process but you're probably going to be away from the team for a minimum of two weeks and closer to three weeks. We want to hit the hub on Sunday with everybody healthy and obviously, they're getting tested every second day and so far, so good. They're making good decisions. Certainly, the tests would indicate they're making good decisions, in terms of protecting themselves, protecting their teammates and protecting their families.

"From a leadership standpoint, as we're starting to get close to the hub on Sunday and then on Tuesday night we play a game against Calgary and Saturday afternoon, we're starting to get excited. Tonight is a game day. Pre-game skate is this morning, the game tonight at 8:00 to simulate a night game. We're going to have a Colby Cave game on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 to end our Phase 3 Training Camp as we go into the hub on Sunday. So, I think everybody's getting excited. We're excited about the opportunity and the juices are starting to get flowing a little bit with the anticipation of real hockey on the horizon."

As a GM watching your team for a full week, what has surprised you from your team?

"Talking to Dave Tippett, we've been happy with the attitude and we've been happy with the work ethic. The players today, they watch what they eat, they make decisions year-round about training. When we went into the pandemic, they watched what they eat, trained to the extent that they can and then obviously Phase 2 started in early June. So, it's been all of June and it is going to be all of July before we play Game 1 against Chicago.

"They're in good shape and they've competed hard. What I've liked in the scrimmages is that it's not been like they've played hard one way and float. They backcheck, they've taken space away and they're trying to play the game the way that we believe we need to play in order to be successful. Attack when you've got the puck and when you don't have the puck, you've got to work to defend to get the puck back. We're slowly ramping up and we're happy where we're at right now. Obviously, you want to get a little crisper. I know this week Dave Tippett started to really spend some time on special teams. Come playoff time, goaltending, special teams, good luck with health; there are some ingredients that everybody knows that's got to happen if you're going to go on a long playoff run. Special teams are one of them. I know Coach Tippett's been emphasizing special teams the last couple of days and that will continue. As far as individual players, they've for the most part played hard and they look ready."

Looking past the season, what's your take on the Collective Bargaining Agreement and what it will mean for free agents with the salary cap staying flat in the short term. Especially the unrestricted free agents?

"That's a good question. Certainly, I know the cap is going to be $81.5 (million) next year and possibly the year after. I try to take a two-year look when you start to do contracts. I know it's $81.5, they were projecting 84-88 million dollars at our general managers' meetings in early March. An $85.5 million-dollar cap versus an $81.5 million-dollar cap - four million dollars - is a fairly significant amount of cap space for everybody. So, it's going to be tight and we're going to try to find players that can play. You need cheaper players on your roster, you always do. You're probably going to need a little bit more in order to build a team. Obviously, we've got some players that I have to sign here between now and November or December, whenever we start up again. I have time. I'm looking forward to evaluating our team during this tournament. And then sitting down at the end and talking to my people, my pro scouts, the coaching staff, Tipp and seeing what we thought.

This is a unique tournament, everybody hasn't played for four or five months so I don't want to put all the emphasis just on what transpires here between Aug. 1 and the end of September. There were 71 games that we played up until March that I also have to remember is an important part of the evaluation process as I look forward to the 2021 team. Right now, I want to watch our team play against Chicago and see what we look like, how players play and our hope is we find a way to win that series and move on. But you never know, I think it's wide open. I think all 24 teams are going into this tournament thinking if they can get on a run early, that you can go a long way because it's as much of a level playing field as it's ever been, given that everybody hasn't played hockey in four to five months."

Yesterday, Theodor Lennstrom was announced that he will be loaned to Frolunda HC for 20-21, given that he's on a one-year contract what kind of complications does this arise for the organization? And with Phil Kemp, Yale will not play next year. What's the plan or hope for someone like him?

"As far as Lennstrom goes, I've talked to the General Manager of Frolunda Fredrik Sjöström and I've talked to Lennstrom's agent. Basically, he's being loaned up until the NHL training camp for the '20-21 season begins. Frolunda understands that we want him back and Lennstrom wants his opportunity to come to North America to see if he can carve out a career here in North America. Certainly, there's an understanding between Frolunda, between the player and the Edmonton Oilers that he's over there to help Frolunda as much as he can up until our training camp starts for the 20-21 season.

