We all got the sense it was coming, but it still seems shocking that after two straight Stanley Cup Final appearances in 2024 and 2025, the Edmonton Oilers have told head coach Kris Knoblauch his services are no longer needed.
Of course, this was kind of obvious amid reports that the Vegas Golden Knights were blocking the Oilers from talking to head coach Bruce Cassidy.
However, while it’s another move that underscores how short the leash NHL coaches have these days, it was necessary to show Oilers superstar Connor McDavid that the front office means business.
McDavid will start a new two-year “show me” deal in Edmonton, and they’ll realistically only have a year to prove to him that their Cup-winning window hasn’t slammed shut.
Step one was making an aggressive coaching decision.
Knoblauch goes way back with McDavid and was his head coach in juniors. When he joined the team partway through the 2023-24 season, he turned them around and led them to a Cup Final loss to the Florida Panthers.
The next season ended in another loss to Florida, while this season ended with a first-round loss to the Anaheim Ducks.
In years past, a coach like Knoblauch would’ve built up enough goodwill to at least get one more year to prove that he can get the team back to the Cup Final and win it all. That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore, and teams are getting more aggressive with coaching decisions.
Of course, this can’t be the only thing that happens this summer because coaching was far from the Oilers’ biggest problem.
I’d say the biggest is what it has been through the entire McDavid era: depth.
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Sure, McDavid and Leon Draisaitl put up mega numbers upfront, while blueliner Evan Bouchard does the same on the backend.
But the drop-off after those three is wild.
Just this season, McDavid had 138 points (a league high), Draisaitl had 97, and Bouchard had 95.
The next highest on the team? Ryan Nugent Hopkins with 57.
They needed to spread out the scoring because, as great as it is to have Connor McDavid lighting things up, he’s only on the ice for 22 minutes a game. Others need to step up in the other 38.
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But you can get away with this if the goalies are playing lights out… but they are not.
This season, their top netminder is Connor Ingraham with a .899 save percentage and a 2.60 GAA.
So, while getting rid of Knoblauch and potentially bringing in a Bruce Cassidy or a Craig Berube may be a shock to the system for the team, they need to make some moves this summer.
And, you can bet that No. 97 will be keeping an eye on it.
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