Breaking: Oilers CEO Jeff Jackson finally makes announcement on general manager role.

You might have heard the odd bit of speculation regarding the Edmonton Oilers’ search for their next permanent general manager in recent weeks. Obviously this speculation only ramped up, once Ken Holland’s time in the role officially came to an end on June 30.

The question is, who is likely to end up getting the gig? Among the candidates we’ve mentioned recently, include current Oilers assistant general managers Keith Gretzky and Brad Holland, as well as the controversial Stan Bowman.

There’s also been some suggestion — including from us — that CEO Jeff Jackson should remove his interim general manager tag and take on the role full time. Certainly he’s more than proven he can do the job after he smashed the beginning to free agency, as well as making a couple of recent impressive trades, to the point the Oilers roster is now even better than the one which just came so close to winning the Stanley Cup this past season.

In fairness to Jackson, he’s previously already stated he has no interest in taking over the reigns as the new general manager on a more permanent basis. Just in case however, he has now provided an update reinforcing this position.

With due credit to Mike Gould of Oilers Nation, this update came during an appearance on Tuesday’s edition of The Bob McCown Podcast. Jackson said: “I don’t want to be the general manager. I’m an active CEO, so I’m involved in the day-to-day (operations), but I think being with the team on a daily basis, like a GM has to do, doesn’t work for me and my family, and that’s a discussion I had with (owner) Daryl Katz right from the get-go.”

As much as this will likely be a shame to a lot of Oilers fans, if nothing else, at least Jackson also provided a timeline for when we will find out who the new general manager is going to be, and it’s coming very soon. He said: “I’m working through that process right now. I’ve spoken with a number of candidates and making my way through that … (I) hope to have a decision on that front, I don’t wanna put a time-frame on it, but it’s probably in the next week to 10 days, sort of thing, I would think.”

In this respect, it seems worth mentioning one final potential candidate in Mark Hunter, who to be fair has been linked with the Oilers general manager position for quite a while now. Regardless though, it’s going to be intriguing to find out who does eventually land the role, which is arguably one of the most prestigious general manager positions in the NHL.