"As far as players in the Ivy League, and specifically kemp right now, I have to reach out and see what the player is thinking and see what our people are thinking about him. That's on the to-do list.

Philip Broberg, has he opened some eyes here at camp to stick around at the hub? And is it reassuring knowing you have most of your players healthy here at camp while other teams have players not showing up?

"As far as Broberg goes, I talked to his agent Darren Ferris and his European agent and I talked to Philip, the Skelleftea general manager. The plan was he was going to come over here for Phase 3 and when we go into the hub, the plan - and I'm talking about a plan from a month ago - the plan was that at about Friday or Saturday of this week, he was going to go back to Skelleftea. They're starting their training camp in the next week or so, the Swedish teams in late July. With Mike Green opting out, I talked to Dave Tippett in advance of Phase 3 to say, 'Let's keep a close watch on Broberg. Let's see how he plays. If he plays well enough, we can make a decision to take him with us in the hub.'

"We think he's played pretty well. I've informed Skelleftea and talked to Darren Ferris, and I talked to Philip Broberg a couple of days ago to tell him that we're going to take him into the hub with us. We're going to go in with 10 defencemen and it's up to the coach to determine how they're all going to be used. He's a young player but he's played very well here in the early going.

"Things always ramp up. I look back to September every year at training camp and there's Week 1 then the vets take it to another level in Week 2 and they ramp it up. You try to find out which young players can go with as the veterans take the level of play to a higher level, where do people start to drop off? I'll continue to monitor that. He's 19 years of age, he's junior eligible this year to play in World Juniors. I think it's been a fabulous experience for him to be around an NHL training camp every day now for 10 days. It'll go on at least for another couple of weeks that he'll be around our guys. I think it's going to be really good for him and his development.

"Certainly, we feel fortunate that we were able to start camp, obviously Caleb Jones was out, but we've had everybody on the ice pretty well on an everyday basis since Day 1. We're playing a game tonight and everybody's playing in the game. I think that's an advantage, that there's been some continuity on an everyday basis to have all our players on the ice day after day after day after day. Certainly, good decisions by all our players, good luck with health. I'm sure other players around the League have been injured. I was worried coming into camp about the possibility of groin pulls or hip flexors with guys that haven't been on the ice. Touch wood, we haven't had any of those issues. It's allowed us to be as prepared as we head into nearing the end of Week 2 and going into the hub on Sunday, it's allowed us to be as prepared as possible. We've had everybody on the ice on an everyday basis. That's a real advantage."

What's the difference in a five-game series versus a seven-game series in terms of how you address it? And secondly, what do you think about the lack of a dress code for teams across the League in the hubs.

"First off, a best-of-five series versus a best-of-seven, obviously things happen way quicker. Someone's going to win Game 1 and someone's going to lose, and Game 2 is almost a must-win. You can win Game 2 and come back and win three in a row but the odds start to get long. The importance of getting off to a good start and at worst being split after two games, as you're starting to find your game. You don't want to start to find your game after you lose the first two. You can totally dominate a game and a goalie can beat you, and you lose that game. Certainly, it's going to happen fast. We're playing Saturday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday. Within Saturday to Saturday, someone is moving on and someone is being eliminated. It's going to happen really fast.

"As far as the dress code, I'm not sure what I can speak of. There's going to be 12 teams here and we're going to talk to our players here. Tomorrow we're going to have a meeting with our players to talk about the hub. Certainly, you want your team to look professional but certainly, if there are no fans around, no media around, they're going to walk from the rink over to here, you want them to look good. So, I'm not sure what all the players are going to wear. Certainly, that's been agreed upon between the NHL and NHLPA that there's no dress code. I don't know what players are going to be thinking but I'm sure they'll look good and professional."

You've been part of really good teams in Detroit. Now you're leading a team that's a pretty good team and they have a good shot to compete in the playoffs but the whole landscape of this playoff has changed. It's a completely unique situation. How do you feel about your chances? Do you feel the Oilers chances get better under this scenario?

