A report surfaced on X on Thursday evening saying that Hall of Fame general manager Ken Holland is joining the Utah Hockey Club’s front office.
The team told me that Holland was there as a guest, being a “friend of many in the organization.” He had not been hired by the team, at least at that point.
Here’s what he told me at practice Friday morning.
Friday Update
Holland was at Utah HC’s training facility in Kearns, Utah, for training camp on Friday, though he was not seated with Bill Armstrong and the other front office staff in the bleachers.
I spoke to Holland during practice and he confirmed that he’s just visiting. But here’s the interesting thing: He was wearing a Utah Hockey Club jacket.
He told me he’d been to NHL training camps every year since 1976 and he wanted to be involved in one again this year. This was Holland’s second visit to Salt Lake City: The first was during the 2002 Olympic Games.
He spent the morning touring the Delta Center with president of hockey operations Chris Armstrong. He was extremely impressed by a number of things, especially the fact that they had been able to get the team up and running so quickly.
Holland also said that his son, Brad Holland, a former assistant general manager who parted ways with the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday, has not made a decision on where to take his talents next. Though they were a father-son management duo in Edmonton, it doesn’t sound like that’s on the radar in Utah — at least right now.
Who is Ken Holland?
Ken Holland, 68, is a four-time Stanley Cup champion, having won it with the Detroit Red Wings. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2020 as a builder.
As the general manager of the Oilers last season, Holland fell one game short of his fifth championship. He and the Oilers mutually agreed to part ways when his contract concluded this summer.
Holland played professional hockey as a goalie in the 1970s and ‘80s, including four games in the NHL, split between the Red Wings and the Hartford Whalers.
Interesting fact: He is the only member of the Hockey Hall of Fame from my hometown, Vernon, British Columbia.