Kris Knoblauch Era Ends in Edmonton

On Thursday morning, it was announced that the Edmonton Oilers relieved Kris Knoblauch of his head coaching duties.

Normally, whenever this franchise fires a coach, it can be a bit of an eye roll because it’s happened so frequently since the Decade of Darkness. Starting your NHL coaching career with back-to-back Stanley Cup Final appearances sounds like a great resume in the moment it happens. Despite both losses, not every coach can say they’ve gone that far and have been that close before.

Knoblauch was first hired by Edmonton in November of 2023, when they had a nightmare 3-9-1 start to the 2023/2024 season. Jay Woodcroft and assistant coach Dave Manson were let go; it wasn’t a popular decision among fans. I still remember the article I wrote following that news; it was the saddest I’d ever felt after a win. Oilers CEO Jeff Jackson played the biggest part in this move, as Ken Holland was starting to get less involved during his last season as the GM. Knoblauch was Connor McDavid’s former OHL coach. With Jackson being McDavid’s former agent, maybe this was how to keep the face of the franchise happy? While also desperately needing to improve? At this same time, Oilers alumnus and Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman Paul Coffey was brought in as a new assistant coach, hired mostly to work with the team’s blueliners. He initially wasn’t interested in that job, but oddly enough helped a great deal.

These new bench bosses propelled Edmonton to 8 game and 16 game winning streaks, the latter tied a league record, saved the season, and they went all the way to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Part of what made Knoblauch’s first year so successful was that he never wanted to change a winning lineup. Whenever a line, pairing or unit worked, he’d just keep it as is. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. He should’ve at least been nominated for the Jack Adams trophy. His second year, 2025, was also good on paper, as they went to the Finals again, only to lose against the same opponent as the year before. But this past season, and last season as well, we saw the usual Oilers coaching quirks that get on the fanbase’s nerves. Juggling the lines before every game, sometimes during games, keeping offensive players on the 4th line in energy roles, healthy scratching said offensive players after they played a solid game, and overplaying the stars while not giving the depth players enough ice time. I understand half the roster was radically changed after the 2024 Playoffs, but it shouldn’t take an entire regular season to know what’s a good fit for everybody. If you want newer faces to feel comfortable, then just don’t change their partners all the time. He’s partially at fault for not building on what made him effective behind the bench previously. There’d been moments this season from McDavid and Leon Draisaitl where coaching was part of their answers in interviews. They may not have specifically aimed personal shots at Kris, but how they worded their answers to media questions gave the impression that they were quietly begging for something new. Connor stated in his postgame interview after Game 6 of last year’s Cup Final that the whole team just kept trying the same things over again and banging their heads against the wall. This season, after a 5-2 loss against Tampa Bay, he praised the Lightning for being perfectly, extremely well organized and rehearsed. Leon was asked in his season-ending media availability about an answer he gave just before the Olympic break, and mentioned coaching. He said that moment was just a generalization of everything, but again… Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.

There was one rumor floating around Oilers media last week that Knoblauch made lineup decisions to spite the management group this past season. I really don’t know how credible that information is, I hope it’s not true. It was also rumored that Evan Bouchard played the Anaheim series with a concussion, but Stan Bowman cleared the air on that and said it was false; so take that Knoblauch story with a grain of salt. If the story IS true, why wasn’t Kris fired before Game 82? Why did he stay two weeks after the handshake line? It’s pretty outrageous and also hard to believe at face value.

It was made even more chaotic after news was leaked and reported about the Vegas Golden Knights withholding permission that would allow the Oilers to interview Bruce Cassidy for the position. If you’ve been reading or hearing Elliotte Friedman, it’s very likely that Cassidy could be our team’s new coach. But even if it’s not Bruce, it couldn’t be Kris again. It would be too awkward for him and the players after all of that.

Kris Knoblauch leaves the Edmonton Oilers with the 6th best Playoff wins percentage for a coach with less than 100 Playoff games. Though his tenure here didn’t have a happy ending, we’ll see how many teams looking for a coaching change of their own value that statistic.