"I think it's wide open. I'm not going to tell you all 24 teams can win the playoffs, the Stanley Cup tournament, but I think all 24 teams can win a playoff round. And then if you win one playoff round and get on a roll… what everybody doesn't know is injuries. You need depth but there's certain injuries you're able to kind of overcome and how long are the injuries? Are the injuries for a game or are the injuries losing a key player for an entire series? So, over the course of time, things change and that's why I think, again, over 82 games, the teams that have great years win games by a goal and the teams that aren't quite as good don't win as many by a goal. As you start to get into a 16-team tournament, now it's 24, that's why the Stanley Cup playoffs see No. 8s beat No. 1s and No. 7s can beat No. 2s.

"You talked about it in '05-06, I think we had a 128-point team that lost in the first round to the Edmonton Oilers and Edmonton went on to the Stanley Cup Finals. That's the beauty of the Stanley Cup Finals. I've been at it long enough to know you don't get comfortable and you throw all the expectations out the window. You can throw all the regular season stats out the window and you start from scratch. Last year, the two No. 1 seeds between Tampa Bay and Calgary, one team got swept and one team lost in five. The parity has never been better. How do I feel about our chances? I feel that if we play our very best and we get really good luck with health, we have a chance to go on a long run. But if we don't play our best, it could be a short run.

"We're playing a team in Chicago that has Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and they've got really good young players in Kirby Dach and Alex DeBrincat. They've got a really good mix of veterans and leaders, and their Stanley Cups aren't that far behind them so they know how to win. They've played playoff hockey before. We've got a really tough opponent right off the bat. We're going to have to be at our very best to be able to win this series. If we're not at our very best, there's a really good chance that we don't advance.

"The question before, the importance of being able to hit the ground running for Game 1 over the next 10 days, we've got to find our game and ramp it up a little more because the series happens Saturday to Saturday in one week. I think we feel good about what we accomplished over 71 games to put ourselves in this position but in pro sports, you've got to prove yourself every night, every game and every year. This is another opportunity that we have to prove ourselves."

I wonder about the value of having a coaching staff with the level of experience that your coaching staff has, in terms of being able to figure out how to handle these situations the best way possible?

"I'll give you my personal opinion. I put an emphasis on experience. What does experience mean? It means you've been in lots of situations and you've dealt with those situations and some of those situations have turned out and some haven't turned out. Maybe the next time you've handled that situation, you can fall back on that experience to help you handle the situation differently or the same.

"Certainly, Dave Tippett's been a coach in the National Hockey League for over 1,200 games. He's played in the National Hockey League, he's coached in Dallas, he's coached in Arizona. He's now, obviously, a coach here for 70 games in Edmonton. Jim Playfair's been around the game for a long time. He was a head coach in Calgary, he as an assistant coach. I was watching NHL Rewind last night, watching '04 Game 6 Detroit versus Calgary when Calgary won 1-0 in overtime to eliminate Detroit. I saw Jim Playfair on the bench, came in the next morning and told him how young he looked and how good he looked on the bench. Gully's been around pro hockey a long time, he's been a head coach, and assistant coach at the NHL level and other levels. We've got a very experienced coaching staff that has a lot of experience. Nobody has been in the hub.

"I was with the Canadian Olympic team in Sochi in 2014. I was in the Athlete's Village and I was rooming with Steve Yzerman and across the hall was Doug Armstrong and Peter Chiarelli. The Canadian hockey team was on floors 2-6 and we were on Floor 4. That's probably, for me, the closest thing I'm going to come to what we're going into this hub or bubble on Sunday. You've got all the teams and athletes combined in one area. You're going to be bumping into one another in the lobby and I think they're going to try to have the schedule so you don't see people. But you're still going to see people from other teams and other athletes on a regular basis.

"It's a unique experience. Whoever wins this Stanley Cup is going to have to win five rounds versus four. We're all going to have to deal with being in a hub, being in a bubble. I think that the team that wins the Stanley Cup is going to be a champion just like any other year. They're going to have to deal with a lot of adversity. It's going to be unique, it's going to be different and it's going to take a lot of good luck with health and a lot of depth. A lot of focus and certainly having the experienced coaching staff, I think is an advantage for our team. I say advantage and there are other teams that have veteran coaches. Certainly, Dave Tippett, I thought, did a great job for us for the '19-20 season and I feel good that we've got an experienced coach at the wheel."