Oilers Insider Points to Three Veterans as HC Options in Edmonton

The Edmonton Oilers made the inevitable official on Thursday, relieving Kris Knoblauch of his duties as head coach of the team after days of the hockey world knowing full well that the news was coming.

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It marks an ugly end to a rather successful tenure for Knoblauch behind the Oilers’ bench, though the team ultimately fell short of its lone goal: winning a Stanley Cup.

With Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl moving into the back half of their primes, the urgency is at an all-time high in Edmonton. As a result, insider Mark Spector believes the Oilers must hire a veteran head coach to take command from day one, and three names he floated were, of course, Bruce Cassidy, as well as Peter Laviolette, and Craig Berube.

Spector said:

“Yeah, I think for sure Bruce Cassidy is next in line. This organization, with Jay Woodcroft and Kris Knoblauch, their last two coaches, it was their first NHL head coaching gig, and they both did a good job, but in the end, with the arc of this franchise, we’re coming near the end of the McDavid window, and they’ve got to win a Cup now around here. You need a veteran coach. You need a coach that can come in here and take this roster and coach it with authority and not get coached by it. So yes, Bruce Cassidy. I would say to you a guy like a Laviolette, even a guy like a Berube—I want a strong, veteran, experienced hand there, whoever it is. But yes, Bruce Cassidy is at the front of the line,”

Cassidy and Berube were both let go from their respective situations in Vegas and Toronto in recent months, while Laviolette was relieved of his duties as head coach of the New York Rangers last April.

Any of the three Stanley Cup-winning coaches mentioned would be fascinating, and Spector is likely onto something with the idea that the Oilers should—and will—go the veteran route after relying on first-time head coaches with their previous two hires.

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