Edmonton Oilers GM Candidate Profile: Keith Gretzky

Would it be any more fitting for someone leading the next generation of Edmonton Oilers stars to a (hopeful) Stanley Cup victory than someone with the last name Gretzky?

In the search for Ken Holland‘s replacement, Keith Gretzky is an internal candidate who should garner some attention. Keith, Wayne Gretzky‘s brother, has been with the Oilers organization for nearly 10 years, originally hired in August of 2016.

So far, we’ve taken a look at a couple of other potential candidates for this role, being Jeff Jackson (who doesn’t want the job but with his performance at the draft and free agency in the interim role, can he please change his mind) and Mark Hunter, the current owner and GM of the OHL’s London Knights.

Who is Keith Gretzky?

Keith Gretzky is a former player-turned-scout who has been in and around the NHL and professional hockey for over four decades. Originally a third-round draft pick of the Buffalo Sabres in 1985, he ultimately never made the NHL and spent his 10 year professional career jumping around the AHL, IHL, FinD1, BHL, and ECHL. He played for seven different teams in five leagues in this span.

After his playing career came to a close, Gretzky turned to coaching and began with the Tri-City Americans in the WHL. Shortly after that, he moved to Bakersfield to coach the Fog (now the Bakersfield Condors) for a few seasons and then the Asheville Smoke of the UHL. He was also the co-general manager of the Smoke during this time.

Now in 2001, Gretzky moved to the front office of an NHL team as he became a scout for the (then) Phoenix Coyotes. After five seasons he became the team’s Director of Amateur Scouting. In 2013, he filled the same roles for the Boston Bruins organization.

Leading to his joining the Edmonton Oilers in 2016, where he was hired as the assistant general manager. Upon Peter Chiarelli’s firing in 2019, Gretzky served as the interim general manager for four months until Ken Holland was hired. Since then, he has remained the Oilers’ assistant general manager and GM of the Bakersfield Condors.

Gretzky’s GM style and specifics

Gretzky’s experience in a general manager’s role is very limited. Although he spent a couple of seasons as coach and general manager of the Smoke, the team went 70–73–5 and his primary role was as the head coach, he worked in conjunction with another member of the organization in the GM role.

In his four months as Oilers interim GM, however, he did get to cover one trade deadline that we can take a look at.

The only two moves attributed to him are trading Ryan Spooner for Sam Gagner and Cam Talbot for Anthony Stolarz.

The first move, Spooner for Gagner, was a relatively low impact move but it still worked out well for Edmonton. Gagner is beloved by the Oilers fanbase and bringing him back for a second stint with the team was viewed favourably. And, after Spooner recorded just three points in 25 games with Edmonton, Gagner had 10 in 25 games to close out that year.

The second move, Talbot for Stolarz, was maybe a bit worse but at the time Talbot had fallen off and out of favour with the organization. Until the trade, Talbot was 10–15 with an .893 save percentage and 3.36 goals against average that season. Stolarz, unfortunately, was never really given much of a fair shot with the Oilers. His statline was barely any different from Talbot’s, but his underlying numbers suggested he should have gotten more than two starts and four relief appearances.

With his background as a scout and Director of Amateur Scouting, it is worth looking at the draft history of the Coyotes and Bruins while he was in that position. He was Director of Amateur Scouting with the Coyotes from the 2007–08 season until the 2010–11 season and the Bruins from 2013–14 until 2015–16.

2008 Draft

Num.	Round	Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts
8	1	Mikkel Boedker	L	709	118	209	327
28	1	Viktor Tikhonov	L	111	11	11	22
49	2	Jared Staal	R	2	0	0	0
69	3	Michael Stone	D	552	41	104	145
76	3	Mathieu Brodeur	D
99	4	Colin Long	C
159	6	Brett Hextall	R
189	7	Tim Billingsley	D

2009 Draft

Num.	Round	Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts
6	1	Oliver Ekman-Larsson	D	982	144	327	471
36	2	Chris Brown	C	23	2	1	3
91	3	Mike Lee	G
97	4	Jordan Szwarz	C	50	4	3	7
105	4	Justin Weller	D
157	6	Evan Bloodoff	L

2010 Draft

Num.	Round	Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts
13	1	Brandon Gormley	D	58	2	3	5
27	1	Mark Visentin	G	1	0	0	0
52	2	Phil Lane	R
57	2	Oscar Lindberg	L	252	39	40	79
138	5	Louis Domingue	G	143	0	2	2

