Oilers GM Holland left to pick up pieces after Campbell bet ends with waivers

VANCOUVER — It was the summer of 2022, and Ken Holland succumbed to the pressure.

His Edmonton Oilers had just suffered through the Mikko Koskinen years, and Mike Smith was ready to retire. Edmonton’s goaltending pipeline consisted of a rookie named Stuart Skinner, and nothing else of NHL pedigree.

The steward of Connor McDavid’s Stanley Cup future, Holland simply had to come back in September with a No. 1 goalie. He owed it to the sport, but at that moment in time, the pickings were slim.

Detroit had snapped up the untested Ville Husso and signed him to a three-year deal with an AAV of $4.75 million. Today, Husso awaits his first season with a save percentage exceeding .896 in Detroit.

The other viable option was the oft-injured Darcy Kuemper, who had rejected Edmonton’s overtures the previous summer. He took his talents to Washington, D.C. 

So Holland and Campbell were the last two at the dance. Bedfellows by chance. 

At that moment, the Oilers GM had two choices: Overpay and over-term a guy who had briefly found his game in Toronto — but had serious question marks regarding his mental game. Or walk away and temporarily solve his issues in the trade market. 

Choose the latter and fail, and he would have been crushed by Oilers fans. They had suffered through the Three Metres of Koskinen, and borne nervous witness to the puck-handling foibles of an ageing Smith. 

[brightcove videoID=6340701126112 playerID=JCdte3tMv height=360 width=640]

Now they wanted a true No. 1, and it was Holland’s job to provide. To those who much is given, the old saying goes, much is expected.

Holland jumped to his fatal mistake, choosing Campbell. And today, that chicken roosts on the National Hockey League’s waiver wire.

“If you can be the starting goalie in Toronto,” Connor McDavid declared that day, “you can be the starting goalie anywhere.” 

Not so fast, McDavid. 

As it turned out, you couldn’t find a hockey writer in Toronto who would have given Campbell a five-year, $25 million deal. Nor did anyone we knew in the goaltending industry think it wise.

But Holland fell into the trap. It is by far his worst bit of business in a largely successful five-year run as the Oilers GM.

Campbell, 31, will clear waivers on Thursday, charter to San Jose with the Oilers that afternoon, and by nightfall will rest his head down on a pillow stamped “Bakersfield Marriott.”

Will Campbell ever don an Edmonton Oilers jersey again? If he does, it is because Plan B — whatever that turns out to be — failed as well. 

“I have gone through a lot of adversity, but I think playing in Toronto and different markets I played in prepared me for this moment,” Campbell said upon his arrival in Edmonton two training camps ago. “The team’s ready to do special things, and my adversity was, you know, needed to be prepared to do that.

“Yeah, I’m ready for this. Can’t wait to get it going.”

[brightcove videoID=6340698926112 playerID=JCdte3tMv height=360 width=640]

After a season and a bit, Campbell’s stat line reads: 39 starts (zero in the post-season), a 22-13-14 record, an .886 save percentage and a 3.53 goals against average. And nearly $20 million in salary still coming his way.

He cares deeply, works like a miner, and wants more than anything to succeed — not for himself, but for “the fellas.” You’ll never find a better teammate or goaltending partner.

But what Holland wanted was a starting NHL goalie. Alas, Campbell simply never was one of those.

His mental makeup works contrary to what we know about the position.

Where the great Grant Fuhr could let in six, but bear down and forbid you to score the seventh one, Campbell was quite the opposite. One begat two, which begat four, and before you knew it the ballcap of shame was donned, and the backup was in, and he was a mess.

He just never got his head around the position. 

“That’s something I’ve done my whole career, and somehow managed to get away with it until last year,” Campbell said on Day 1 of training camp this past fall. “There was… no hiding last year. I love to judge myself pretty heavily. (The key is) letting that go, and just playing hockey.

“I still have that standard of wanting to save every shot. But not necessarily losing a week’s worth of sleep over it.”

He mastered that mantra during training camp, earning the Opening Night start in Vancouver. But before the season was two hours old, there was Campbell, on the bench, hat pulled down low. 

“Maybe, at times, (Campbell) takes a little bit too much responsibility,” Holland admitted. “But I know that I’d rather have that than the guy that doesn’t take any responsibility.”

Today, the responsibility all lies with Holland.

He’s got the same problem he had two summers ago, with about $4 million less cap space with which to solve it. And a team that is one more bad week away from missing the playoffs.

It’s hard to think that moment couldn’t have been handled more poorly, or gone any worse for the Oilers.

But here we are. A pretty good team, with perhaps the worst goaltending in the NHL.

In the Soup, as it were.