While eight teams are still fighting for their chances at Lord Stanley, the rest of the 24 eliminated teams are focused on how to improve their teams and build toward next season and who may be leading them there.

While the majority of the job openings are behind the bench, there are two teams that are searching for their next General Manager: the New York Islanders, who mutually parted ways with Lou Lamoriello, and the Los Angeles Kings, who mutually parted ways with Rob Blake.

According to recent reports, it sounds like the Canucks’ division rivals may have found their next GM.

According to reports on Monday night from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, it appears the Kings are closing in on a deal with Ken Holland to make him the next General Manager.

Holland is responsible for the years and years of success of the Detroit Red Wings from the late 1990s to the 2010s. He joined the Red Wings immediately after his playing career as a scout before he was promoted to the front office. Holland served seven years as the Director of Amateur Scouting before he was promoted to assistant GM. After three years as the assistant, Holland was promoted to GM in 1997.

Scotty Bowman was serving as both the team’s head coach and GM when they won the Stanley Cup in 1997 and stepped down for an emerging Holland to take over the managerial duties afterward. The Red Wings would win again the following season, in what was Holland’s first year as GM. He would add two more Stanley Cups to his resume in 2002 and again in 2008, as well as stringing together a stretch of 25 consecutive seasons where the Red Wings made the postseason.

Fast forward to the summer of 2019, where Holland stepped down as Vice President of the Red Wings to make way for his former player, Steve Yzerman, to step in as GM. His vice presidency wouldn’t last long, as he was hired a month later by the Edmonton Oilers to be their next GM.

The veteran GM went on to spend the following five seasons in Edmonton before they mutually decided to part ways after his five-year contract expired. Holland took the Oilers to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2024, ending on a losing note in Game 7 against the Florida Panthers.

Holland took the 2024-2025 season off, but his name began to circulate again once the Islanders’ job opened up. But now it seems like he has been picked up by the Kings, the team he beat for three straight seasons with the Oilers in the first round of the playoffs.

What do they say? If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. The Kings are set to hire the previous GM of their first-round kryptonite, hoping for a better fate if they do, in fact, meet in the first round for the fifth consecutive year.