Costly Twist?: NHL’s Cassidy Ruling Could Disrupt Oilers’ Plans

The Edmonton Oilers are interviewing different coaching candidates but most insiders believe they’re waiting on the Vegas Golden Knights to finally grant permission to speak with former head coach Bruce Cassidy. Cassidy is being pegged as the Oilers’ top target, but the Golden Knights are withholding permission, at least until the end of their playoff run.

Many believe Vegas may ultimately allow it. Some don’t think they will. That could force the NHL to step in, given that there’s never really been a situation where a team simply stopped a former coach from ever interviewing and paying their contract just to stop them from coaching elsewhere.

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However, one insider report suggests the NHL might not step in.

On Frankly Hockey on Monday, Frank Seravalli reported the following:

“The league is not going to overrule the Golden Knights here. Contract law and contract language are just that. They, I believe, have a clear stance in the League office that if Vegas wants to go to the mat here and not grant permission for Bruce Cassidy to speak to a division rival, then that is their right to do so, so long as they continue to pay the four and a half million dollars that are owed to Bruce Cassidy for next year.”

He adds, “If that’s the cheque they want to write to not have Bruce Cassidy, they believe, make the Oilers better next year, the league, there’s not much they can do, even if it defies custom and norms.”

In other words, typically the expectation is that a team wouldn’t stop a former coach they fired from gaining employment elsewhere, but Vegas isn’t a typical team. They’re known to be ruthless, often towing the lines of unethical. However, legally, they are within their rights to keep Cassidy from coaching somewhere else if he’s under contract, which he is.

What Does This Mean for the Oilers?

For the Oilers, that means looking elsewhere or bringing in an interim coach until that situation with Cassidy is sorted out. That’s risky. The Oilers are in a tight window and every season that goes by where they struggle is another reason for Connor McDavid to look elsewhere.

Alternatively, if the Oilers hire a different coach (their Plan B) and he’s not who they really wanted, there’s another Kris Knoblauch situation going on in the locker room. This group of players needs coaching, and coaching from someone the players respect.

The alternatives are worrying. The Oilers have sought and been granted permission to speak wot Craig Berube and there was a comment by Elliotte Friedman that “if Vegas doesn’t keep John Tortorella, he might be a guy that fills kinda what they want…”

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