Ken Holland, who won four Stanley Cup titles as an executive with the Detroit Red Wings, is expected to become the Kings’ next general manager, according to multiple reports on Monday night.
Holland would replace Rob Blake, the Kings’ GM and vice president of hockey operations whose contract was not renewed after a fourth straight first-round playoff exit.
An announcement is expected later this week, possibly as early as Tuesday.
Holland, 69, began his career as an amateur scout with the Red Wings in 1985, later serving as assistant GM for the franchise’s first Stanley Cup since 1955, which came in 1997, and as GM for subsequent championships in 1998, 2002 and 2008. Kings president Luc Robitaille was a player on the 2002 Red Wings team.
After departing Detroit in 2019, Holland headed to Edmonton, where he solidified a wayward Oilers group that had won just one playoff series between 2007 and 2022. That’s not unlike the Kings, who haven’t advanced beyond the first round since their Stanley Cup triumph in 2014.
In 2022, the Oilers’ third season under Holland, they went to the Western Conference finals against eventual champion Colorado, having beaten the Kings in the process. They repeated that last feat in 2023 (a second-round exit against another eventual champion Vegas) and in 2024, when they came within one victory of reverse-sweeping the Florida Panthers after falling behind 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Final.
As assistant GM in Detroit, Holland was instrumental in bringing in the vaunted “Russian Five” – Sergei Fedorov, Slava Kozlov, Vladimir Konstantinov, Slava Fetisov and Igor Larionov – and as GM he plucked international steals from the draft like Pavel Datsyuk (No. 171 overall) and Henrik Zetterberg (No. 210 overall) that ushered in another era of excellence.
During his tenure as Detroit’s GM, the franchise won more regular-season and postseason games than any other franchise, also tying Chicago and Pittsburgh for the most championships in that period with three.
In all, the Wings made the playoffs in 25 consecutive seasons with Holland in their front office but have not returned since he left the Motor City. The Oilers qualified for the postseason in each of Holland’s five campaigns with Edmonton.
Holland’s five-year contract with the Oilers expired on July 1, 2024. Edmonton eventually hired former Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman to replace him. Since then, Holland had been working as a consultant to the NHL’s hockey operations department.
In 2020, Holland was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the builders’ category. As a player, he was a goaltender who played in a modest four career games, three with Detroit and another with the Hartford Whalers.
Holland will now determine the fate of Jim Hiller, who finished his first full season as Kings head coach after serving on an interim basis in 2023-24. Hiller was an assistant coach with the Red Wings for one season (2014-15) during Holland’s time in Detroit.