2011 Draft

Num.	Round	Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts
20	1	Connor Murphy	D	677	41	100	141
51	2	Alexander Ruuttu	F
56	2	Lucas Lessio	L	41	3	4	7
84	3	Harrison Ruopp	D
111	4	Kale Kessy	L
141	5	Darian Dziurzynski	L
155	6	Andrew Fritsch	R
196	7	Zac Larraza	F

2014 Draft

Num.	Round	Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts
25	1	David Pastrnak	R	674	348	379	727
56	2	Ryan Donato	C	403	77	88	165
116	4	Danton Heinen	L	487	87	125	212
146	5	Anders Bjork	L	225	26	35	61
206	7	Emil Johansson	D

2015 Draft

Num.	Round	Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts
13	1	Jakub Zboril	D	76	1	15	16
14	1	Jake DeBrusk	L	465	138	128	266
15	1	Zachary Senyshyn	R	16	1	2	3
37	2	Brandon Carlo	D	554	28	72	100
45	2	Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson	C	29	3	6	9
52	2	Jeremy Lauzon	D	288	14	30	44
75	3	Daniel Vladar	G	75	0	1	1
105	4	Jesse Gabrielle	L
165	6	Cameron Hughes	C	2	0	0	0
195	7	Jack Becker	C

2016 Draft

Num.	Round	Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts
14	1	Charlie McAvoy	D	454	53	224	277
29	1	Trent Frederic	C	280	47	47	94
49	2	Ryan Lindgren	D	333	10	70	80
135	5	Joona Koppanen	L	9	0	1	1
136	5	Cameron Clarke	D
165	6	Oskar Steen	C	60	4	4	8

Looking through all of this, his time with the Coyotes had significantly less draft success than the Bruins. And even with the Bruins, he was in that position of leading the draft during the infamous three consecutive first round picks in 2015 in which they took Zboril, DeBrusk, and Senyshyn.

With the Coyotes, it seems to have even been a struggle to get star talent from first round picks. And out of 15 total picks in the third round or later, only two played more than 100 career games. In total over all rounds, Ekman-Larsson, Boedker, Murphy, and Stone were the only players with a noteable impact in the NHL.

That trend changed a bit with the Bruins, which could also have been from an organizational impact as well, since Boston was historically run significantly better than the Coyotes were.

Two of 10 picks in the third round or later played more than 100 games. And with Boston, many more players became impactful NHL regulars. Pastrnak, Donato, Heinen, DeBrusk, Carlo, Lauzon, McAvoy, Frederic, and Lindgren have all established themselves in the NHL and continue to make an impact to this day.

Bakersfield Condors general manager

In his other relevant experience for this role, Gretzky has been the general manager of the Bakersfield Condors since the 2019–20 season.

It can be hard to differentiate between moves made by the NHL team or the AHL team, but overall the Condors’ performance in these seasons has been solid, though not great.

They’ve made the playoffs every season, with the exception of the COVID-19 cancelled 2019–20 playoffs. Though that has not resulted in much. Two first round losses, a second round loss, and a conference championship in the shortened 2020–21 season. Within the division, they’ve only finished top three once in these five years.

Fit with the Oilers

Gretzky is, overall, a solid fit for the Oilers. Although most of this comes from his familiarity with the organization. With someone who has been here and been a part of building this team to its current state, the need to perform any significant alterations to the roster is minimalized. Which is incredibly important at a time where the team is on the cusp of victory. Changes are needed, but he will know which holes need to be filled and how the internal solutions will stack up.

Because of Gretzky’s background in scouting, he is bound to understand the importance of the process, at both the amateur and professional level. As a result, he may be very well suited to help fill up the Oilers’ prospect pool with late round gems to help sustain their competitive window.

Does it make sense?

With Gretzky’s time in Edmonton and familiarity with the team, players, staff members, and organizational workflow, it does make sense from a continuity perspective to promote him from within. He has spent over two decades working around the league, building connections, learning how the position works from some of the most well-regarded people in the industry.

So it does make sense that he will and should eventually get a chance at being the official general manager of an NHL team sooner rather than later.

However, with his limited experience as an NHL GM at a critical time in this team’s competitive window, would the Oilers want to hire a rookie GM?

And, his draft record as Director of Amateur Scouting with other organizations is questionable at times, leading to concerns around if he would actually be able to build the prospect pool back up.

Although it would not be surprising to see Gretzky named GM, as it is clear he has been getting groomed for the position for years within the Oilers organization, there are probably better options available on the market right now.

Who should be the next GM of the Oilers? Drop a comment down below!